Jesus’ first miracle was one that would have made alot of religious folk angry.

He was at a party, a 1st century Jewish wedding to be exact, an event where people party – for many days.  The wine had run out and Jesus’ mother pressed him to “do his thing” and fix this most heinous faux pas.

There are a million ways He could have done it, but He chose to make about 180 gallons of wine in 6 large containers used for a sacred Jewish cleansing ritual.

A modern analogue for this would be to walk into a Baptist church, fill the baptistry (a small swimming pool where folks are baptised) with wine and say, “Party on dudes.”

Jesus’ first miracle was to keep a party going.  Why is He almost always portrayed as such as buzz kill?

You don’t have to go far to find someone who’ll tell you that Jesus wants nothing more than for you to control yourself, avoid sinning, and get your act together.

I’ve been a pastor for many moons now and can tell you that most American Evangelicals live under this very misguided piece of theology.

When I first got into this whole Jesus thing I had recently witnessed the shooting death of a good friend (long long story, I’ll post it here in the near future).  I was torn up with PTSD, etc and didn’t see a way forward.  My uber religious, very frisky girlfriend, who had just dumped me, had previously dragged me to church enough for me to think that maybe there was something behind the Jesus door.  I had tried everything else, what the hell.  I had a very powerful experience and began attending church on a regular basis.  It was weird growing up Catholic then finding myself in the midst of this Evangelical wonderland.  My early experiences were especially interesting.

A girl took me to church one time, a very large Dallas church.  As we passed by the bookstore I asked if Jesus would be by to turn over the tables?  She didn’t laugh.  After the crackers and the tiny plastic cups of grape-juice were passed out, the offering plate came my way.  “What’s this, the bill for lunch?”  “Get it?  The bill for lunch?”  I thought it was hilarious, but obviously had a few things to learn about the culture.

At this new place, and within this new culture, the message was clear – we are all charged with spending our lives trying to get our act together.  The Bible studies, the sermons, the small groups, all were focused primarily on rule following.

So, I spent the majority of my adult years believing that God wanted obedience first and foremost.  He’s only happy when we’re doing what we’re supposed to.  When we’re not, he’s shinin’ up the lightening bolts.

A few years later I was accepted to grad school where I would spend the next 4 years working on my Master’s degree (it was a 120+ hour program – not bragging, just didn’t want anyone thinking I’m a slacker.  There’s other evidence for that).

A big chunk of my curriculum was focused on ancient Greek and Hebrew so that I could study the scriptures more in-depth.  Our professors encouraged us, over and again, to not let our biases, our emotions, or our culture do the translating/interpreting.

We were to try our best to let the texts speak for themselves.

I was once instructed that, if I didn’t agree with widely held beliefs, that was ok.  If I didn’t defend them well however, I’d get an F.  Not bad for a conservative Christian Seminary that many would consider to be the mecca of all close-mindedness.

Jesus’ Main Message

A couple of years after I graduated I read a passage in the New Testament that I had read a thousand times.  This time it hit me differently.  In our Greek manuscripts it reads:

ἐγὼ ἦλθον ἵνα ζωὴν ἔχωσιν καὶ περισσὸν ἔχωσιν
I came so that they might have life, and have (it) overflowing.

Note that He didn’t say

• I came so that they would all get their act together
• I came so that they would think right things about me
• I came so that they might learn to defend themselves from the evils of this world
• I came so that they might find some people to harass, belittle, and marginalize
• vote a certain way
• hate the gays
• avoid alcohol

By “life,” He wasn’t referring to the next life.  There are plenty of scriptures where Jesus clearly refers to Heaven.  This particular statement gives no evidence that he’s referring to anything other than life in the here and now.

This is something that He wants for you and I – today.  Right now.

Jesus’ main message is life.

For me, in this moment, I decided to let this passage govern my thinking about God, Jesus, the Bible, and my life till the day I die.  Whenever I run into confusion, fear, apathy, or general stupidity, this passage gets me back on track.

What’s even more interesting is the fact that everyone on the planet is desperately looking for life.  Some of us are killing ourselves (and sometimes others) because we want LIFE.

What Jesus claimed to be devoted to giving to us, we’re all trying like hell to get.  More intimacy, more significance, more fun, more laughter, more pleasure, more more more more more.

The entire world – dead, alive, and yet-to-be-born will always have at the core of it’s life the quest for life.

And here’s this not-so-attractive, unassuming, friend-to-whores-and-sinners, so-called Rabbi, claiming that the purpose for His very existence is the very thing we’re all clamoring for.  He’s not going to give us a jet, or a mansion, or a hot wife.  It’s not that these things are bad, they’re simply not what we’re looking for – they’re merely symptoms of deeper wants.

