Have you ever tried to do an act of kindness for a person, and they rejected you? Perhaps, you wanted to keep them from harm or give them some gift. Yet, instead of the love or gratitude you expected in return, they insulted you or hated you? How did that make you feel? You might have said, “Well, if you are going to act that way, I am leaving.”

However, that is not what Jesus did. The scriptures say He could have called thousands of angels to rescue Him. He chose to stay. Not only that, He chose to take the punishment that His enemies deserved. He became our sin, and the Father treated Him as a sinner, showing him the rejection that was our due. Jesus cried out, “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?”

Yet, that is only half of the exchange that occurred at Calvary. Jesus took all of our spiritual poverty and in return gave us every blessing He has. The book of Ephesians tells us that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Because of Christ, we have a kindness so great that it will take all eternity to comprehend.

Outrageous? Many would say so. In fact, the Muslims have written a different ending to the story of Jesus. In their version Judas gets crucified for betraying Jesus, and Jesus goes up to heaven. To them it is unthinkable that God would let men humiliate Him like that. There is only one explanation for it. Outrageous love. God loves us with outrageous love.

Considering these things, I believe we Christians are left with two challenges. One is to receive God’s outrageous love for us. I think at times we think God wants to be in our lives and bless in some small way. Or perhaps we think He is there in a way that is adequate. Yet, how many of us trust Him to be there in a way that is outrageous? I believe we have a second challenge and that is to show outrageous love to others. We are to give people the opposite of what they deserve in the same way God did so for us. In doing so we will come to understand His outrageous love for us all the more.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. A nd whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Gi ve to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. Matthew 5:38-42

When Jesus told His followers to go two miles when someone compelled them to go one, it was a reference to the supposed rights of a Roman soldier. Rome decreed that any Roman soldier could conscript anyone to carry his pack a mile.

Could you imagine being a Jew and having to carry a Roman soldier’s pack against your will? This was not just some guy who needed a little help. The Romans were pagans who conquered Israel. They had killed the Jews by the tens of thousands many by crucifixion. They brought such high taxes that common folks were having to sell their land to pay their debts. And one of these Romans comes, and he does not ask you to carry his pack a mile; he demands it. What do you do? Jesus said carry it two miles.

Jesus taught that the way we should meet outrageous injustice is with outrageous love. Yet, there was an edge to His teaching. In the kingdom of God the way to expose darkness is not with more darkness but with light. The more loving our response is to evil, the more our enemy’s hatred is exposed. The way to overcome our enemies is not by becoming like them but by doing the opposite of what they do to us.

Could you image being a Roman soldier and a hated Jew had just carried your pack not the required mile but two miles? Such a soldier probably would not lay down his sword, but he would be disarmed. He could never hate that Jew again.

Matthew 23 is a good example of what C.S. Lewis might have called Jesus’ untamed side. Here he gives some of the most scathing rebukes and strongest threats of the New Testament. He calls the Pharisees a brood of vipers, whitewashed tombs, and He said the blood of all of Israel’s prophets was upon them. What follows in Matthew 24 is Jesus’ chilling prophesy that the temple itself would be totally destroyed with not one stone left upon the other.

Why did the religious leaders of the first century get the harshest rebukes of all? Shouldn’t such words be reserved for the worst sinners such as the tax collectors and the prostitutes? I can only imagine one answer to these questions. Grace was coming in Jesus Christ, and it was a very dangerous thing to stand in its way. If you stood in the way of grace, you could get flattened.

Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees gives us an often overlooked lesson. We too are not to stand in the way of grace. We are to receive it fully. Often the person we refuse to give grace is ourselves. We are to give it fully to others. What God has received we are not to reject.

In the life of Christ we see the unfolding revelation of God’s grace. From the very beginning at the birth of Christ we can see that something extraordinary was happening. When the angels came to give the most important announcement ever given, whom did they go to? You would think they would go to the elite, the most important people in the land. Yet, they went to the shepherds. Shepherding was considered the most lowly profession a person could have. They went to the people you were not supposed to pay any attention to.

The unfolding of Grace continued in Jesus’ life. He gave people the love they were not supposed to get. People who were supposed to get wrath got blessing instead.

Jesus loved the people you were suppose to hate. In the gospels we often hear about how Jesus treated tax collectors and prostitutes. It is no accident that Jesus had many encounters with people such as these. In that day people considered the tax collectors to be the worst sinners of all, and the prostitutes were only slightly better.

Jesus touched people you were not supposed to touch. The Jews were very into what was clean and what was unclean. That which was unclean was not to be touched. It is hard for us to imagine, but in Jesus’ day people like the lepers, the blind, and the lame were considered God’s outcasts. Most thought their condition came either because they had sinned or their parents had sinned. People such as the lame, the blind, and especially the lepers were considered unclean, and they were not to be touched.

