I wonder...

Sometimes, I wonder what Jesus would have been like if He had walked the Earth in today's day and age.  Sometimes, I wonder if we have it all wrong - and if the Jesus that we try and represent to the rest of the world looking on is totally and completely off the mark of who He really is?  I wonder if He looks down and feels completely misrepresented by us, His kids, sometimes.

I'm just wondering.

And the reason why I wonder this, is because I can't help but think that if He were the one walking around here representing Himself - just like He did back in Bible times - then really the majority of the people who had an issue with Him back then were mainly the Pharisees and Sadduccees....the "religious" ones of the day who were really far more concerned with keeping the rules than they ever were with healing the world's hurts, or with tending the walking wounded. 

Jesus "moved into the neighborhood" - He became one of us, and He wasn't afraid to get dirty.
One of His nicknames was even "the friend of sinners."
I wonder how many of us can wear that name the way that He wore it?

And I wonder if we wore it well - if there would be more people who don't know Jesus...at least wanting to... and searching...and asking more questions - instead of being jaded and uninterested - and finding Him to be completely irrelevent and unnecessary to their lives and their daily situations....when He really is just exactly that. 

So relevant.  And so very necessary.

I wonder how many of us worry far too much about what others think than about befriending "sinners"....and getting right into the thick of other's messes and lives....and of maybe getting our hands dirty a little bit - and of maybe even potentially damaging our reputation just a smidge --- but really, probably only in the eyes of our modern day Pharisees...the ones who only read "light has no part of darkness" and "come out from among them and be ye separate".....but the ones who also seem to completely overlook all of the other passages that mention "go" and "be" and "do unto these."......

I wonder.

What if the woman who crossed out the 18% expected gratuity because she had come with a party of over six people and that's just the way that restaurant works... but who wrote:  "I give God 10%, so why I should I give you 18%?".....what if instead she had taken the time to really look at her server...and to maybe hear her story and get a read on her heart?  What if she had found out that that girl was a young, single Mama who had been up all night previous taking care of sick babies, and who would leave this work shift with aching feet and an even bigger ache in her heart because of what had just happened -- only to race to her night class to study for a huge exam that she wasn't even remotely prepared for because of the all of the money that she had needed to make for her rent that was already two weeks overdue?

I wonder what could have maybe happened then.
I wonder what moment was forever missed because of that sarcastic exchange.

And, what if - instead of arguing over programs and procedures, policies and nitty picky particulars - what if instead of using up so much of our time and energy in beating each other up while so many of us are already down....what if we turned all of that energy outward, and if we majored on the majors and minored on the minors -- and we remembered that Jesus came for the "sick" and that maybe sometimes there really are way better ways to spend our time...and our resources...and our beating hearts that can so often be made to bleed raw....by our own brothers and sisters, no less...

I wonder what would happen then.
I wonder where Jesus would have hung out, had He been walking around in my neighborhood.
And I wonder who He would have hung out with.

Somehow, I don't think He was as squeaky clean as we all like to make Him out to be.
And somehow, I don't imagine He could be as easily "pigeon-holed" as we like to say He is.
And for some reason, I don't picture Him nearly as "safe" as all of those wimpy paintings portray.

Because, when I look back through the course of History - and how I see His life played out - what I see is this motley band of misfits that He chose to have as His best friends.  I see Him eating meals with the down and outs, the misfits and outcasts, and the baddest of the bad back in the day.  I see Him challenging the status quo, wanting nothing to do with the legalism, caring nothing about the "religion" and the faked and forced piety --- and caring everything about the people. 

Loving them.
Speaking truth, yes.  Always the truth.  And speaking the truth even if it might hurt a little.
But truth surrounded by so much love and humility.  So much grace.
Because one without the other really isn't any good.

And people want to be wanted and loved for who they are.
No-one likes to be judged.
And no-one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
I know I sure don't.

And so.....the longer I walk this journey....and the farther I step away from the bubbled world that I always only ever knew...the more questions I seem to have, and the more I wonder if we've - if I - have royally botched things up for some people to ever have any desire to ever want to hear more about my Jesus.  I wonder, sometimes, if we have completely missed the boat...

But this one thing I do know...is that one restaurant receipt that went viral for all the facebook world to see and to read and to talk about....

It seemed to come as a shock and a surprise only to us Jesus lovers...
While the rest of the world just took it as further proof of what they believe to already know....

And I wonder why that is.