A Gospel I'd like to see

I wish that the Bible contained a gospel story of Jesus that just focused on his ‘hanging out’ time. Put aside the great teachings, miracles, and healings and generally getting up the noses of many of the religious of the day that were all a part of Jesus’ life. I wonder what it was like just to hang out with him.

In the gospel of Mark we have a brief story about the conversion of Levi (Matthew) the Tax Collector. The first thing that Matthew does after agreeing to join Jesus and the rest of the gang, was to throw a party for his mates; with Jesus as the guest of honour. The teachers of the law hear about this and are scandalised that Jesus is eating and drinking with ‘tax collectors and sinners.’ Jesus replies, ‘It is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.’

It seems to me that the church has for a long time had its focus on the righteous and the holy to the exclusion of the tax collectors, publicans and sinners. I am always drawn to the scandal of the gospel where Jesus, for some, had a reputation as a ‘glutton, drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ I think that this reputation of Jesus – given to him by the ‘righteous’ - is worth a great deal of exploration. My guess is that many like Jesus as the ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’ type or the Jesus with Napisan white robes and the cute little halo over the head.

I am fascinated with the Jesus whose robe was as grubby as the rest of us and would occasionally smell of stale fish. The Jesus who even as the Son of God and a carpenter occasionally sported a blackened thumb nail from a misdirected hammer blow. I rarely see Compass on Sunday night but I liked one of the quotes in the previews where I think Kofi Annan says, ‘The problem is not the faith; but the faithful.’

A major reason for my conversion many years ago now was that I met some Christian people who followed Jesus but were not weird! I had been a big fan of Jesus for many years but I was never particularly impressed by those who carried his name. My judgement was that – at least the ones I bumped into – were arrogant, rude, and judgemental and yes, a little bit weird! Now that I am a long term member of the club, can I say that for some, my opinion has not changed and I am well aware that I might well be labelled under some of that stuff occasionally?

I see my call as endeavouring to cultivate an ever growing group of people who are willing to put their lives and reputations on the line. These will be people who are willing to take the risk of pushing beyond the stereotypical Jesus in an attempt to find the real one. It might be that in the process we get the reputation of hanging out with the wrong kind of people and being found in the wrong kind of places. That’s cool; we’ll probably find Jesus hanging around there anyway.