Things don’t always turn out as expected. Who could have
thought that Wigan Athletic would win the FA Cup Final 1-0 against Manchester
City, only then to be relegated from the Premiership? Who could have predicted
that Ukip, a party dismissed as ‘clowns’ and ‘closet racists’ would have done so
well at the recent Council elections? Strange stuff happens. But perhaps the
strangest thing of all is how a small band of followers of a travelling preacher
from Nazareth came to have such a powerful impact on the world. It’s not as if
they had a message that the masses were longing to hear. What they said
concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus provoked widespread ridicule,
hostility and vicious persecution. Yet nothing could stop them proclaiming that
the crucified Jesus was the world’s true Lord and King.
When the apostle Paul and his friends visited Thessalonica
they didn’t exactly get a warm reception. People complained, ‘These who have
turned the world upside down have come here too.’ This provoked a mini-riot and
Paul was run out of town. But his opponents were on to something. The Christian
message overturns some of our most deeply held assumptions. If people believe in
God at all, they perhaps think of him as a powerful, yet remote Being. But
according to the Christian faith, the all-powerful God embraced human weakness,
becoming one of us in his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to die for our sins on
the Cross that we might be forgiven. Who could have thought that God would do
that?
Jesus scandalised the people of his day by not calling the
righteous, but sinners to follow him. He pronounced blessing not on the high and
mighty, but on the poor in spirit and promised that the meek will inherit the
earth. No wonder people complained that Christian preachers were turning the
world upside down. That’s exactly what happens when someone believes in Jesus
and follows him. Everything is turned on its head. Are you ready to have your
world turned upside down?
* For News & Views, West Lavington Parish Magazine
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