Jesus didn’t leave much behind. It occurred to me the other day, he didn’t bequeath any property or buildings, any wife or offspring, Jesus didn’t write anything down, he didn’t leave behind any revolutionary guerrilla army, he didn’t leave behind a new religion or liturgy.
Remember Jesus said, “Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill it. Truly I tell you, not one stroke or letter will pass from the law until it is all accomplished”.
What Jesus left behind was his yolk… his interpretation of the Scriptures and a rather disturbing life lived in the light of those interpretations. It was a life lived in contrast and challenge, dissenting against the status quo and the prevailing power structures of the day. It was a life lived swimming up stream against the status quo.
Instead of an Adventist Jesus walking along all serene and white and surrounded by smiling children and adults and wild and tame animals, think of a Jesus filled with righteous anger overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple causing disruption and chaos in all directions.
Let’s face it, if you were a reputable lending institution, would you approve a home loan for such a person ? As disciples we are called to take up our Cross and follow this Jesus – not just to believe. If we are truly Jesus disciples then why have so many of us been granted home loans ?
The only tangible thing Jesus left behind were his band of disciples and his final instructions, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… teaching them everything I commanded you”.
If all Jesus left behind his yolk, his disciples and his instruction to make more disciples, then why do we hold on so tightly to our property, to our buildings & particular ways of doing things; whether we sing particular songs in particular ways, how many times we come to church, the particular ways we dress ? Why do we hold so tightly onto these things when Jesus modelled living life in the face of a deep and passionate embrace of the Scriptures, a life in the intimate presence of the Father, in actual connection to a circle of disciples ? My question is why don’t we grab more tightly onto these things ?
Jesus reaches down from the Cross, he grabs hold of us and he says, ‘Come and die’ ! The challenge of that is which Jesus do I believe in ?
Is it gentle Jesus meek and mild, who I adore and contemplate or is it the grubby, human peasant Jesus - with the roughened hands of a carpenter in the Gospels who calls me out to follow ?
I believe in the Jesus who, “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but instead emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born on human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross”.
I pray for the courage to travel where he leads and to do so just as lightly !