It’s a hell of a lot easier to be a rule-follower than it is to trust that Jesus has my best interest at heart, that He actually wants what I want (not the corrupted, selfish version of what I want, the good stuff that hangs out underneath all that).

Sadly, for most religious folk, everything revolves around the rules, which drives so much “death.”  Jesus’ main message gets lost. It’s a truly miserable way to view God, yourself, other people, and the world you live in.

I dare you, place at the center of your understanding of God the fact that He wants you to suck the marrow out of your life (His way, not your way by the way) and read one of the Gospels (the book of John is my favorite).  It’ll change your life.

Jesus told the following parable to a group of people who had lost their way.  It was more of an indictment than anything else.

Following is a paraphrase of the story, taken directly from a collection of ancient Greek manuscripts used in the creation of our modern Bibles.

This flies in the face of how we typically think about the favor of God. You might feel like you know this story, but I’m going to throw a wrench in how it typically gets retold:

Once there was a very rich man who had two sons. One a winner, the other a loser.  The good son always did what he was told, worked hard on the family farm, and was a big contributor to the success of his father’s operation.

The other son was a somewhat lazy ne’er-do-well who couldn’t seem to get his act together.

The loser son went to his father, announced that he would be leaving, and asked for his inheritance. Back then, this was tantamount to wishing your father dead – a very shameful act in the minds of Jesus’ audience.

The father complied and the son went and sold the bounty all throughout the town, further spreading his father’s shame, turning his inheritance into cash. Then went to a “far off place.”

In 1st century Jewish parlance, he went to live with pagans, losers, trash.  He blew the money in some unsavory activities, got hungry, touched pigs, and resorted to eating garbage.

Again, to Jesus’ audience, the loser son is committing a litany of grievous sin.

After some time, he came to his senses. “I’m living in hell,” he thought to himself. “I can go home and at least be treated like a slave. My father’s servants are living better than I am.”

It’s here that we need to be careful how we translate this story, because this next part is important, and rarely gets coverage in our Sunday morning sermons.

The, loser son, being a loser, crafted a speech that he would deliver to his father.  In the Greek it’s apparent that he’s making up an apology, but not sorry or “repentant” for his stupidity.

There is no mention of sorrow, or humility.

The picture being painted is of someone who’s committed the most grievous infractions a person from that culture could think of – dishonoring parents, sinful living, rubbing elbows with pagans, and manipulation.

“Kill him” is what Jesus’ audience, including his disciples, would be thinking.

His dad, who’s been waiting for him to come home, sees him on the horizon, runs to him and does something akin to tackling him. The son attempts to give his speech, word for word as he’s rehearsed it, but the father cuts him off.

He places a ring on his son’s finger and immediately restores his status, privileges, and rights to inheritance – transforming him instantly from loser to winner.

I’ll reiterate that the son showed no sign of sorrow or repentance.

Dad then throws an enormous party and kills the calf that’s only reserved for uber-special occasions.

The other son, the “good” son, understandably, is angry and stands outside, refusing to go in.

The father begs him to join the party.

“My [loser] son has returned,” the father begs, “Aren’t you happy too?”  But the “good” son sees people as most of us do.  Winners should be celebrated – exalted.  You should never throw a party for losers.

Dad returns to the party alone leaving the “good” son to stand outside and pout.  The end.

The Favor of God

Jesus tells this story in part to illustrate that God’s view of people is upside-down.  The losers are winners and vice versa.  If He’s right it suggests that our view of most things is upside-down, especially our understanding of how to go to heaven.

Maybe that’s why he so often calls for humility. Getting down on your knees is the highest you can get in an upside-down world.

This parable is one of three (read the whole thing here) that Jesus tells to an audience of “Good People” who are grumbling about the horde of losers that are following Him.

The first parable talks about someone who loses their property then gets real happy when they find it.  The second talks about a poor person who loses their money then gets real happy when they find it.  The third is a story of a man who loses a son then throws an outrageous party when he finds him.

Everyone in Jesus’ audience can track with the first two, few can deal with the third.

Funny that the only loser in this story is the one that didn’t want to go to the party.

If this doesn’t mess with your understanding about how to go to heaven, who has God’s favor, and how we should feel about other people’s sin, I can’t help you.

This of course flies in the face of our religious caste system that honors the faithful and marginalizes the “losers” – folks from the gay community, married people who couldn’t make things work, people who don’t vote God’s way, etc. We’re invited to re-think who’s “in” and who’s “out,” and reject our religious systems that seek to strip the under-performers of their value.

We’re also invited to overhaul our understanding of how God looks at us when we screw up, and what’s required to get Him to like us again.

Turns out the whole thing is up to Him, not us, or our behavior, or religious performance. And that should surprise no one.