The Scandalous Jesus (Part 1)

Introduction
There is always something new to talk about at the Lewis household. No, it is not the weather. It is definitely not politics. Traffic? No. What’s for dinner? Nope. It’s the mail. Every day, the mail arrives at our house between 3:00 and 3:30 pm. From my home office, I have a perfect view of the mail truck’s approach so that just as he is leaving the neighbor’s mail box I have just enough time to rush down the stairs, out the front door, hop and shout a few times because I’m not wearing shoes and some horticultural land mine has caught my foot and get to the mail box just as the mail man leaves.

Ah and then the riches of the daily mail. Always new. Such a delicious combination of the unexpected and the dreaded. You can tell so much about your life by what kind of mail you get. I mean, haven’t you ever gotten the neighbors’ mail and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, so they’re that kind of person are they?” Little bit of black mail material. Yeah, that’s what they say about you, too.

For the past several years, I have followed the life of C. A. Lewis. I don’t know who C.A. Lewis is, but she has been living with us for the past 10 years and is now getting into her late 60s, based on the AARP junk mail we’ve been getting.

No, the mail always provides surprises, some good and bad.

Now, we don’t normally think of Jesus as tabloid material. We’ve grown comfortable with the cute pictures of baby Jesus, the handsome photo-ops with the cross looking all artistic, and serious, the androgynous Jesus praying with the halo around his head. I mean, how could a guy like that cause a stir at all? I mean, he was all peace and love and goodness, right? Amazing how stuff like that can get you killed.

If you want an exciting way to read the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, don’t read them as nice, little bed time stories; read them as a strident challenge to the status quo; an attack against the moral, religious and political establishment of his day. From the manger, to his teaching, to his death and his return from death, the gospels were meant to shake people up. Whether it was fundamentalist, the businessman, the self-confessed pagan or the agnostic, every recorded incident of Jesus’ life was put there for a reason: it was put there to challenge you; force you to reexamine your life, who you are and what you are doing with your life.

Jesus was a walking scandal. When you read the gospels in this light, it is extraordinary.

Paul put it this way:

Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. –1 Corinthians 1:22-24

But wait a second, you say: this is now, this is America. Jesus may have been shocking to a bunch of ancient religious red necks, but we’re more sophisticated today. Now he’s just passé. Stick him in the middle of Berkeley or Sacramento or El Dorado Hills and we’d probably just ignore him, at best, or call the police because he’s disturbing the peace.

No: Look at those verses again: Jews and Greeks. For Paul’s world, that was everybody. Everybody seemed to have a problem with Jesus. He’s too simple-minded. No one could honestly believe his drug-store, Hallmark sentimentality. Or he’s too weak to be a serious help to real people.

In fact, the word translated “stumbling block” is actually the Greek word “skandalon”—where we get the word scandal. He trips you up. Whatever you thought about Jesus, when you start to get serious about him, you need to think again. Jesus always does that to us: you can’t ignore him. You have to deal with Jesus.

He’s not just a little hobby, like origami, that you just add to your life to give your life a little more flavor; a little more sophisticated. He demands to be your life.

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. –1 John 5:12

Jesus isn’t an easy person to get along with. He wants you to change. He wants you to grow. He wants you to improve. Over the next three weeks: we’ll look at the scandal of the manger; the scandal of the cross and, today, the scandal of Jesus’ life. And his challenge isn’t just to residents of 1st century Palestine, but to 21st century America.

Today we’ll look at three of the scandals that took place during Jesus’ active career. And with each one, Jesus dares us: follow me. Are you prepared?

The Scandal of Messy Lives: Jesus Dares Us To Get Our Hands Dirty.
One of the amazing things about Jesus was his ability to see people. I mean, really see people. The insignificant people. The naïve. The lost causes. The has-beens. The sell-outs. The lushes. The con-men.

