If I was Jesus

My husband and I were listening to the Christian radio station in the car recently when the song "If I was Jesus" came on. Apparently it's a Toby Keith original, but has recently been popularized by Paul Colman. I'd never heard it before, but I loved it right from the first line. Before it was finished, I had declared it (much to my husband's amusement) my New Favourite Song.

Because it's just so true.

If I Was Jesus

If I was Jesus, I’d have some real long hair
A robe and some sandals, is exactly what I’d wear
I’d be the guy at the party, turnin’ water to wine
Yeah me and my disciples, we’d have a real good time.

Ooh and I’d lay my life down for you
And I show you who’s the boss
I’d forgive you and adore you
While I was hangin’ on your cross
If I was Jesus.

I’d have some friends that were poor
I’d run around with the wrong crowd, man I’d never be bored
Then I’d heal me a blind man, get myself crucified
By politicians and preachers, who got somethin’ to hide.

Ooh and I’d lay my life down for you
And I show you who’s the boss
I’d forgive you and adore you
While I was hangin’ on your cross
If I was Jesus.

If I was Jesus, I’d come back from the dead
And I’d walk on some water, just to mess with your head
I know your dark little secrets, I’d look you right in the face
And I’d tell you I love you, with Amazing Grace.

Ooh and I’d lay my life down for you
And I show you who’s the boss
I’d forgive you and adore you
While I was hangin’ on your cross
If I was Jesus.

If I was Jesus.

Luke 7:34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, "Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners."

Is it weird that one of the things I love about Jesus is that He had that reputation? He wasn't worried about appearances. He drank wine. He hung out with the "wrong crowd". He wasn't caught up in The Rules. How often did the Pharisees try to accuse Jesus of breaking their Law for doing things like - *gasp* - healing on the Sabbath?

Jesus was so different from the Pharisees. But I look at the Christian church now and see more Pharisee than Christ. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the thought of Jesus coming to sit down in the typical Sunday morning church service - the disapproving looks he'd get over his long hair and lack of "Sunday best", the whispers about having seen him last night hanging out with Johnny Sinner, and oh didn't you know he's rumoured to be a drunk? And then we wonder why those who aren't Christians want nothing to do with our God. Honestly, I don't blame them one bit. If I were on the outside looking in, I'd want nothing to do with Him either. I'm so grateful that I already know His amazing love and grace and could never turn away from that, no matter what I see in those who claim to follow Him.

But at the same time, I know that most of us mean well, truly believe we are doing "the right thing", sincerely love our God even as we stumble along the path in our attempts to follow Christ. The church may have gone horribly astray over the years, but it consists of humans - sinners who have been saved by grace. Not perfect people - sinners. Different from those outside not by anything we have done, but merely by our acceptance of what Christ did for us.

So many of us, in our earnest desire to be more godly, have fallen prey to those "wolves in sheep's clothings" (Matthew 7:15), those false prophets who would turn our eyes and hearts from God's Word even as we seek to move closer to it. Thatmom recently wrote a very convicting post on why we must vocally and publically speak out against these false prophets, just as they have vocally and publically spread their lies and venom amongst God's children, blinding their eyes and stopping their ears to the Truth of the Gospel.

In a similar vein, Taunya has written an excellent series entitled The Marketing of the Titus 2 Woman (Parts One, Two, Three, Four, and Five still to come) that also speaks to the idea of our increasing propensity to form our beliefs based on what we are told by others rather than on what God's Word tells us. This series is particularly timely as there seems to be an increase in "Christian fads" - the monthly "new thing" (read: extra-biblical rule) that you must do in order to be a "real and godly Christian" - though perhaps in many ways this truly is an age-old problem.

After all, "there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

I have more to ponder and share along this line, but I'm starting to feel rambly and this seems like a good place to pause for the time being. I just so enjoyed this song, this "irreverent" picture of the Jesus I so love, the Jesus I long for others to know, the radical with a reputation as a sinner-loving wine-bibber.

And sinner-lover He is. Jesus, friend of sinners, who came for the lost.

Matthew 9:10-13 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."