“Abnormal for Jesus”

July 25, 2010

Luke 10:38-42

My children will soon all be teenagers. I don’t say that to gain your sympathy, but I’ll take it if you want to
offer it. As I have watched them grow and now as I watch them try to fit into a new place and into a new
school, I am remembering a little of what it was like to be that age. Often times our struggle as teens
stays with us as adults. We just want to fit in and in our struggle to fit in we strive to toward a goal of just
being normal. The difficulty for many of us is that “normal” is a moving target. What passes for normal
at school is not the same as normal at church and that may or may not be the same as normal at home.
Throw in other variations of “normal” in our clubs, sports teams, ethnic groups and many others not to
mention what passes for normal in our culture, on television and other media outlets and it’s no wonder
that our children are confused. Shoot, I’m not even sure what normal is most of the time… so I looked it
up. According to the American Heritage Dictionary…

Nor·mal
–adjective

1. Conforming to the standard or the common type; usual; not abnormal; regular; natural.

2. Serving to establish a standard.

Ab·nor·mal

–adjective

Not typical, usual, or regular; not normal; deviant.

Normal is defined as being in conformance to the standard, but still we’re left wondering what standard we’re
supposed to be measured by. The definition leaves us with more questions than we started with. Which
standard should we use? If there are many standards, then whose standard is best? Do any of the standards
have more or less moral authority than any others?

The apostle Paul had been a zealous supporter of his church for his entire life. So steadfast were his beliefs and
his adherence to the importance of being normal and to conforming to those beliefs that he made it his mission
to seek out those who were teaching false doctrine and put to death anyone who did not admit that he was right.
This same man ultimately collided head-on with Jesus on his way to carry out this same mission of destruction
in Damascus. On the road, Jesus confronted him from heaven and made it plain which doctrine, which teaching
and which church held the most moral authority regardless of its perceived normalcy in his culture, his church
and his family. At the time, the followers of Christ were not well received among the Jews or within the nations
governed by Rome. Especially among Paul’s friends, family and church, following Jesus was decidedly
abnormal. Sometime later, Paul wrote these words to the church in Colossae…

(Colossians 1:15-23) 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by him all
things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers
or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold

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together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the
dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in
him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by
making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
21
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22But now
he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish
and free from accusation— 23if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held
out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under
heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Paul proclaims that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation and that there is nothing on earth or heaven that was not
created by him. That is moral authority. If Jesus created the universe, then his opinion on what constitutes
“normal” has overwhelming weight and meaning. Paul continues by saying that we began to see God as alien
because of our behavior. Because we did what we wanted to do instead of doing what God commanded us to
do, we became evil in the eyes of God and began to see God as the enemy instead of as our friend. That state of
affairs would remain in effect today but something changed. Jesus, through his own actions, reconciled us with
God.

So what does reconcile mean? To reconcile means to reestablish a close relationship between, to settle or
resolve, to bring (oneself) to accept or to make compatible or consistent. Jesus did all those things. By coming
to earth, through his birth, life, death and resurrection, Jesus reestablished our close relationship with God, he
settled God’s dispute against us for the evil that we had committed, and he made us acceptable to God so that
our version of normal could once again be compatible and consistent with God’s standards of normal.

In the history of the world, following Jesus has rarely been normal. In his own world, Jesus was considered to
be so abnormal that the political and religious rulers found it necessary to get rid of him entirely; convicting him
on false charges and having him executed. Ever since then, the number of places where it’s dangerous to be an
abnormal follower of Jesus have far outnumbered the places where being Christian was safe and even half-ways
“normal.” Being a follower of God and a follower of Jesus has always been a struggle against the cultures in
which we live. Even while Jesus was living he ran against cultural assumptions that everyone accepted as
normal. In Luke 10:38-42, we hear this story…
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As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her
home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha
was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care
that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is
needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Beyond a very basic education, most women were not expected to learn from their teachers. Women were
certainly not expected to study and learn from rabbis or teachers of law and scripture and they certainly were
not expected to learn in a mixed group with men. It would have been abundantly normal for Mary to do exactly
what Martha was asking for her to do. In their culture, it would have clearly been seen as normal for a woman
to be with the other women in the kitchen and otherwise preparing food and refreshment for the men.

But Jesus didn’t want that.

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Jesus told Martha that sometimes there is something better than normal.

In our modern culture we, as followers of Jesus Christ, often find ourselves in the same place as the disciples,
and Paul, and Mary and thousands of others who have travelled this road before us. As modern as we seem to
be, when we take the teachings of scripture seriously, we will find ourselves at odds with our culture. All too
often what is considered to be right and wrong in our culture is distorted or even backwards from what Jesus has
taught us. As Martha and the disciples found, Jesus, from the very beginning, has always been counter-cultural,
he has always taken his followers on a journey that pushed against the boundaries of what the prevailing culture
has declared to be “normal.” Our culture says that people of faith should mind their own business and keep
quiet in public because faith is a private matter but Jesus said that our primary mission is to go out into the
world and make disciples, we’re supposed to be telling everyone we know and everyone we meet. Our culture
tells us that sex is to be celebrated, that marriage is optional and that pornography is a harmless diversion but
scripture teaches that these things are like fire that can burn us and destroy us if they are used in the wrong
places without special care and control. Our culture teaches that greed is good, that we should look out for
number one, keep our own best interests in view and teach our children to have an abundance of self-esteem but
Jesus taught that we need to put the interests of others ahead of our own. If we live the way that Jesus taught us
to live, we will almost always be abnormal.

Be forewarned, living a life that is patterned after the teaching of the Bible and after the life that Jesus modeled
for us will not be easy. It wasn’t easy for Jesus, for the disciples, for Paul or for anyone who has taken the
Bible seriously for the last two millennia. Jesus, Paul and most of the disciples were hunted down and executed
for being abnormal and so have millions of others over the centuries. Taking Jesus at his word and actually
living a life the way that he taught will, absolutely, cause problems. In many countries it will land you in jail, or
reeducation camps, cause your families to disown you, your country to strip you of your wealth and your
possessions, or torture you to force you to walk away from Jesus and come back to what the culture says is
“normal.” Most of that is unlikely to happen here in the United States, but still, if you actually believe what the
Bible teaches and live the way that Jesus lived you will almost certainly lose friends, alienate your teachers or
professors, chase away valuable business contacts and generally be considered to be “odd” or abnormal.

Paul proclaims that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation and that there is nothing on earth or heaven that was not
created by him. That is moral authority. If Jesus created the universe, then his opinion on what constitutes
“normal” means everything.

Whose authority is important to you? Whose opinion matters to you?

Will you be… will you have the courage to be…

…abnormal for Jesus?

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