Sometimes they were overlooked because they were unimportant and poor. But it was Jesus who saw through the rich people at the temple and saw the destitute widow throw in her last two pennies. (Mark 12:41-44). Sometimes they were overlooked because they were young. But Jesus saw the children who wanted his blessing. (Matthew 19:13-14). Sometimes they were overlooked because they chose a messed up lifestyle and chose bad friends to go along with it. But Jesus saw Matthew, the hated, cheating collector of Roman taxes and told him, “Follow me!” went to his house and ate with his friends. (Matthew 9:9-12)

But even more than those people he saw, there were the lives he touched. When he saw someone in need, he wasn’t looking for excuses, he was looking to help. One of the most telling examples from Jesus’ ministry comes in chapter 5 of the book of Luke:

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him. –Luke 5:12-13

Before we go any further, remember that these stories were meant to shock the reader. So when we look at this, we want to find out what was unusual; what was designed to make the original 1st century hearers of this story take a second look at Jesus.

Now miracle stories are common enough. Every religion has a whole collection of them. And generally, those miracle stories go along the line of “Wow, cool miracle. My god is bigger than your god. Na na na na na na!” This looks like it. A man is sick. Asks Jesus for help. Jesus agrees. Man is healed. Two verses.

But wait, did the man really asked to be healed? No, I want you to look back at those verses and circle ‘clean’. He asked to be cleaned and Jesus cleaned him. So what’s up here? Jesus, the industrial strength vacuum cleaner. Was he dirty? No, to understand the significance of what Jesus is doing here, you need to understand how this man was living. In Jesus’ day, there were rules which governed what happened to people with a wide variety of skin diseases, not just leprosy. And, according to the Old Testament,

The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.—Leviticus 13:45-46

With these kinds of diseases, the man had to live away from everybody. He had to live away from his family and his town. He had to show his condition by wearing rags and dreadlocks. And everywhere he went, he had to shout out, “Unclean! Unclean!” “Dirty! Dirty! I am dirty!”

What a way to live! What a desperate situation! So when he hears about Jesus in town, he makes a desperate dash to find him. And when he finds Jesus, he doesn’t even get close. It says “When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground…” He doesn’t approach, he just gets so Jesus can see him and hear him and he begs Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

And then we come to the single most important word in this story: Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. How many years had it been since someone had dared to touch him, to risk infection, to show love through physical contact? But Jesus closes the gap, bridges the divide and touches the man.

And rather than Jesus getting dirty, he exudes cleanness. Rather than the man infecting him with dirtiness, he infects the man with purity and health. He touched the man…He didn’t need to. He could have just waved politely from a distance. Tele-healing. Dial-a-miracle. In fact, a few chapters later Jesus heals a soldier’s daughter from miles away. (Luke 7) But he didn’t, because the love behind the touch of Jesus was a much a miracle as the healing itself.

The same is true for us. Jesus challenges us: get your hands dirty. But we don’t like messy. We like beautiful, clean, and sanitary. In one sense, El Dorado Hills is one big exercise is removing ourselves from what we don’t want to see, what we don’t want to hear, what we don’t want to smell, and what we don’t want to touch. But Jesus challenges us: get your hands dirty. But while El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park and Folsom are full of beautiful people and beautiful houses and nice cars, they are also full of hurting people. It doesn’t take a long look to find the broken marriages and messed up kids and dishonest finances. And yes, it’s even their fault. You might find someone pushing a shopping cart, smelling like sweat and old booze. Yes, its their fault. You might find a Democrat. Or worse yet, some self-righteous Republican. Yes, its their fault.

We are afraid of the mess. Jesus dares us: get your hands dirty. The risk is not that we will be corrupted by them. The real danger is not pollution…the real danger is that, as the hands and feet of Jesus, we are withholding cleansing and healing because we will not touch. So reach out, bridge the gap, touch peoples lives.


The Scandal Of Insignificance: Jesus Challenges Us Take Second Place.
In my family, we love to play Monopoly. I’ve even played in Monopoly tournaments, read the Monopoly book, could name the top 10 most landed on properties and their relative rates of investment return. But there is one card in Community Chest which always drove me nuts: “You Have Won Second Place in a Beauty Contest, Collect $10”

Makes my kids laugh every time. First, there’s my shapely physique. Second, it’s second place. Third, there’s the paltry sum of $10. But nonetheless, Monopoly has noticed me dozens of times as a 2nd place winner.

