Talk to strangers
If you know your Bible stories, answer this question for me: Name one person–just one–who really got who Jesus was and what he was all about.
A few candidates (with Bible references so you can go read the stories):
The woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and touched the fringe of Jesus’s cloak (Matthew 9.20-22, Mark 5.25-34, Luke 8.43-48).
The Gentile woman who begged Jesus to heal her daughter (Matthew 15.21-28, Mark 7.24-30).
The Roman centurion whose slave was at the point of death, but wouldn’t allow Jesus to enter his home (Matthew 8.5-13, Luke 7.1-10).
The Samaritan woman Jesus met at a well (John 4.4-26) is another candidate.
The Gerasene demoniac who lived among tombs near a herd of swine (Mark 5.1-17, Luke 8.26-37).
The “sinful woman” who anointed Jesus’s feet (Luke 7.36-50).
The Greeks who asked Philip if they could see Jesus (John 12.20-21).
Three things that strike me about this list:
First, we don’t see Jesus’s own friends and followers in this list. In fact, one refrain in the Gospels is that those who spent the most time with Jesus were the ones who most frequently didn’t understand him.
Second, we don’t see the churchgoers, pastors, religious authors, and seminary professors in this list. Those who spent their lives preparing for the Messiah through religious practice and study did not recognize the Messiah when he came. In fact, they called him a fraud and colluded in his execution.
Third, the people who seemed to come closest to “getting” Jesus were foreigners, outsiders, and undesirables whose interaction with Jesus was fleeting at best. Those who shouldn’t have recognized or understood Jesus were the only ones who did recognize and understand him.
From these things, I draw both alarm and good news.
It’s alarming to me as a lifelong Christian practicing my religion and studying my Scriptures. If I were a character in the Gospels, I would be one of the Pharisees or religious leaders. These weren’t bad guys. They were earnest people trying to do the “right thing.” And they got Jesus all wrong. I can only conclude that I am as prone to misunderstanding Jesus as they were.
It’s good news because those who are lost are most likely to find Jesus. It turns out those who don’t have a prayer are the ones who know how to pray best. People who end up sitting on the curb outside the church building discover Jesus sitting right next to them. Perhaps he’s even shrugging and saying: “Yeah. They didn’t want me in their either.”
I think one of the most important daily practices of a Christian is to practice being an outsider. Each time we find a comfort zone in our confidence that we “get” Jesus, we need to step out into discomfort and disorientation. Each day we need to question our own assumptions. We need to frequent foreign places where we are among strangers and the strange. Why? Because that’s where we find Jesus. That’s where we truly start to “get” him.
Grace and Peace.