
Like Jesus, Christians must be from AMONG—not from APART
One of the things about Messiah Jesus that impresses me most is that not only was he human—and fully so—but that he stood among his fellow-humans on common ground. He ministered out of shared human experience, albeit without human failure.
“Is not this the carpenter’s son?” people said, “where did this man get these things? After all, we know his family and brothers and sisters.”
Not a piously aloof graduate of the Rabbinic Schools; he was in the trades! Whose son you were was one of the first questions asked about anyone who began to come to notice. Of David, Saul had asked the same question, “whose son is he?” Pedigree mattered!
Jesus’ schooling, apart from synagogue school when young, was life; and he was required to have some 30 years of it prior to launching into his Father’s mission. Life!—in a carpenter or artisan’s workshop, into which came every specimen of Nazareth’s and Galilee’s life of the day. Merchants and traders, farm boys, the well-heeled and the poor, the lame and the sick, fishermen, hucksters, tax-collectors and pretenders, newly-weds along with soldiers and women of doubtful repute. Jesus got to know them all; some were generous and some didn’t pay their bills or always had an excuse. Colourful language? He’d heard it all. He knew of drought and hardship, as he knew also of field and crop and agriculture, otherwise from whence did all the stories and similes come?
Full immersion in life was exactly why he connected effectively with all and sundry. He could tell stories of thieves and insistent widows and children’s games and of weddings and funerals and feasts and food and wine. He used experiences from life’s realities to touch every heart experiencing its joys and woes. Tales of vineyard owners and stewards; of disappointments and of women preparing bread or anxious over the housekeeping money they’ve misplaced; of fishers’ nets and farmer’s fields; of rogues, villains and cheats. Situations and people recognised by all. LIFE!
His years of immersion in ‘real’ life was utterly necessary so that his message, when it came, was not as one shouted across a chasm by a detached professor with a bunch of theories—like the message of the scholars and Pharisees. No! Where Jesus was ‘coming from’ would resonate instantly with commoners or aristocrat alike, evidencing rich human encounter and a wealth of observation of the ‘ticking’ of the worlds of men, women and children.
Having ‘seen it all’ and then some, he understood them and their joys, anxieties, longings and frustrations, and—he understood clearly his Father’s mission and heart for them all.
And so, he presented to them all (and each) an alternative personal government; the government, or kingdom, of God which could change everything—EVERYTHING—in the lives of those who would embrace it. Right there.
And...right now too!
One of the things about Messiah Jesus that impresses me most is that not only was he human—and fully so—but that he stood among his fellow-humans on common ground. He ministered out of shared human experience, albeit without human failure.
“Is not this the carpenter’s son?” people said, “where did this man get these things? After all, we know his family and brothers and sisters.”
Not a piously aloof graduate of the Rabbinic Schools; he was in the trades! Whose son you were was one of the first questions asked about anyone who began to come to notice. Of David, Saul had asked the same question, “whose son is he?” Pedigree mattered!
Jesus’ schooling, apart from synagogue school when young, was life; and he was required to have some 30 years of it prior to launching into his Father’s mission. Life!—in a carpenter or artisan’s workshop, into which came every specimen of Nazareth’s and Galilee’s life of the day. Merchants and traders, farm boys, the well-heeled and the poor, the lame and the sick, fishermen, hucksters, tax-collectors and pretenders, newly-weds along with soldiers and women of doubtful repute. Jesus got to know them all; some were generous and some didn’t pay their bills or always had an excuse. Colourful language? He’d heard it all. He knew of drought and hardship, as he knew also of field and crop and agriculture, otherwise from whence did all the stories and similes come?
Full immersion in life was exactly why he connected effectively with all and sundry. He could tell stories of thieves and insistent widows and children’s games and of weddings and funerals and feasts and food and wine. He used experiences from life’s realities to touch every heart experiencing its joys and woes. Tales of vineyard owners and stewards; of disappointments and of women preparing bread or anxious over the housekeeping money they’ve misplaced; of fishers’ nets and farmer’s fields; of rogues, villains and cheats. Situations and people recognised by all. LIFE!
