Last week my buddy Dan Hinz asked a really great question on his blog. Essentially he was asking where would Jesus be if Christmas were to have taken place 25 years ago instead of 2008 years ago. It's a great question, and it reminded me of a recent conversation I had.
I was shooting a video interview with a 19-year-old agnostic named Charlie last week, and during the conversation he postulated that if Jesus were to come to earth today he'd be a homosexual. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I asked Charlie a couple of follow-up questions. What was fascinating was that he really wasn't saying anything about sexuality. Charlie pointed to Jesus' love of the outcast, the controversy Jesus always seemed to be generating and the way powerful people were threatened by his existence.
What was really shocking to me was the different ways we both saw both Jesus and homosexuals. To Charlie, homosexuals are people with specific values and burdens that set them apart. At least in that moment, in my head homosexuals were people who needed to change their behavior.
While I think there's truth in both views, it's important to ask which conversation Jesus would want to have first with a homosexual he was hanging out with. (and yes, if Jesus was being called a friend of prostitutes I really doubt he'd get too hung up on homosexuality) Maybe he'd be like the woman at the well and deal with sin head-on and in the moment. Check out the story here. Or maybe he'd be like he was with Zacchaeus and just play it cool. (read here)
In both stories people got upset with Jesus for him hanging out with someone he was not supposed to have been hanging out with. The gospel writers almost go out of their way to point it out. Sounds familiar to me.
What's scary is finding that, if you're honest with yourself, maybe you're becoming the wrong person in the story. The person wagging their finger instead of getting in the game. While speaking with Charlie I realized that all too often today Christians are way to quick to get hung up on the wrong thing. Sometimes it takes a 19-year-old agnostic to help to you see it in yourself.
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