strange things are happening
Strolling in the Marina neighborhood, I wondered what this little boy was thinking?
Are you clueless or clued in? Are you aware or apathetic? Are strange things happening where you live, too?
Followers of Jesus are expected to live differently so we appear strange to the world. People who don’t follow Jesus spend their days trying to find something to fill their lives and these behaviors appear strange to the Kingdom.
I recently wrote about being curious. Did you know by definition curious means ‘strange’? Curious people do strange things according to everyone else a.k.a. the crowd. Curious people do strange things looking for Jesus.
If you have found Him and are walking with Him on the daily, you know strange things are happening! If you are open to seeking Jesus, chances are high you’re doing strange things to find satisfaction in life that only Jesus can fill. I choose to talk about both sides of this because we are meant to find one another!
What are we to do when we encounter something or someone strange?
Mary, a Christ follower, pours out perfume of Jesus’ feet and wipes it off with her hair. It was strange then too. (Matthew 26:13; Mark 14:9)
Zacchaeus, someone curious about Jesus, climbed a tree to see Him. Yep, strange. (Luke 19)
Jesus reclined at table with Simon the leper, tax collectors, sinners, dead-man-walking Lazarus. This threw the religious people off! (Matthew 26)
What is strange to this world is not necessarily strange to Jesus. What our world has normalized will never be normal in Jesus’ Kingdom.
Worship the One True God, love our enemies, pray for those who persecute you, turn the other cheek, wash each other’s feet, welcome strangers, love the least of these, be the guest of sinners.
What is normal in our culture today isn’t the way of His Kingdom.
Marry whomever, have sex with whomever, believe whatever, eat whatever, follow whomever, say whatever to whomever, respect only who you deem worthy, cancel anyone who disagrees with you, do what makes you happy.
Jesus talked to religious people differently than He talked with sinners. He addressed their hearts every single time. He can do that...go directly to our needs, even the subconscious ones!
What is the difference between religious people and people of the Way? All go to church. All celebrate Easter. All claim Jesus. But religious people talk a bigger game, make politics their practice, and have made their Jesus encounter a privileged one, a private one. What I’m finding eerily strange is that so-called Christians act in ways contrary to Jesus by creating their own reasoning that is not relatable to the people Jesus loves.
People want Jesus. They want what He has to offer: love, forgiveness, truth, healing, reconciliation, mercy, justice, restoration, salvation. The way to Jesus is not through the Church. Forgive us if we’ve advertised it as such. The way to Jesus is direct. You can call on Him, have a relationship with Him right where you are just as you are. However, the Church is crucial and established by Christ.
The Church is a collective of sinners who seek Jesus above everything else and are doing their best, by the Spirit of the Living God, to share their very lives with others in community.
What’s not new is that our world has been in crisis since the fall. The church is still relevant today with Christ as the head of the body. If He’s not the head, it cannot function so don’t keep being a part of the body that has no head or the wrong head. If Christ is the head, you can come, strangers can come.
Before Zacchaeus met Jesus, another privileged man approached Jesus. He wanted what Jesus had to offer, but didn’t want to change to obtain it. Personally, I’m in a relationship with someone who doesn’t want anything to change and really doesn’t want to engage with those who think differently. I see the rich young ruler in this person. What did Jesus do with this strange behavior? He looked at him and loved him. (Mark 10:21) That’s how we treat people who want to know, but don’t want to change. We love them. This man’s face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth. (verse 22) Because change was too costly. Because strange was too risky.
From what I gather from the Gospel, Jesus spent more time with the curious than He did with those who knew the Scriptures backwards and forward. This was very strange to the religious leaders to the point of death. They couldn’t wrap their minds around a Messiah who would stoop so low, go to such lengths, share meals with outcasts. It enraged them so much they grew angry in their hearts and then they choked out the thought of loving someone to lay down their life for another.
Are you clued in and aware of the strange things happening around you?
Here’s what I am finding helpful as I encounter strange:
If they don’t know Jesus, I pray for compassion and have pity on them and say the Name of Jesus out loud in intercession. Jesus saves!
If they know Jesus and are acting disruptive to His Kingdom, I pray for compassion, then go to them privately to understand, if possible. Regardless, I voice a prayer for God to work in my heart and in their heart. Jesus restores!
If this seems like an only God moment that I’m not accustomed to, I welcome the Holy Spirit to teach me and give me wisdom to understand new things. Jesus is doing a new thing!
If this strangeness unsettles me to the point I can’t get it off my mind and I sense it affecting my day, I reach out to another Christ follower. I voice it and ask for prayer right then. Jesus hears!
My challenge to us all: Don’t let strange scare you! Go and be a friend to sinners this week. Jesus is a friend to you and me.