Fear of Jesus – Haydon Spenceley

You can follow today’s reading by clicking on this sentence.

The chief priests and the Pharisees were scared. My reading is they were scared in case the disciples played a trick, pulled a fast one, as it were, and made it seem like Jesus had risen. It is interesting that they clearly knew the stories Jesus had been telling about what was to happen. I do wonder though if, somewhere deep down, hidden away there was the thought in some of their minds ‘what if it actually was true, what he was saying? What if he is who he said he was?’ I suppose when false messiahs are two-a-penny (as they remain today in different ways) a deal of weary cynicism must be at play. Of course Jesus wasn’t the Messiah. Of course he wouldn’t rise from the dead, but just in case, best make sure.

For me, as I read, the challenge is stark. Do I continue to think, trust and live that Jesus did break free from the tomb, having defeated death? Do I really? Sometimes I wonder if I’d rather Jesus did not keep breaking conventions and finding ever more exciting ways to show that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, here, today. If I can just control God for long enough to be able to fathom him out and communicate him, introduce him to others, then I can have the kind of Church and faith experience I was taught was the right one, things will be the way they were supposed to be. Sounds comforting doesn’t it.

Except that isn’t it. At all. This time the Messiah did in fact rise from the dead, break free from the tomb. Nothing could deny it. And nothing we do to try and make the life of faith more in line with how we think it ought to be can constrain our God. He will have his way. It is for us to get in line, not as dogmatic robots, but needing to follow the spark of the Creator as he redeems and reconciles in places, situations and ways we never previously thought possible. All for his glory.

When you think about it, we’re not much different from the chief priests and Pharisees after all.

August 1st 2014: Luke 22:1-13

Read Luke 22:1-13 here

As Jesus’ story moves towards its conclusion and He and the disciples enter Jerusalem for the Passover, it might be easy to focus on the betrayal of Judas, and how this parallels our own betrayal of Jesus in our day to day lives. This, however, would be cheap, and would take away from the power of the narrative. We do, all of us, have a tendency towards living our own way, falling short of the glory of God, and the glory set before us in Christ. However, something else has grabbed my attention this morning:

The priests and scribes sought to find a way of killing Jesus “because they were scared of the people”. I’d not noticed this before when reading this passage. The priests, societal power-brokers and gate-keepers, weren’t scared of Jesus himself, they were scared of the impact He, and His message, were having. This indicates that the message was finding traction, that it was causing a stir. The fear exhibited here also indicates some were worried about the upsetting of the status quo, the debasement of the truths of faith which they held dear. Placed in this context, in spite of the fact that there were dozens of “Messiahs” active in Israel at the time of Jesus, it is perhaps obvious why something needed to be done. Silence the leader and the rabble will go away.

Except it didn’t turn out like that, did it.

We live in a culture today where it’s ok to believe pretty much anything, except that Jesus is Lord. There is a societally-driven moral code which is pre-disposed to the expression of outrage, distrust and so on. It can also often show great compassion and care for the “other”. We like, though, to be right, to show our compassion from a position of strength, and to keep those we disagree with where we can see them. I’d go as far as to say that if you disagree with the prevailing cultural norm, on whatever issue, there’s an undercurrent now of a wish that you, and your opinion, would go elsewhere, or better still not exist.

Isn’t this how Jesus and His disciples were treated? Most people who aren’t Christians think the whole thing is preposterous nonsense. Perhaps they’re right (I don’t think so) but it’s amazing how the minutest inkling of a fear that it might be true motivates whole swathes of culture to continually seek, with increasing desperation, ways of proving that it must all be bunkum. If you are a Christian, you’re silly. If you’re a Christian you lack the common sense, faculties of logic, fortitude etc to rise above the crass set of beliefs which must have been forced upon you anyway.

Or put it another way, society is actually scared of you. What if your belief is right? If your God exists? If Jesus is real and He did do what He said He would do? What then? If you believe today, stand firm and confident.