Jesus and Shock Value

We go to great lengths to attract attention. Whether we own a business and we stand outside of it with a funny costume to gain customers or when I tell my kids the bus is leaving without them to get them out of bed quicker. And with millions of things fighting for our attention sometimes we push the envelop to make sure our message is heard. Do you think Jesus did the same thing?

I have had some questions following my sermon on Sunday that I will try to answer here. Nearly all of these questions are in response to the verse we talked about on Sunday where Jesus says unless one hates their family they cannot be one of his disciples. I had hoped that once I explained the next statement that Jesus said about picking up ones cross and following him we would be blown away by that challenge and forget about hating family. Apparently that was not the case and I guess I can't question that. Hate is a strong word and it seems to go against the 4th commandment, honor your father and your mother. So why did Jesus say it?

We can talk about how challenging it was to be a disciple and back that up with verse after verse of Jesus clearly spelling out what discipleship looks like and how difficult it is. Jesus was never concerned about being popular and he rocked the boat with seismic magnitude on a regular basis and from time to time I think he used shock value to get his point across. Let me say clearly, and I hope a thunderstorm doesn't move in over my head, that I don't think Jesus was encouraging his followers to go home and give their parents the finger. I don't think he was saying that. I don't think he was telling them to tell their kids off and walk the other way. I don't think he was saying that either. I do think he was trying to get their attention and like we do today, I think he wanted to make sure his point was made and his call was heard.

If we look at the account of Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple according to John's gospel it says that Jesus made a whip of cords and drove them out of the temple. John paints an almost violent picture here. Now certainly Jesus could have asked them politely to leave but I think he wanted to make his point. I think he is doing the same thing by telling his followers that they must hate their family if they want to be his disciples.

What does this mean for us? God is still fighting for our attention and there may be times when he has to shock us to get it. I am not suggesting he accomplishes this with natural disasters or diseases but he is trying to get our attention. When we are confronted with raw statistics about the number of children who die every day due to malnutrition this should shock us. When we hear about children being sold into prostitution this should shock us. It is too easy to live in a bubble and pretend that these things are not happening but once in a while we need to be shocked. We need to see a picture of a child who is dying of starvation or covered in flies because this should not happen,not on our watch. There is enough food in this world that no one should starve but instead we return to our bubbles. Once in a while we need to hear about genocide in Darfur. We need to hear about women and children being murdered because this should not happen and as disciples of Jesus we are called to expose evil and shine light into darkness. Every year we need to sit with a pit in our stomach from Friday night until Easter morning because through the cross God was trying to get our attention. We can't return to our bubbles, not on this one. Good Friday is bloody, it is painful but it gets our attention. It slows us down and reminds us what is important and how much God loves us.

There are millions of things fighting for your attention, who is winning?

Chris