Make no mistake, Jesus was and is different.
The things he said shocked. The way he lived surprised. The people he associated with offended the religious leaders of the day.
Jesus turned the expected on its head. If the predictable was right-side up, then Jesus turned things upside down.
Those expecting the Messiah thought he would come as a mighty king. Jesus came as a baby in a feed trough. They expected a conquering military leader; Jesus came proclaiming love for the enemy. They expected the Messiah to overthrow the government and reveal the wrongs within it. Instead Jesus turned the prevailing religion upside down and revealed the wrongs within it. They expected a Deity from on high to come and proclaim salvation from the skies. Jesus came a homeless man walking their dirty streets. Shocking.
And he still surprises today.
Oftentimes we wish to make Jesus tame or comfortable for us. We wish to fit Jesus into our culture or our norms. We want to let him have a part of our life or a portion of our heart. But Jesus is different. He doesn’t work that way.
Jesus requires full devotion.
He is not content being a part of your life.
He can’t be squeezed into your busy schedule the way you want him to be.
He calls us to a completely different way of life. It is the life we have been looking for, but it feels upside down to the world around us.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gives in rapid-fire succession an outline for how those who choose to follow him are to live and believe. It was a countercultural message then, and it is a countercultural message now.
And yet, I have found that we are looking for something different. The values and ideals lifted up by our world are not satisfying the deep places of our souls. The values and ideals lifted up by Jesus, though different and head-spinning at times, speak to the deep places in us.