Driving in foreign countries is a real eye-opener. In the Scottish Highlands, a highway road sign says: Watch for vehicles in the middle of the road. The turns are not engineered for ease of executing at highway speeds as they are in the US, so it’s permitted to make a wide arc, even into the middle of the road! I’m not kidding. (sorry, oncoming vehicles!) Also in those Highlands, if sheep or cattle are blocking the road, don’t bother blowing the horn. It’s a total waste of your time. In Guatemala, large, busy intersections have no traffic indicators, so they are navigated principally by blowing your horn and muscling through. Hair-raising! In France, the rule of the road is priority to the right unless otherwise indicated. This applies, even if you’re on a major road through a town. Disconcerting, to say the least. Also in France, one never has the right to turn right at a red light, even on a deserted street at midnight. Ask me how I know. In Switzerland, it’s a ticket-able offence to leave your car running while stopped at a red light. In England, there’s an undisclosed rule of how one is to maneuver a multi-laned, multi-exit roundabout. My apologies to those four disgruntled drivers, but after five complete go-rounds . . .
Rules are meant to be followed. I get it. And for those in the know, there’s no problem. But that’s where the trouble started with Jesus’ Kingdom teaching. He was introducing new rules, new priorities, a new order, and everything seemed terribly foreign, irritatingly intrusive, excessively counterintuitive. As someone has said, Jesus had the chic to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
It’s understandable that the disciples were often perplexed as Jesus, once again, came out with one of those Kingdom priorities. The first question was how to implement his novel idea. Next was skepticism about its success. And amazingly, his tenderness was most evident when with the poor and needy and sick and oppressed, while his most unfiltered wrath was reserved for the wealthy, the powerful, the Jewish elite (the heretofore Untouchables).
Here we are, two millennia removed from Jesus’ day, and Kingdom ways are viewed today as every bit as threatening as they ever were. For us, Jesus’ Beloved, we find ourselves with our ‘feet firmly planted in midair’ as the song said. Our old nature feels threatened along with those 2000 years ago but our redeemed nature finds itself perfectly at home in the heart of the Father. Looking forward to seeing all you ‘little children,’ happy in Jesus, tomorrow, 10 AM, 3 PM UK. PD