First in a series on "The Radical Jesus"

Rev. Kevin M. Pleas

Matthew 13:54-58

March 4, 2007

He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?" And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house." And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief.

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This morning, as promised, I'm beginning a series of sermons leading up to Easter on the more radical side of Jesus' ministry. A couple of weeks ago, when I first announced this series, I loved the reaction I got, which is to say, no reaction at all. I wasn't surprised. "Radical" has the distinction of being one of those words that both gets our attention and makes us uncomfortable. We hear it and immediately we're on our guard, because the associations we have with it are mostly negative.

For example, Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "The spirit of our American radicalism is destructive and aimless; it is not loving; it has no ulterior and divine ends; but is destructive only out of hatred and selfishness. F. Scott Fitzgerald noted that, "My generation of radicals and breakers-down never found anything to take the place of the old virtues of work and courage and the old graces of courtesy and politeness." Being a radical, in the opinion of many, is about tearing things apart simply for the sake of change.

On the other hand, there are some who lean in the other direction. Franklin Roosevelt, in what my mother used to call a left-handed compliment, once said, "You sometimes find something good in the lunatic fringe." The best quote I found though, was from the writer E.L. Doctorow. He said, "I've always felt, as a writer, that radicals are fascinating because they're relations, they have a place in the American family. They're the relatives everyone wishes would go away. They're the embarrassments to decorum and good taste." Clearly, even those who see some value in radicals don't seem to respond to them very well.

What do we do then, with the blatantly obvious fact that Jesus was himself a radical? Usually, in my experience, we ignore it, or pretend it isn't true. To me though, Jesus' radical nature has always seemed inescapable. Even a casual reading of the gospels should be enough to convince most anybody that Jesus was, both in his message and in his behavior, committed to a very different set of priorities than were the people of his time, or the people of our own time for that matter. Rather than dancing around the issue then, I'm suggesting we spend the next few weeks taking a good look at what was radical about Jesus.

First, it always helps to be clear about definitions. Radical is a Middle English word which traces back to the Latin "radicalis," meaning "having roots." All our various uses of the word have this idea of roots in common. There is radical change, which means "fundamental," or "going to the root." There is a radical idea or opinion, which gets back to the roots of a problem. There are "the radicals," who we used to call extremists or revolutionaries, but these days are often called terrorists. These folks are people who seek to tear things out by the roots. Radical can also be the root of a word or the root of a mathematical equation. And then there is the idea of doing something new or of excellent quality, which sometimes comes out as "that was radical dude!" which I suppose would be a way of rooting someone on.

Now obviously, Jesus was not a radical in the terrorist sense, although some of his followers certainly hoped he would be. There were plenty of people around in his day who were looking for a leader to rise up and throw off the yoke of Roman oppression. If that had happened, it's not hard to imagine ancient Jerusalem looking a lot like modern Baghdad. But although there were some who feared Jesus as both an extremist and revolutionary, he was actually a great disappointment on that score. The radicalism of Jesus was not aimed at changing governments. It was all about changing hearts and minds. His was a non-violent revolution, the very model of self-sacrifice and peaceful resistance.

Today's scripture reading, coming at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, starts right off by setting the tone. He gets up in the synagogue, in front of the elders of his own home town, and in short order manages to offend them all. Imagine it: there they were, all set to nod their heads in approval and say, "what a good boy," as Jesus read the ancient text, and then told them once again what they had already heard a thousand times. That's what they were expecting. Instead, Jesus gives a radical new interpretation that causes them to jump up in anger. "Where did this man get this wisdom?" How presumptuous. Isn't he the kid that grew up right here in our neighborhood? Don't we know his family. Where does he come off?

I've always found this passage a little curious. Why would the fact that they knew Jesus as a child make any difference. What if you had been a childhood friend of Mozart, or maybe his babysitter? You might be able to say, "I knew him when he used to put his pants on backwards," but how would that change the fact that he grew up to create some of the world's most beautiful music. But that is how we think sometimes isn't it. The old saying that comes to mind is, "Familiarity breeds contempt."

One day in my first church some of the members were talking about a minister friend of mine named Mick. He had once been their pastor and had recently moved back into the area to take a nearby church. Mick had a reputation for being a very good minister. But when I said that I thought Mick was a great guy, one of the members responded "Well, I knew him when he was first starting out in ministry and believe me, he was no great shakes." I'd be willing to bet they say the same thing about me now that I'm gone. And as a matter of fact, it would be true if they did. That's basically what Jesus' neighbors were saying about Jesus. Somehow, the idea that they knew him already closed their minds to the possibility that he might actually have something to say to them: something new, something fundamental, something radical. He was, as we know, a great prophet. But many of his own people were not able to honor him as such.

And actually, that's a problem for us too. We've all known Jesus a long time. We like to think we've got a handle on who he was, what his life meant, and what we're supposed to know and do to be his followers. But familiarity breeds contempt. Or more to the point, familiarity breeds complacency. It breeds the assumption that we can safely ignore the more radical aspects of Jesus' message because we already know what he has to say. But my friends, if we come here this morning thinking we already know all we need to know about Jesus, my message to us is this: Jesus was a radical. His words and his life have all the power to radically alter our lives as they did all those years ago.

Jesus was definitely a radical. He was not interested in tearing down the established order simply for the sake of being destructive. He was not interested in political power or authority. He did not spend his time trying to throw off the yoke of Roman oppression. What he was interested in is the oppression we impose upon ourselves. He came to show us the way to true freedom and abundant life. And to the extent that our lives do not reflect those qualities of freedom and abundance, we can safely say that we do not really know what Jesus was about no matter how well we may think we know him.

There's always been a wrestling match in the church about whether we're supposed to be invested in personal change or social change. There are certainly a lot of good arguments on both sides. I think Jesus would have said both are important. But so often, the ways we try to go about social change end up not changing very much in the long run. Part of what I find radical about Jesus, is that he knew that unless we find our way to a deeper understanding of ourselves, we aren't going to make much progress in changing society. There is a story I like from the Islamic tradition that captures this same idea.

There was once a Sufi holy man named Bayazid who said this about himself: "I was a revolutionary when I was young and all my prayer to God was 'Lord, give me the energy to change the world.' As I approached middle age and realized that half my life was gone without my changing a single soul, I changed my prayer to 'Lord, give me the grace to change all those who come in contact with me. Just my family and friends, and I shall be satisfied.' Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, my one prayer is this, 'Lord, give me the grace to change myself.'" He then says, "If I had prayed for this right from the start I should not have wasted my life."

So often, as I look around, read the papers and so on, I see people who are frustrated that the world is often not the way it seems it should be. But there always seem to be far fewer people who are interested in change where it really counts, in our own hearts. For me, this is where Jesus proves to be the most radical. He is forever asking us to look in the mirror. Rather than simply railing against the lack of peace in the world, Jesus asks us to discover where it is in our own lives that we are not people of peace. Where it is in our lives that we are not people of generosity, integrity or compassion? For nearly all of us, living according to these qualities would mean a radical change in their lives. But low and behold, when we do manage to change ourselves, we suddenly discover that we are effecting the lives of the people around us much more deeply than when we were trying to impose change on them.

What a radical idea: change the world by changing ourselves. That's just a piece of the radical nature of Jesus. There will be much more to say in the next few weeks as we explore this topic. I hope it will be of interest to you, and while we're at it, I hope you will keep in mind: Jesus was a radical dude.

Amen.