Jesus Was Different

Now, Jesus continued to be different throughout his life, especially when he began his ministry. He was not in the slightest bit predictable. He was too different. There are some core differences in Jesus that we simply cannot replicate. The first of those differences was that Jesus was sinless. Can you imagine someone being sinless? If you’re someone who was bothered by the seemingly-perfect kid in school, then you probably wouldn’t have liked Jesus either. He was perfect in every way, and people hated him for it. We, on the other hand, are sinful; being sinless is a kind of different that we cannot attain. Another big difference between Jesus and you and me is that Jesus claimed to be and was the Son of God. Not merely a child of God and not one of God’s unique creations, but the begotten Son of God. The word begotten is an english translation of the greek word monogenes, which means "pertaining to being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind." Jesus was not just a child of God, he was the unique one of a kind Son of the living God. Lastly, let’s address the main difference: Jesus was fully God. I once heard my friend Aidan refer to Jesus as “God in a bod.” I think he was onto something. While Jesus was fully human, at the same time he was fully God. This is another difference that we could never achieve. But my goal is not to talk about these kinds of obvious differences; I want to talk about the abnormally different things Jesus did that we can attain. Jesus did some pretty weird and unpredictable things throughout his ministry. Things like spitting in the dirt to make mud to rub on a blind man’s eyes and heal him. Who could have predicted that? The Jewish people thought that the Messiah would be a domineering King on a stallion, but he was a humble carpenter on a donkey from Nazareth, spitting in dirt from time to time. During his ministry, Jesus even said that he was homeless. So when I say that Jesus was different, I mean he was very different. He was so different that many of us would have chosen not to follow him. Over the course of this book, we’ll go over some very polarizing things that Jesus said and did. We will get to those stories soon, but first let’s get a good grasp on the fact that Jesus was different, and then we can look at our own lives and see if we, too, are living differently. I want you to hear this: BEING DIFFERENT ISN’T A BAD THING! Sure, it can be a bad thing, but it isn’t always. Being unique is usually what leaders look like; it’s what makes them stand out. To be different like Jesus is in fact the best thing. As we journey together in this book, I want you to see how Jesus was different and even weird at times. He stood out, but not in a prideful way. He was counter-cultural, counter-religious, and counter-traditional. Jesus was very punk rock in the way that he did things. Just read the sermon on the mount––it’s full of him sticking it to the man. Jesus says things like “you have heard this. Well, I tell you to do it differently.” He challenges not only our actions but our intentions. He wants our lives to be different all the way to the core. He wants our thoughts to be different. He wants our reactions to situations to be different. He even wants our dimenor to be different. We are going to look at the life that Jesus lived, as well as the things that he taught, in order to learn from him and hopefully shape our lives into a life that looks more like Christ Jesus––a life that looks different.