Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world

Christian Meditations – A Chris Hansen Column

February 6, 2008

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From the Sunday School Series

Chris Hansen

chrishansen54@sbcglobal.net

Luke Sunday school class December 9, 2007 Jesus The Revolutionary.

By Chris Hansen: Author: “Revelation Revisited,” “Secret of the Psalms,” “Grandfather’s Journal.”

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Yes, indeed! Jesus was very much the revolutionary. The pattern begins to weave itself together. Luke chapter 5 contains an episode in which Peter and his business partners fish all night with no success. Along comes Jesus the revolutionary. Even though they have gone a whole night without sleep, Jesus commands them to try one more time. Suddenly, the catch is so massive, that the fishing nets begin to break apart. This would require hours of repair, but it was worth it all, because the catch was so huge.

Even more astounding was this: Jesus was proving that He possessed real power over nature, something the real Messiah was expected to possess. Peter, feeling guilty in God’s presence tells Jesus to go away from such an unworthy one. Jesus the revolutionary invites Peter to abandon catching mere fish, and start catching men and women on a brand new kingdom of God adventure!

Next, in Luke 5:12, we see Jesus actually touch a man with a terrible skin disease. Touching someone like that violated all sorts of Old Testament rules, but Jesus flew in the face of all that.

Next, in Luke 5:17, Jesus heals a man paralyzed for years. More surprising, Jesus actually claimed the divine right to forgive sins, something only God had any right to do! Jesus merely swept all that aside and forgave and healed, thus claiming Godhood.

Next, in 5:27, Jesus goes right into the heart of evil itself, and calls a wicked tax collector to follow him. This was truly scandalous behavior on his part. Worst of all, Jesus actually had dinner with that collection of hated tax collectors! Jesus then pointed out to his critics that his whole mission in life was to reach out to those “sinners” and that he really wasn’t interested in the “righteous.” Yet, the Pharisees had built their whole lives on being “righteous,” and this Jesus wanted nothing to do with them? He preferred those “sinners over them?

Next, in Luke 5:31, Jesus is criticized for not going through long hours of fasting and prayer, as everyone else did, including John the Baptist.. Jesus makes his critics look ridiculous, (again,) and asks them this probing question: Would it be right to force the guests at a wedding to fast while the bride and groom are celebrating? Obviously not!

Earlier, Jesus had teased his critics by asking: isn’t it proper for a physician to go to the sick? Why would a physician treat the “healthy” as you claim to be!

So, Jesus makes his critics look as silly as healthy people trying to lie down in hospital beds, or as silly as guests who refuse to enjoy themselves at a wedding feast! Then, in Luke 5:36 Jesus explains that His new kingdom is so radical that, trying to reconcile it with the Old Testament way of doing things is about as useless as taking a brand new piece of cloth and sewing up an old garment.

He further explains that you’ve ruined a new garment by tearing off a piece to use in repair, and you’ve then made the old garment look awful in the process. So, trying to make the Old and New Testament kingdoms work together ruins them both. His critics must have been seething by this time, because their whole way of living was built on the Old way of doing everything. They knew nothing else. They felt about Jesus the way we feel about some new prophet coming along and telling us that our New Testament just won’t do anymore! We respond, and rightly, that our Old and New Testaments are just fine, thank you very much!

Well, that’s the way Jesus probably made his critics feel. Yet, Jesus just went right on, knowing that his New way really was the right one. Jesus was humble, yet he had an exasperating self-assurance that infuriated his critics, while filling his followers with confidence and bewilderment, all at once.

Then, in Luke 6, Jesus rolls right on and violates some Sabbath rule, (again!) What terrible rule had he broken now? His disciples wanted a bit of breakfast! So, they did what was lawful. The poor were allowed to help themselves to the edges of a farmer’s field. And the silly Pharisees thought this was work done on the Sabbath!

I should think that going hungry is harder work than picking a few ears of corn!

Evidently, Jesus thought so. There is no use in dueling with Jesus over Scripture! Jesus was within his rights to eat from the cornfield. “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave.” Exodus 23:10.

So an animal was allowed to eat, and a man was not? Absurd!

Exodus 23:12 points out the reason for the Sabbath: “so that your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household and the aliens as well, may be refreshed.” So, animals and slaves and foreigners may be refreshed, but disciples of Jesus the rabbi must go hungry?

Absurd! Jesus reminded his critics of a well known story in 1 Samuel 21:5 in which David’s men were starving, and they were allowed to eat consecrated bread so they could continue their flight from the wicked king Saul. So, the legendary David is allowed to eat holy bread, yet poor disciples can’t even pick a few ears of grain? Absurd!

Later, in Luke 6 beginning with verse 23, Jesus begins to outline very radical ways of dealing with mankind. The revolutionary says that we should rejoice when persecuted, worry when we are wealthy, love our enemies, and give to anyone. Absurd from the world’s way of thinking! In chapter 9:23-27 Jesus actually points out that dying on a cross as his disciple would be less painful than losing your own immortal soul! Yes, indeed, Jesus really was, and is, a true revolutionary!