Jesus was different. He wasn’t an establishment-person. He did not maintain the status quo. He did not approve just any and everything that makes people feel good about themselves. He came into a world of acceptable behavior, comfortable traditions and established cultural values – just like our age. He started taking the system apart. Ripped at its foundation. Turned its values upside down and inside out. Jesus was the most countercultural character who walked planet. He followed an alternative lifestyle. On the edge. Beyond imagination. Shocking and offensive.
Here’s the real shock – he expects us to live his way. In fact, we’re not living unless we do. We’re not being fully human unless we follow Jesus’ alternative lifestyle. He loves so much that he calls us to live the only way that frees us to be what God created us to be.
Mark 9:30-31. Jesus was teaching his followers some alternatives to the lifestyle they and we usually follow. From here to the end of chapter, he challenges to adopt four alternatives.
People prefer to keep safe. Stay in our comfort zones, taking care of ourselves. Not Jesus. Mark 9:31-32.
Jesus’ alternative to safety is risk. He put himself on the line. He knew it would cost his life. Someone would turn against him and he would die. But he would gain the final victory – resurrection.
Jesus didn’t stay in the comfort zone of Heaven or even religion. He chose the alternative – death on a cross. The reason for that was to ransom many (Mark 10:45). He took the risk of suffering and death to pay for the spiritual freedom of guilty sinners. Yours. Mine. Everyone’s. Jesus did not play it safe – he gave up his life so we can be free.
His disciples didn’t understand and were afraid to ask him to explain. Why were they afraid? Probably they figured out what his betrayal and killing meant for them. He was their Leader – if he dies, their lives are at risk. Better not ask, maybe it will go away. They sensed he was leading them out of safety. Of course, he was, and still does. He leads us out of comfort zones. He calls us to this alternative lifestyle: putting ourselves on the line instead of staying safe.
The other alternatives show ways that’s put into practice.
Mark 9: 33-37. The status quo lifestyle is competition. Those disciples were masters of it. “I’m a good disciple.” “Maybe so but I’m the best.” “Nuh-uh! My discipling is way better!” Later Jesus asked about their conversation. They played dumb. We do, too. “Me – think I’m better? No way.” Come on, get real. Sure we compete. Don’t you think your opinion is closer to being right than anyone else’s? We compete in a thousand ways. It’s what made America great!
Jesus’ alternative to competition is service. Not being first – not getting attention, not getting my way, not being taken care of. Instead – being last, being a servant, a servant to everyone. Jesus drove it in deep – be a servant to children, the smallest and least powerful – the ones who can’t do anything for you.
Another way the system works is with cliques, clubs, loops, networks, denominations, elitism, races. If you are like me, then I like you, and we can hang out. If you’re not like me, please go away.
Jesus’ alternative to this rejection is acceptance. Mark 9:38-41.
The establishment way of living is to stay with your own kind, your own group and reject everyone else. Here’s a major flaw in the American church system – we require people who come in to become like us, and if they don’t, we can’t have fellowship and unity and peace with them. Jesus shattered that value system. Give a cup of water to people who are different – make a way to accept each other. He brings all of us together in himself.
Now, all traditional lifestyles are built on one common premise. Whether it’s living as a homosexual or neo-nazi or democrat or republican or red-neck or city-slicker or goth or geek or cowgirl or conservative or liberal, whatever, the systems people live by look worlds apart, but they’re built on the same principle. Self-indulgence. Whatever feels right and good to me, that’s what I’m going to indulge. Here’s Jesus’ alternative to that: Mark 9:42-49.
Okay, start slicing and dicing. No, he’s not telling us to eliminate people or mutilate our bodies. He’s telling us to stop accommodating whatever causes us to get it wrong. Stop indulging our sinful impulses. His alternative to self-indulgence is brokenness. Instead of embracing then excusing our self-centeredness, our rebellion against God, we need to admit it’s wrong and remove it.
The status-quo says be yourself, follow whatever feelings and thoughts you have, celebrate your inner drives. Jesus’ alternative says weep, mourn, wail because there is something wrong with me. Go to whatever extent is necessary to change. Whatever is in me that has no part in my relationship with God and new life in Christ must be removed. “Everyone will be salted by fire.” God will put everyone through a refining process, so we will see the wrong that’s in us and come to a brokenness over it and get rid of it.
Jesus finished his talk about this alternative lifestyle in Mark 9:50.
Having salt in you means having a unique, special character. You will agree with Jesus to live by risk instead of safety, by service instead of competition, by acceptance instead of rejection, by brokenness instead of self-indulgence – the most unique way of living, for sure. And it means you can “be at peace with each other.” You can have a life that’s new and that brings loving fellowship with others – the most alternative lifestyle of all.
By the time Jesus had finished living and teaching his alternative lifestyle, his disciples had not gotten it. The night before he was arrested and executed they argued, again, about which one was the best disciple (Luke 22:24). They didn’t get it. Didn’t live it. Then something happened. Jesus was betrayed and killed. He did rise from the dead. Eleven of those men and several others committed themselves to him and his way of life. Then the Spirit of God entered their lives and changed them. Jesus’ alternative lifestyle became theirs. It takes inside change. We will be establishment, status-quo, world-system dominated until we allow Christ to actually change us inside by his Spirit. And at the end of that long process, we will be what God created us to be.