Open up your Bible and read one of
the four Gospels from start to finish. Try to do it with fresh eyes, and you
will be struck by something: Jesus was a radical—and his life and teachings are
a radical invitation to something beyond what most of us have settled for in
our everyday lives.
What does radical mean? It means to get to the
"root" of things.
Jesus was interested in getting
deep down to the root of things. He was interested in what was essential—not
the fluffy periphery, but the core, the center, the heart of things.
Jesus wasn't trapped by the notion
of political correctness. He wasn't burdened with the need to be liked by
people. He wasn't moved by the desire for expediency or convenience. Instead,
he simply allowed truth to reign supreme.
Truth is radical.
Jesus was a radical. He reminds us
at every turn that God's ways are not a slight variation of man's ways, but
that they are in fact radically different. Embrace any one of Jesus' teachings
seriously and some of the people around you are bound to think that you are
taking it a little too far. His teachings don't invite us to the mediocre
middle. They invite us to a radical love.
This radical love is at the heart
of the Gospel. There are of course spectacular displays, but most of all Jesus
invites us to pass this radical love along to others through the daily events
of our lives. At every turn Jesus mentors us in this radical love.
Jesus was a radical. His life was
radical. His death was radical. His teachings were radical. They got to the
root of things. His love was radical. It changed the entire course of human
history.
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