Today's TLA is RJC.
Revolutionary Jesus Christ
When we talk about revolutionaries, we often think of people like Che, Castro, Stalin, Mao, Ghandi, MLK, or perhaps even rich early American land owners like Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. Do we ever really consider Jesus as a revolutionary? At least not in the romantic form of revolutionary. Jesus was the ultimate revolutionary. After all, He is God. He was radical. He was different. He shook up the Jewish traditions and Jewish leaders of his day. He was about teaching people the way to God. And not the current superficial corporate way to God, but the real authentic way to God. He prayed. He taught at the synagogues. He was telling people to repent for the end of age is near. He died because of his radical religious and political views. And His body has permeated and has transcended through time and through his disciples/students/community. Dang this list is pretty darn revolutionary if you ask me.
He was changing the world, by saving one soul at a time. Jesus was very people oriented. He was definitely not the shy type. He was definitely a character. In fact, He should be the main character in Christian's lives. He shouldn't be thought of as an acquaintance. He should probably thought of as the only trusted confidant. He is not an action item on your Outlook calendar. He should engulf your Outlook calendar throughout all the 30 minute time slots of one's life. He is not an after thought. He is the thought which guides everyday decisions.
I started thinking more about Jesus and the early followers as true models of effective implementations of a revolution. Mike's sermon about "holy wrecklessness" as he put it. This has really made me think. Today America is the most comfortable place to live on this earth. We will never have to hunt and gather food and clothing as long as we have a Walmart/Starbucks/McDonalds in 20 mile radius. We are not persecuted for our religious beliefs, our thoughts, and/or our blogs. In fact, living in America, we are encouraged to have the Masonic self made man view of "pulling ourselves up through our boot straps." Let's analyze this quotation. Pulling ourselves up through our boot straps is not a Christian theory. Christianity is built on the idea of community and Jesus never ever said to practice Christianity by yourself. You need God and the other man to live in this world. No one can survive by themselves. Even if you have a brilliant idea which could change the world like Jesus, you still have to sell that idea to investors, potential workers, and administrators. If not then your idea is just that an idea. But executing on that idea requires God and the other man. I mean let's think about it. Even Jesus had initially 12 administrators/students/marketers/workers to spread His teaching, philosophy, and eventually die for Him.
To me the self-made man idea is just ridiculously idiotic and ill-posed. How can you start a revolution if you are 1 man pulling yourself through your boot strap? Plus it's really hard to pull yourself on your own boot strap. Try it at home, it's really hard. So I guess, my question is how come as Christians we hold back this revolutionary philosophy. You know Jesus' original last name was not Christ. Technically when we say Jesus Christ it translates to Jesus "the Savior." So how was he able to create this revolution and how come Christians today rarely view Christianity as the continuation of the revolution which Jesus "the Savior" started some 2000 years ago. It's not like humanity has changed from 2000 years ago. Humans are still selfish, greedy, and sinful. Are we just tricking ourselves, that since we now have iPods, MacBook Pro's, Gmail, and Youtube that humanity is somewhat better? I think not, I think we are worse. Humanity probably needs Jesus more than ever. We may not have Nero from Rome, but we have multi-national corporations who control money, political power, and resources, because of sin, greed, and human weakness. Today I want to pray and ask Jesus what can we do to continue Your revolution, and to discourage the Neros of our generation?
Enjoy,
Jonathan
