The eCrozier

There’s a difference between what the world tells us and what Jesus tells us. The world says, “mind your own business.” Jesus says, “love one another.” The world says, “follow your heart and be happy.” Jesus says, “follow me and take up your cross.” The world says, “drive carefully, for the life you save may be your own.” Jesus says, “whoever would save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” The world says, “law and order.” Jesus says, “Love your enemies and turn the other cheek.” The world says, “Get.” Jesus says, “Give.” In terms of the world’s definition of sanity, Jesus is crazy. And if we think we can follow Jesus without being just as crazy, then we’re only fooling ourselves.

This doesn’t mean that we should be against the world. After all, in John 3:16-17, Jesus says God loves the world and that he came into the world, not to condemn it, but to save it. But it does mean we should name things for what they truly are. The “world,” or as the Greek New Testament calls it, the Cosmos, is a beautiful place. It’s, after all, God’s creation. For all its beauty, however, the Cosmos isn’t congruent with God’s intent. It’s in open rebellion. God has decreed love, but we’ve practiced hate. God’s demanded we forgive, but we’ve trafficked in vengeance. In terms of how the Cosmos is currently ordered, Jesus does appear to be crazy, while the world’s leaders seem to be acting prudently and in the best interests of their people.

But let’s assume for a moment that the opposite is true. Let’s assume that the world has gone completely crazy and that Jesus is the one who’s sane. That changes everything, doesn’t it? But that places us in a dilemma. We can’t follow Jesus faithfully by playing both halves to the middle. We can’t say that the truth is somewhere in between the Cosmos and Jesus. We can’t claim that the world’s just a little crazy, but mainly sane and that Jesus, too, is on the crazy side, but mainly sane. We can’t have it both ways.

It might be easier to have it both ways if all we were talking about was the sleight of hand trick of changing water into wine (John 2). It gets tougher when we’re speaking about feeding five thousand people fully from a few loaves of bread and some fish (John 6). It becomes even harder when we’re talking about new sight to those born blind (John 9). And it becomes downright impossible when we’re speaking of the dead being raised (John 11). So, what’s it going to be? The Cosmos? Or Jesus? There’s no possibility of choosing both, because Jesus is either completely crazy or he’s the Lord of Life. He either raises people from the dead or he doesn’t.

Jesus never met a corpse he didn’t raise. If you doubt that, then read the four Gospels. In every instance where Jesus is confronted with a corpse, that corpse doesn’t remain a corpse very long. Whether it’s Jairus’ daughter in Mark 5 or the Widow’s son in Luke 7, the result is always the same. It’s like in John 11: “Lazarus come out, get out of that grave.” Now, why does Jesus do that to every corpse he meets? The answer is simple. It’s God’s will for us to be raised from the dead and receive the gift of new life. I’m just crazy enough to believe that. Are you?

+Scott