WARNING: If you like your Jesus meek and mild ….DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!! – If you want to see Jesus in a clearer way you may want to thumb through it. If you want to really know this Jesus, read the book and let your eyes be open as you do. However, as John Ortberg said, “I want to know this Jesus, though he scares me a little.”
Don’t say I didn’t warn you though…..The book is “Jesus Mean and Wild; The Unexpected Love of an Untamable God” written by Mark Galli.
This is by far one of the most refreshing books that I have read. Galli looks at Jesus in a way the church seldom does (at the least the ones that I’ve attended). He doesn’t skim over the verses that talk about how Jesus made people feel a bit uncomfortable. In fact he addresses seventeen passages from the Gospel of Mark that he finds Jesus so discomforting:
- Jesus “sternly charges" or “strictly orders” (depending of the translation) people he heals (1:43; 3:12; 5:43; 8:30). He looks upon religious leaders with “anger” and “grief” (3:5).
- Jesus speaks openly of a last judgment that entails the rejection of many people (13:26-27), of a sin that God will never forgive (3:29), of horrific consequences for misleading children (9:42), of God being ashamed or severely displeased with some at the judgment (8:38; 13:36).
- Jesus destroys a head of swine, without regret or compensation to the owner (5:1-20), and overturns the tables in the temple in a moment of rage (11:15-17).
- Jesus rebukes Peter as demonic (8:33). He is “indignant” with the disciples (10:13-14). He says the Sadducees are biblically and spiritually ignorant (12:24) and describes his entire generation as “faithless” (9:19).
- Jesus makes it clear that following him will entail suffering and death (9:35-37, 43-50). He says the endtimes will come sooner than anyone thinks and will be so severe that even the faithful will beg for death (13:5-37).
The Jesus we usually hear preached about on Sunday morning in most “growing” churches in America is a Jesus that is meek and mild. You here about the Jesus that is loving, forgiving, peace-filled, sacrificial, he wants you to prosper and he invites all the little children to come and play with him. He doesn’t confront (except the Pharisees), he doesn’t impose (at least not outside of 4 “How To” points or an acronym to help you remember what you need to do) and he is a little docile (after all he did go willingly to be killed). O.K. that last sentence was a little sarcastic, although there is truth in it.
The reality? Jesus IS all of these things - but he is also righteous. So he does confront sin, he does impose his requirements on us and he is untamable. Yes – Jesus is a bit mean and wild at times. If we leave out this uncomfortable side him, we do not have a complete understanding of who Jesus really is, we put him in a box that we can package, market, sell and feel good about. The danger is we end up as comfortable Christians, sitting in our comfortable chairs, in our comfortable buildings, listening to a comfortable sermon, all the time keeping Jesus at a comfortable distance. (I should know – I lived my life like this for years).
Galli says it better, “The main problem is that we’ve become deaf to the richer parts of the symphony of love. We hear the melody played by the strings but ignore the brass and wind and especially the percussion sections. We don’t notice the strong harmonies, the counterpoint, and the dissonant chords. We are left with a memorable tune that lifts our spirits, but we are missing out on the richness of the music God would have us hear.”
So again, if you like your Jesus meek and mild….DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!!
