Hello Everyone
Jesus didn’t fit the mould. When I was a kid, my Grandmother had expectations that I would be the typical little girl who would sit and play with dolls, quietly brushing their hair, making them look pretty and getting them ready for the dainty little tea party to be hosted on the rolling lawns in our resplendent garden. Boring! All things “pink”, just wasn’t that appealing. I was very much a little girl, made in God’s image, but that didn’t mean I had to live in the typical, pre-written script for girls. For me, exploring our local bush, playing by the creek, paddling in the billabongs, riding our bikes on the bush tracks, constructing our three-story cubby house up in the tree, or playing dress-ups as Batman and Robin and saving the world was living the dream. My Grandmother finally gave up when the life-sized doll she gave me suffered numerous crashes after I turned her pram into a speed racer so she could enjoy the thrill-seeking rides up and down the driveway which became her speedway. I gave that doll a much more adventurous life that was expected. I was a little girl with a heart for adventure and I just didn’t fit my Grandmother’s mould.
As we read the Gospel stories, we see that Jesus didn’t fit the mould (have a read through one of the Gospels). The Israelites had waited 400 years for the coming Messiah and during that time they had scripted a role for this coming King and formed expectations about His rule. They were expecting a Davidic king who would restore Israel by launching a military campaign that would annihilate the grip the Romans had on these displaced people. They expected the Kingdom of God would belong exclusively to them as part of their inheritance. But Jesus didn’t fit the mould. He did not conform to their script. His miracles, His claim to be God and the Kingdom, which was inaugurated in Him as all inclusive, confirmed to the Jewish leaders that Jesus didn’t fit the mould. Rather, Jesus lived out of the Kingdom script as He re-established God’s authority on earth, casting a new net of salvation that would include all of humanity. Jesus could not afford to fit their mould, for to do so would have diminished His mission and destroyed the redemptive plans of God for the entire world (you and I included).
Today, there is also a cultural script; a script that seeks to redefine God and reframe our humanity. Just like Jesus didn’t fit the mould, we too are called to live counter-culturally; to live out of the Kingdom script. Just like Jesus, we must not compromise our mission as God’s representatives by being comfortable with the script of the world or a mould that invites us to fit into the shape of an existence devoid of the one true King. As we live out of the Kingdom script and embody the Kingdom values, we tell a different story, a story of hope and truth. As Jesus showed the world what God was like, we too must show the world who Jesus is and what He is like.
So, friends, get into your “Jesus mould” today.
Best days to come.
Wen