Could It Be That Jesus Got It Wrong?

Occasionally the attitudes of some churchgoing people can seem to imply that maybe Jesus got a few things wrong. What you might say? Well, you know all the stuff we associate with ‘doing church’ properly. For example it is noted that Jesus didn’t start or belong to any ‘church’, or denomination, build a ‘proper’ church building, he wasn’t on any rosters or leadership teams. He didn’t attend any church services either (although he dropped into the Jewish synagogue occasionally), nor did he meet in a ‘home group’. Most problematic of all perhaps, he didn’t hang out with the ‘right’ people, or in the ‘right’ places. In fact he seemed to prefer the dregs of society, the prostitutes (he even let one become a member of his gang would you believe!), and those traitor Jews working for the Roman tax office and those foul, and lets face it ugly, leper people. Indeed he seemed to have a special ‘thing’ for social outcasts, the ‘not nice’ people who we know he shouldn’t have touched with a barge pole.

Contrast this with how we know ‘church’ should be done, you know, ordered services in special buildings, where you are very unlikely to see too many prostitutes, or ne’er do wells, on the door roster. We of course know that ‘proper’ churches have organs, bands, songs, well crafted services, ‘proper’ ministries in set places and at set times, together with weekly Bible studies in comfortable homes. In contrast, Jesus’ ministry seems to have none of these but rather been random, mostly frequenting public places and mixing with all the riff raff of society. He even had a chat with one of those really ‘on the nose’ Samaritans, and a woman at that, on one occasion. Also rather than being one of the respectable religious ‘in crowd’ he seemed to have really got stuck into them, their failure to understand God, their values and religious practices on many occasions.

So maybe Jesus did get a few things wrong, because he didn’t set up ‘proper’ church structures, or organise convivial social outings with church friends ‘just like him’, and worse he constantly mixed with the ‘wrong’ people, the untouchable dregs of society. Couple this with no ‘church’ attendance, hymn singing or roster duties, and basically having no time for the ‘nice’ religious church people: surely he must have got it wrong?

Didn’t he?