Jesus Thoughts // He wasn’t crazy

Jesus was not crazy…but I confess that sometimes He comes across as quite confusing and difficult to understand as I read through Luke’s version of Jesus’ life, and sometimes I can see why people thought he was crazy. Someone’s thinking that last statement is sacrilegious, and I’m certain that at some level it probably is, but I’m just telling the truth about what’s happening to me.

Whenever you read Scripture, you have to take in to account that nearly 2000 years have passed, language has changed dramatically and we see the world completely differently than a first century person would. That being said, there is much that is lost in translation when we read about what Jesus said and what Jesus did. However, I keep thinking to myself, “Wow, no wonder these people thought You were crazy and had a difficult time understanding You.” Like this morning, I’m reading along through one parable and it just ended more abruptly than I had anticipated. My initial reaction was, “where’s the rest of it, the NIV people must have left that part out.” Further down in the same chapter, Jesus calls Herod a “fox.” Talk about an open act of “bring it on, I’m not afraid of you, I just insulted your king…you brood of vipers.” (I know He didn’t, but sometimes I wonder if He finished with a “Yeah…What now?”

Of course we have the advantage of looking back and seeing how the life of Jesus fit in with the prophecies of the OT and we can take an overarching look at His life, whereas, the people that were living with Him, doing life together with Him, only saw moment by moment actions. But, several times while I’ve journaled lately, I’ve written Him a note confessing that I just don’t have a clue about His character and that I can understand the frustrations of the people who were trying to understand Him.

A good portion of my major was in religion, and I’ve had the classes that teach you how to study the Scripture in depth and that examine more than the surface level facets of the life of Christ, and yet still there is much to be discovered for me. And as much as I can get frustrated, I get excited about this at the same time. I’m glad He’s more complex than I’ve made Him out to be. I’m glad that sometimes I finish reading and say, “I didn’t get that. Sorry. You’re confusing sometimes.”

There’s my confession for Sunday. What do you do when you’re confused by a passage?