Bro!
Do you even know what a mustard seed looks like? Or a mustard tree?
Have you ever sheparded sheep? And know how they respond to your voice?
Have you ever planted crops? Or nervously waited till the harvest came in?
Do you know any fisherman? What its like to come home to a family empty handed, because no fish were out today?
Have you ever met a Pharisee? Or a saducee?
Do you even know a Jew?
Have you ever felt hatred toward your tax man demanding a couple $1,000 to pocket himself? Maybe a friend you grew up with, cheating you blindly because he sold himself out to the Romans.
Can you even point out Samaria on a map? Or Moab? Israel? (Lets hope you know where Israel is)
Do you know anything of the regional dynamics of Jesus day?
Have you ever lived under occupation? A foreign nation controlling everything in your country.
Have any of your friends become zealots because they were tired of waiting for God to do something? Have you ever been tempted to join them?
Has anyone you known been crucified? Because they fought for what they believed in?
Try as I might, Jesus' message was not intended for me. His stories, sermons, his radicalness, all anchored in a culture far from our own.
Sometimes I approach scripture with arrogance. I know what Jesus says. Why can’t everyone see how smart I am?
While at the same time forgetting what he said as soon as I start watching my youtube videos.
The same arrogance that caused Jews to miss Jesus, sometimes rears its ugly head in my life.
It is what Jesus desperately taught to change. To offer us a better way to interact with our brothers and enemies.
It’s getting on our knees, repenting of that arrogance and choosing to take on a new perspective.
One rooted in the cross. One willing to let yourself be taken advantage of, turn the other cheek, pray for the best for those who pray for your worst.
Arrogance has been causing death since the garden, I pray that I doesn’t affect me the same way.