John Fischer The Catch

Jesus was a Capricorn

He ate organic food

He believed in love and peace

And never wore no shoes

Long hair, beard and sandals

And a funky bunch of friends

Reckon we’d just nail him up

If he came down again

[Chorus:]

‘Cause everybody’s gotta have somebody to look down on

Prove they can be better than at any time they choose

Someone doin’ somethin’ dirty decent folks can frown on

If you can’t find nobody else, then help yourself to me

Eggheads fussin’ rednecks cussin’

Hippies for their hair 

Others laugh at straights who laugh at

Freaks who laugh at squares

Some folks hate the Whites

Who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan

Most of us hate anything that

We don’t understand

(lyrics by Kris Kristofferson)

Counterculture: A subculture whose values and norms of behavior deviate from those of mainstream society.

Jesus was countercultural. And because He lives today through the lives of those who follow Him, you could therefore say that Jesus is countercultural. His message was, is and always will be counter to the prevailing mainstream society. This is largely because what He represents and asks of us goes counter to human nature. This is not true just for certain people; it’s true for all of us with maybe one exception. The poorest of the poor may get it right away, after all they are the ones Jesus says are blessed.

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“You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28

The disciples were embroiled in a ego-battle over who would have the highest seat in heaven. The mother of James and John started it by requesting a place at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus for her sons, but as soon as the others found out, it turned into a sort of free for all. Jesus finally put a stop to this nonsense by putting the whole discussion at an entirely different level. He did this often. That is what you quickly discover when you study the red letters; Jesus brought a new perspective to just about everything.

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Righteousness. Justice. Peace. Mercy. Humility. Goodness. Faithfulness. Truthfulness. Compliance. Generosity. Forgiveness. Empathy. Sincerity. Trust. Lowliness. Inclusiveness. Defenselessness. Letting people in.

Where did these words come from? They come from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. These are either words Jesus uses or descriptive words to capture the essence of what Jesus taught. At any rate, they are close to His heart. That’s why I colored them red. If you want to be red letter, then you need to be comfortable with these qualities, and indeed, seeking to make them part of your life.

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“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matthew 20:16

Arnold is a classic example of the truth of this statement which Jesus repeated several times throughout His teaching in the red letters of the gospels (see yesterday’s Catch, “The Desecularization of Arnold”). Arnold knows what it is to be both first and last, and believe me, knowing what he knows now, he would choose last every time.

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Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:1-3

Arnold is 82 years old and an invalid. He’d been a cantankerous atheist since 1974 when he announced to his believing wife that he no longer believed in God — no longer believed there even was a God. It broke her heart, but she stuck with him and prayed for him for 44 years. Over all that time, Marie would warn her believing friends not to bring up God or anything about religion because it would immediately stop the conversation. If anything, it was going to take a quiet witness to win him over.

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Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell? Matthew 23:33

Some of the harshest words in the Scriptures come from the red letters of Jesus in the 23rd chapter of the gospel of Matthew. These gems of insult were reserved for the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees. He calls them, among other things: blind guides, fools, brood of snakes, hypocrites, whitewashed tombs, murderers of the prophets, and children of hell. No wonder the religious rulers wanted to kill Jesus. He didn’t mince any words with these people, and these scathing criticisms were proclaimed within the hearing of the people who looked up to them. That’s one of the reasons He was so cruel and public in His denunciation of these religious leaders — He wanted to break their control over the people. He wanted to set the people free from religious bondage. You “crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden” (23:4), and “you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either” (2:13). Continue reading →

What if the red letters and narrative of Jesus were all we had of the New Testament?  What if there were no epistles of Paul, Peter, James or John — just the gospels and Acts?  If all we had was Jesus, how would that change our perspective on things? What might be different?

I asked this question of C. McNair Wilson, our BlogTalkRadio guest Tuesday night, and he said two things. The first made me wonder, the second, for some reason, made me cry.

First he said it would be a great relief. It would be a relief because Jesus simplified things. He didn’t make it easier to do, mind you, just easier to understand what to do. For instance, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). So you can focus on doing two things, or you can learn and follow all the Law and the Prophets. Do the first and you will be fulfilling the second. That’s a great relief.

The second thing McNair said that would be true if we only had the red letters and narrative of Jesus, is that it would be more than enough.

I love the word of God. I love most of all the words of Jesus. To reduce the New Testament down to the red letters and have it be “more than enough” touches my soul deeply. Jesus is all we need. Have Jesus and you have the whole thing.

Bystanders listening to Jesus claimed that no one spoke like He spoke. Indeed. He said things no one had ever said before, or since. “I am the light of the world.” “You are the salt of the earth.” Who talks like this? The one who invented language, that’s who. The one who came from God and went back to God. The red letters stand alone. They form words that are forever fresh, arresting, mysterious, easy to grasp, and hard to understand. No one ever spoke like this man.

The words of Jesus are more than enough because we will never get to the bottom of what they mean. Just like we will never get enough of Jesus.

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message.” John 17:20

John 17 is the prayer of Jesus with your name in it. The entire chapter, start to finish, is Christ’s prayer for His disciples at the end of His ministry, and not only for them, “but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message,” which, by extension, would obviously be you and me. Thus everything meant for the disciples in this prayer is also meant for us.

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Here’s why we love the red letters: it’s as close as we can possibly come to walking with Jesus.

It’s the way He taught His disciples. They walked and they talked. That’s why the stories are about fig trees, and grape vines, and soil, and planting, and harvest, and camels, and sheep, and shepherds. They walked and Jesus talked about what they saw.

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