Jesus said, “Follow Me.” If we truly follow Jesus, where will He take us?
Probably into the margins.
Jesus wasn’t forced into the margins. He willingly went there. It was His plan from the beginning. Go to the margins of a marginalized, minority community under the occupation of Rome and change the world.
He rejected the temptation to seek influence through worldly means.
He was not a rigid fundamentalist like the Pharisees who focused on the letter of the law and even added to it to maintain their “righteous purity”.
He was not a flexible adapter like the Sadducees who were concerned with getting along with the political power structures of the world and rejected old inconvenient truths for pragmatic new ones.
He was not a Zealot who sought to overthrow the evil oppression of Rome using terrorism and violent military force.
He offended them all. He rejected the man-made laws of the Pharisees. He silenced the Sadducees with eternal truth from Scripture. He never joined the Zealots in their rebellion.
The only people He seemed to get along with were marginalized people, the tax collectors and sinners; prostitutes and lepers.
This did nothing for His reputation among those who sought power and influence through worldly methods.
In fact, it got Him killed.
Which was the plan from the beginning.
Maybe if we find ourselves forced into the margins we shouldn’t fight it. Maybe it is God’s way of finally getting us where we should have been all along.
Maybe God wants to unleash the power that resurrected Jesus from the dead into the body of Christ.
But first, we have to go to the margins.
And die.
Daily. — by John Shirk