tag...i'm it!

So, I have officially been tagged to say what I like about this man Jesus. I feel like this is one of those emails that you get that says, "If you send this to ten of your friends (including me who sent it to you), then your wildest dreams will come true." Trust me, these emails don't work. I send the emails...nothing happens. Actually, I never obey these emails because I think they are ridiculous. When I first was "tagged," I had that immediate response, "This is ridiculous." Then, I thought to myself, "Self, I can say a few things I like about this Jesus character. After all, I am at seminary studying about him. Sure, go ahead and partake in this silly game of tag."

So, without further ado...

1. "The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him....And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and humans" (Lk. 2:40, 52). I never noticed these two passages in Luke's Gospel until I took my Gospels class this past quarter. I think these verses are amazing and say a great deal about the humanity of Jesus. Jesus was not born with all the wisdom and knowledge of the world. Rather, he was human, and he had to come about learning things in the same way we do. Fortunate for him—and us as well—he was quite the bad ass at increasing in said wisdom.

2. "And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord'" (Lk. 4:17-19; cf. Isa 61:1-2). Likewise, this verse is great. Luke's Gospel is known for conveying Jesus' ministry of release to those on the outskirts of society. This ministry of release was not only a release from sin, but also from the earthly oppression that these marginalized people experienced. He met the powers of his day head on, and he sought to change the lives of those who are oppressed. We can always learn a great deal from this teaching of Jesus. On the one hand, most of us theorize or even feel strongly about helping the poor and bettering their situation. On the other hand, many of us, myself included, rarely get beyond our theory. Theory without practice is dead (sound's like something I've heard before...faith without works...hmmm). Jesus' ministry reminds us of the importance of an actualized faith—a faith that is not afraid of "getting dirty."

3. Playing off of #2, Jesus did not shy away from being radical or revolutionary. Of course, he operated within the confines of his culture and society, but he challenged so many of the cultural boundaries while operating within their confines. Case in point, in first century Palestine, anytime someone defamed the temple or made an offense against the temple, that person was put to death. If you mess with the temple, then you are messing with God. If you mess with God, then you gonna' die! When Jesus cleansed the temple, he was not simply giving us a good sunday school story to tell; rather, he was giving the finger to the powers that be. He had to have known he was getting himself into trouble.

4. Jesus, on some level, was mysterious. All of his talk about being the Son of Man and son of God, namely in John's Gospel, is crazy talk. I appreciate this about Jesus because it reminds me that mystery is part of the journey we find ourselves on. I personally wish mystery weren't part of our story, but it is. I constantly need a reminder of this because I am a lover of knowledge.

5. Jesus: Jew boy. During my junior year at Baylor, Matt Singleton and I wanted to name one of the sunday school classes at UBC with this title. We thought it was hilarious, but it didn't fly with the whole group. Jesus was a Jew. I think many people forget or don't know that Jesus has his roots in Judaism and studying the Torah. I love that Jesus was a Jew.

Tags:

1. Matt Singleton

2. Julia Speck

3. Shea Butta

4. Pay-o-la Guerrero

5. Ben Dudley

6. Robert Dugan

7. Brian Vestal