Something about second place rankles. We don’t like second place. No one remembers second place. I can’t remember who the other Oscar nominees were last year. I can’t even remember who went home a loser in the Super Bowl. During the Olympics, does anyone really look at the silver and bronze?

Strangely enough, Jesus ran into this issue, not among the Pharisees or the tax collectors, but among his own disciples:

They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." –Mark 9:33-35

The disciples are quietly arguing who was the holiest, cleanest, or smartest. You can just hear them on the road, “I fasted for three days last week” “That’s nothing, I fasted for five days last week.” “Well, I fasted for eight days last week, healed 13 sick children and raised 2 from the dead.” “Shut-up, will you Peter? Show off. Geez.”

So Jesus sits down and tells them: If you want to be first, take last place.

So let’s learn from Jesus:

1. If you want to be great, start making everyone else around you great.

Jesus doesn’t throw cold water on his disciples’ desire to be great. That’s interesting; because sometimes we go around with this idea that Christian’s have this wimpy drive to mediocrity. Instead Jesus turns the how-to upside-down. If you want to be great, if you want to be first, start with the heavy lifting of carrying the burdens, meeting the needs, filling the gaps for those around you. And, strange as it may seem, the result of such service is greatness.

2. Greatness is granted, not grabbed.

The reason that servanthood is the path to greatness is because true greatness is something that is granted; something give to you after you have served, not grabbed because of your superior strength, intellect or position. When you struggle to be first place, to be on top of the heap, to climb to the top of the ladder, you find that first place is occupied by God and God alone; you can’t take greatness, because God does not share with thieves of his glory. Instead, when you give your own greatness away, He shares his with you.

Look at Jesus’s example for us:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant… therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name –Philippians 2:6-7,9

3. Service is not a sign of weakness, but of strength

Let me ask you a question? Who is stronger: the one who gives the orders or the one who carries out the orders? Does it take more strength to strike out in anger, or to hold your hand? To bear the burden or be the burden? To wash the feet or to dirty the feet? Jesus knew the secret: Servants are the winners, because they are the stronger. Look at what Jesus said when he was being arrested:

Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way? –Matthew 26:53

4. Servants are appreciated.

You know, the best servants are those who know the mind of the master. They have served long and faithfully, have observed their master’s habits for so long that his moves and decisions are not surprises. And the successes of the master, become the successes of the servant as well.

In fact, at the end of Jesus’ ministry, he told his disciples:

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.–John 15:15

In the parable of the Talent’s the master said:

'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!' –Matthew 25:21

Take a look at this scene from the Incredibles, where Dash, super-hero son of Mr. Incredible tries to fit in at school. Dash is the stronger, but he takes second place.



Take on the challenge of second place. We don’t take the supporting role because of weakness. No, with Jesus we overcome the world. But rather, in our strength, make others succeed. If you do, you join a long line of heroes of the faith who weren’t the leaders. Instead they took second place. Joseph, right hand man to the Pharaoh of Egypt; Nehemiah, trusted man of King Artaxerxes; Daniel, lead adviser to the king of Babylon; Mordecai, wise man for Xerxes.

The Scandal of Less: Jesus Challenges Us to Bless

This picture is Lake Disappointment, in the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. Explorer Frank Hann noticed that, in this desert, several of creeks flowed inland and he expected to find a large, refreshing fresh-water lake. But instead he found a salt-water lake. What a disappointment! Fresh water coming in; a desert desperately in need of water; but unusable water.

Why is it that some of the most richly blessed people in our world; who have it all; have such messed up lives? Isn’t it strange? So much talent; so much money; such great families; so many opportunities, and you wonder, “What happened to them?” The same is true in the kingdom of God.

One time a rich, religious young man came and asked Jesus a question about getting eternal life. And Jesus asked him if he’d been a good boy: no lying, cheating, stealing, murdering and honoring his parents. He said, “Yes”. And Jesus’ answer caused quite a stir.