His years of immersion in ‘real’ life was utterly necessary so that his message, when it came, was not as one shouted across a chasm by a detached professor with a bunch of theories—like the message of the scholars and Pharisees. No! Where Jesus was ‘coming from’ would resonate instantly with commoners or aristocrat alike, evidencing rich human encounter and a wealth of observation of the ‘ticking’ of the worlds of men, women and children.
Having ‘seen it all’ and then some, he understood them and their joys, anxieties, longings and frustrations, and—he understood clearly his Father’s mission and heart for them all.
And so, he presented to them all (and each) an alternative personal government; the government, or kingdom, of God which could change everything—EVERYTHING—in the lives of those who would embrace it. Right there.
And...right now too!

'...HE SHUT UP JOHN IN PRISON'
(Luke 3:20)!!
Here was Herod the tetrarch’s way of handling the Truth as it came from God, via John the Baptist.
The prophet had dared to rebuke Herod for taking his own brother’s wife, along with other evils. She was known as Herodias.
So Herod shut John up by shutting him up!
When those in government and those who pull their strings don’t like the truth because it discloses sin, including their own, the reaction quickly becomes vindictive. Clearly, John was a bigot, a serial pest—and a danger to healthy society! He must be shut up! For goodness sake; didn’t John know you can’t go around calling out sin and confronting it!?
And—here we are today, with some civil leaders and governments doing all they can to silence gospel Truth. It too must be shut up. You can’t go around saying that certain actions and behaviours are sin. That offends—and to offend is the most heinous of sins—far, far worse that adultery or fornication, for example!
Actually, this disgusting creature John, SO offended Herodias that she ensured John could not even speak in or from prison—or ever again. She made certain he was ‘shut up’ permanently by contriving to have his head, off!
This is how Satan does his work in every age. Jesus too of course, was among the grossest of offenders. He took up where his cousin John had been cut off (in a manner of speaking!) and managed also to offend (it ran in the family!) not so much the government, but the religious elite!
Mark my words: Unless (until) we see a wide and deep spiritual revival in our land, this is where we are headed. The Truth will offend; the Gospel will offend. Not because we desire to offend but because sin will be exposed.
But the reaction of unrepentant and ‘offended sinners’ will be the same as Herod’s; to attempt to ‘shut up’ believers by passing laws that prohibit this offensive ‘hate’ speech—and when that doesn’t work, to decapitate the Church.
(Luke 3:20)!!
Here was Herod the tetrarch’s way of handling the Truth as it came from God, via John the Baptist.
The prophet had dared to rebuke Herod for taking his own brother’s wife, along with other evils. She was known as Herodias.
So Herod shut John up by shutting him up!
When those in government and those who pull their strings don’t like the truth because it discloses sin, including their own, the reaction quickly becomes vindictive. Clearly, John was a bigot, a serial pest—and a danger to healthy society! He must be shut up! For goodness sake; didn’t John know you can’t go around calling out sin and confronting it!?
And—here we are today, with some civil leaders and governments doing all they can to silence gospel Truth. It too must be shut up. You can’t go around saying that certain actions and behaviours are sin. That offends—and to offend is the most heinous of sins—far, far worse that adultery or fornication, for example!
Actually, this disgusting creature John, SO offended Herodias that she ensured John could not even speak in or from prison—or ever again. She made certain he was ‘shut up’ permanently by contriving to have his head, off!
This is how Satan does his work in every age. Jesus too of course, was among the grossest of offenders. He took up where his cousin John had been cut off (in a manner of speaking!) and managed also to offend (it ran in the family!) not so much the government, but the religious elite!
Mark my words: Unless (until) we see a wide and deep spiritual revival in our land, this is where we are headed. The Truth will offend; the Gospel will offend. Not because we desire to offend but because sin will be exposed.
But the reaction of unrepentant and ‘offended sinners’ will be the same as Herod’s; to attempt to ‘shut up’ believers by passing laws that prohibit this offensive ‘hate’ speech—and when that doesn’t work, to decapitate the Church.