We think of Jesus’ laying hands on the sick as a method. Many of us lay hands on sick people today when we pray, because Jesus did so. What we miss is that when Jesus laid hands on the sick, it was not a technique or method. It was a statement. It was a statement of God’s acceptance. It was saying that which every one thought God hated was beloved. What everyone thought was unclean was clean. No doubt such a touch from Jesus not only healed the body but also the soul.

Jesus even blessed the gentiles. The gentiles were the dogs. They were ones most deserving God’s wrath. Yet, in Christ they got God’s blessing. Outrageous!

It is not hard to understand why Jesus’ love upset some people. Think of the person or persons you consider most evil. Maybe that person brought great harm to your life. Maybe you found their evil disgusting. What if they got the exact opposite of what they deserved? Would that upset you?

The grace of God was upsetting to some, but to others it was good news. It meant that outrageous love had come for them. God was going to give them he opposite of what they deserved.

Have you let outrageous love come for you? Have you let outrageous love come for your neighbor, or have you stood in its way?

Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”

She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”

John 8:2-11

The Pharisees were quite right in their understanding of the Law. The Law of Moses did command the death penalty for those caught in adultery. However, their hypocrisy is apparent from the beginning. Where was the man who was also caught in adultery? Did he not also deserve to die? Actually, this scenario revealed the common idea of the day that it was the woman’s fault when a man committed this sin. He was the victim!

Jesus handled this situation masterfully. The woman’s accusers ended up becoming the accused, and the woman left not with condemnation but acceptance. What do you think Jesus was writing on the ground? There were many transgressions that carried the death penalty under the Law of Moses. Even Sabbath breaking was a sin worthy of death. Do you suppose Jesus stooped at the feet of one of the accusers and wrote “Sabbath breaker”?

Many would consider it outrageous that Jesus would let this woman go unpunished. She should get what she deserved! Yet, people never seemed to get what they deserved when Jesus was around. They got outrageous love instead. Jesus also taught His followers to show outrageous love even the in face of great injustice.

In the next few posts we will take a look at the outrageous love of Christ. May we let God love us outrageously, and may love others with outrageous love.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Cor 3:18)

Through Jesus Christ relationship with God is restored. Once again our tie to God makes us who we are. The Christian life contains this great irony. We do not find out who we are by looking at ourselves but at Christ. Just as it was with Adam, our own specialness is revealed as we walk with God.

How should this change our lives? What do we do with our specialness in Christ? I believe we can learn a lesson from Old Covenant Israel. Israel was special. They were God’s chosen people. Yet, many thought that meant everyone else was not special. In fact, some Jews in the first century believed God despised the rest of humanity. One of the common names for the Gentiles was “dogs.”

The scriptures show that those who thought such things did not understand the purpose of God. Through Israel would come the Messiah who would die for the sins of the whole world. Israel was special, because through them would come specialness for the everyone.

We in our day are not like Old Covenant Israel. Their purpose has been accomplished. Yet, we are not to make the same mistake many of them did. Our job is not to judge the world but to convince the unbelieving of how special they are too. For the Savior has died for them.

Jesus said that He did come to condemn the world. I think many would say, “Don’t worry, when Jesus left, He gave that job to the church!” On the contrary, our purpose to tell the good news of the grace of God. You may have heard the expression, “I love my job!” I believe it is time for the church to once again fall in love with its job of teaching and showing the infinite love of Christ.

“Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

So he said, “Teacher, say it.”

“There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”

And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.” Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

The average Pharisee spent two days a week fasting, and they had exacting laws to make sure they paid their tithes to the penny. They did everything most thought a godly person should do. This woman, on the other hand, was probably a prostitute. She did things most thought you couldn’t do and have any standing with God. No one would call her godly.

Yet, this evil woman finds God’s acceptance and this good Pharisee receives a rebuke. How could Jesus possibly be on this woman’s side and not on the Pharisee’s? In this paradox, we see the difference between the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Pharisee’s definition of himself was wrapped up in his own deeds. In other words, He was self-defined. He did good, so he was good. And this woman did evil, so she was evil. Self-definition invariably leads to these sort of comparisons and judgments concerning ourselves and others. The result is separation from God and our neighbor. What kept this man from knowing Christ as his righteousness was the fact that he trusted in his own righteousness.

On the other hand, the woman found a quite different definition of who she was, didn’t she? She found acceptance apart from her deeds. Her worth was no longer found in herself but in Christ. She had become God defined. Likewise, God wants Who Jesus is and what He has done to be the measure of who we are. When we find Christ as our worth, we know union with God and fellowship with our neighbor.