Right up to that point, Jesus’ disciples has probably been thinking: “Yes! 10-out-of-10. Is he married? I’ve got a sister or a daughter. Is he ready to join our synagogue?” But Jesus didn’t let him off so easily, keep reading:

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.—Matthew 19:16, 21-22

The disciples are really going crazy, “Wait! Wait! Jesus, at least he tithes!” But Jesus lets him walk.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." –Matthew 19:23-25

So what’s going on? You see, Jesus saw that this young man was just like Lake Disappointment. He had so many blessings pouring into his life. Good moral upbringing, strong body, good family relationships, an inquisitive mind and a hefty bank account. But nothing was going out: when Jesus put him to the test, he couldn’t bless. In the face of the son of God, he was so wrapped up with his blessings that he couldn’t grab ahold of the greater blessing. Like Lake Disappointment, he was dead inside.

Jesus goes on to say that this problem isn’t an isolated incident. His disciples were greatly astonished because to them, the blessings of these rich people were the result of their good lives. But for Jesus, they weren’t an end; a result. They were a tool, a means to do what God wants. To follow Jesus, the blessings flow through our hands.

Here we have a world, a nation, a community, a neighborhood in desperate need of the blessings of God. And God hasn’t abandoned these people. In fact, he has designated individuals to distribute these blessings; the people of God. But some days we’d rather die than give them away.

But there are days when we catch a glimpse of what God can do. It can be exhilarating.

The first thing you can do is:

• Count your blessings (time, friendship, abundance). Jesus told the man to sell his possessions. Measure your blessings. Count how much you have. I hope that this Thanksgiving, you stopped to thank God for all of your blessings. $ aren’t even what I’m talking about. In fact, I think we shortchange the blessings of God because we have bought into the consumer-mentality lie that loving someone means buying something. Do you really prefer the Dollar Tree you’re your kids bought you or the note that they wrote you last week?

No, some of you have strong marriages. Some of you have such tremendous families. Some of you have tremendous talents. Some of you have great inner strength. Some of you have spare time. Some of do you have the blessing of $. Stop and count your blessings. Because God is going to put you in situations where your blessings are exactly what is needed. And some days its not easy; some days it is in the knock-down-drag-out situations of life, where the grace God has shown you makes all the difference because you infuse that grace into those around you.

Then, you need to:

• Bless from gratitude, not guilt.

Blessing is not grudging. Yeah, I guess I’ll give. Blessing other people is an overflow of how much God has blessed you. Then.

• Find a blessee. Jesus told the man to give to the poor, who desperately needed what he had.

Find someone to bless. Notice I said: Find, not Wait until one falls on your head. You will know it’s the right person because they will be in desperate need of exactly the blessing you listed in step 1. Then give them what they need. Sometimes we like to take the short cut with $ or clichés. Don’t be like the wise men in the song “Do You Hear What I Hear?”

Do You Hear What I Hear
A child, a child
Shivers in the cold
Let us bring him silver and gold
Let us bring him silver and gold

Get the kid a blanket!

Take a hit on the blessings account and bless someone else. There will be no more room for God’s blessing unless you bless others.

Conclusion
When Jesus healed the man with leprosy, he told him, “Show yourself to the priest…” In those days, the priest would examine the man and sprinkle him with the blood of a small bird. Then, if after seven days, the disease hadn’t returned, he would bring animals to sacrifice and he was restored. Restored to his family; restored to his community; restored to worship God at the tabernacle. His wasted life, walking around crying Unclean! Unclean! was gone and now he had a second chance.

Perhaps the greatest scandal of Jesus’ life is the scandal of the second chance. You don’t have to be a slave of your past; the way you used to live; the things you used to do. But you will be until you give up trying to be the ruler of your life. That’s his job. It’s not a second chance you deserve. It’s not a second chance you pay back. But it is a second chance that he paid for, with his blood, on the cross so you could have your life back; so you could have your hope back; so you could have a future.

Maybe you’re looking at God with new eyes this morning. Maybe what you thought was so stupid or weak about Jesus before isn’t such a stumbling block. Maybe you’ve suddenly realized that you need that power and wisdom in your life. You can come talk to me or Mike S and we’d love to talk with you about it.

Or maybe you’ve known about God for a while, but the radical nature of His life; the scandal of his life has kind of worn off and you’ve settled for warm-fuzzies; you’ve settled for the convenient instead of the convicting.. Are you ready to get your hands dirty? Are you ready to make other people great? Are you ready to bless with your blessings?