choc full o nuts

As we have been reading through the new testament this year, I've noticed that one characteristic of Jesus, that is not discussed very often, is the "crazy" Jesus. Now, before you label me a heretic and pick up blunt objects to make an impression upon my head, hear me out a little.

One time he was at a wedding and all the wine at the wedding party was gone and we all know that after the booze is gone, the party is over, right? So what's he do? He turned 150 gallons of water into wine. Not grape juice, but, wine - good wine!

Then a few days later, he's in Jerusalem and makes a whip and goes postal on the merchants set up around the temple courts, driving the sellers, the cattle and the sheep from the courtyard, turning over the tables and making a huge mess in a fury of emotions.

Then there is the time he was teaching a huge multitude and told them that if they wanted real life, they had to EAT him!

I am convinced that Jesus' crazy actions are more the norm than we would like to think.

What kind of God would have a family move 1300 miles away from their home and start a church for people that don't like church? Leaving their career of the last 20 years and do outreach to the poor in a strange town and in a strange state? Having them drag their kids away from their family and friends and live in a 1 room apartment so far away from anything they have ever known before?

I don't mean this in a bad way, but, I think Jesus is a little nuts. The funny thing is, I think he causes us to be a little nuts too! It's all to easy to settle into life and just try to get by or prosper or conquer the world all in the name of sanity, but, is that really what Jesus would do?

I think about the Moravians, you know, the ones that went to Africa to minister to those dying in a cholera plague. They built their own coffins to ship their stuff in, knowing they would not come home alive.

They were radical people that served a radical God.

Some of them actually sold themselves into slavery so they could get close enough to the poorest of the poor and minister to the other slaves......

What is it that would cause people to do such radical things? I'll tell you, it's radical love. God loved us so much he let a bunch of religious zealots sacrifice his son. Jesus loved us so much, he willingly allowed them to do it, knowing all along what was going to happen. Thing is, that love doesn't stop there. It's like a river that flows, once you experience it, it flows out of you like a river and affects others around you.

What's really crazy, is we try to suppress it, we hold it back. We try to act normal when compassion is welling up inside us. How many times have you been at a park or a mall and had this sense of compassion for someone, a total stranger, and didn't act on it? I can tell you that it's happened to me many times!

So, let me challenge you.....no.... I double dog dare you...Next time you get a strange feeling of compassion for someone, just walk over and start a conversation. See what happens. I know it sounds crazy, but, what if that person has been crying out to God and just asked for a sign? You could be that sign...crazy huh?