This is one of the central aspects of what it means to be born again. It is not just going from being a bad person to a good person. If that is all it is, then the Pharisee would have been the good guy. It is not going from the evil side of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to the good side. It is finding a whole new tree. It is tying the definition of who we are to Who Jesus is and what He has done for us. In doing so, we walk with God as it was in the beginning, unashamed.

The issue of clothes or no clothes is not the real point here. Something changed dramatically when they partook of the forbidden tree. All of a sudden they looked at themselves and saw something different than they did before. Before their sin who they were was tied to God, Himself. They were created in God’s image. In God’s opinion they were a creation that was very good. No doubt when Adam walked with God, he saw how special His Creator was. Yet, in seeing the specialness of his Creator, he also saw his own specialness.

When Adam and Eve partook of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, somehow that tie was broken. When they looked at themselves, they no longer saw something that was good but something of which they needed to be ashamed.

I believe this was the birth of self-definition or self-righteousness. No longer was their worth found in God. It was now measured by their deeds, good or evil. It was if they had a change in their consciousness from righteousness consciousness to sin consciousness or from God consciousness to self-consciousness.

We might think that such ideas are difficult to understand, but we have all experienced them. Have you ever done something you knew you shouldn’t and felt shame before God. If it was bad enough, perhaps all you could see when you approached the Lord was your own unworthiness. What does the Lord do in such cases? It is as if He lifts our head and says “Look at Me!” When we look afresh at Who He is and the glory of the cross our, sin consciousness disappears. In an instant all we can see is that we are forgiven and that God has given us the gift of His own righteousness in Christ Jesus, and once again we walk with God unashamed.

Jesus did not come just motivate us to stop being evil and to start being good. He came to restore the tie to God. He came to once again tie who we are to who He is. In other words, His coming was the return of the Tree of Life. His works would make it so we could walk with God without fear or shame just as it was in the beginning.

I do a bit of preaching at Thorncrown Chapel, and some seem to think it is my job to motivate people to do good things and discourage them from doing bad things. You have heard the old joke. A man comes home from church, and his wife asks what the preacher talked about. “Sin” is the man’s reply. She asks what the pastor said about it. The man says, “He was against it,” and that is the end of the conversation. Shouldn’t a good preacher entice his congregation to do good by showing the great rewards of right doing? Shouldn’t he also use a healthy dose of fear to keep people from evil?

It may surprise you that I disagree. God, Himself, used this very same method with His people in the Old Covenant. If you read about the conditions of the Old Covenant, you will see that God promised His people unimaginable riches if they would obey His commandments. He also threatened unspeakable suffering if they disobeyed. Did it work? If you know the story of Israel, you will see that this method was a dismal failure. Paul called this the weakness of the Law. If it did not work for God, why do we think it will work for us? (Actually, God's intent for the Law was not to make us acceptable, but to lead us to Christ. The Law never justified, it only condemed.  See Galatians 3:24)

I believe good teaching or preaching leads to Christ not just to ideas about good and evil. In fact, teaching that does not point to Christ can lead to all sorts of evil even though its intent is to get people to do good. Consider the teaching of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, and you will see how this is possible.

In the next few posts we will examine the topic of self-definition and the tree of life. We will see that we human beings do not find righteousness by going from evil to good. Righteousness is a Person, the Person of Jesus Christ. When Who He is and what He has done defines who we are, we have come to the Tree of Life.

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3)

On the other hand, if I define abundant life as Christ, how does that effect my relationship with you? Will I envy you? No, because God has given Himself to me and to you. We both have life. We are both somebody. When we define abundant life as Christ, we open the door for love. If Christ is my life, I can love you whether you have more than me or less than me, because God has given true abundance to us both.

Moreover, in Christ both the rich and the poor, the famous and the unknown, the successful and the not so successful can know fullness, because life is not measured by any of these things but by the possession of the kingdom of God. It is when the measure of our life is found in the psuche that we find ourselves in an endless cycle of needing more.

If we define abundant life differently than God does, it will also hinder our relationship with the Lord. If we define it as “the stuff,” and God defines it as His Son, we are going to have all sorts of misunderstandings with God.

Have you ever asked “Why doesn’t God give me what I want? Can’t He see that I am unhappy? I need this and that to be happy.” Yes, God wants you to be happy, but He knows that only Zoe will make you happy. He seeks to give you that first. Yet, if you seek the things of the psuche first, you are in danger of asking God to step down into the level of lust. As James said, He simply will not do so.

Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Often the greatest material blessings come in our lives when we no longer need them. They come when we realize we don’t need a fancy car or house to be happy. We don’t need a big name to be somebody. Nor do we need a spouse that looks like the folks do on TV to be satisfied. We don’t need all these things, because we have Christ as our fullness. We don’t need anything more, because we have Him. Ironically, it is when we are content in Christ that “more” often comes, but even if it doesn’t, we still have everything.