Jesus reached the rejected…
“When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’” Luke 19:5-7
As soon as Jesus started bringing converted call girls, puss-oozing sickies and cultural rejects into youth group, many pretty and pristine Bible-toting, Scripture-quoting teenagers would evacuate the premises. Soon the elders would call a meeting, and, well, you know what happens after that.
4. Jesus would be fired because He would confront the status quo in the youth group and church at large.
“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts, he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!’ His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’” John 2:13-18
Imagine the scenario, Jesus flipping tables in the church foyer and screaming, “Why have you turned my Father’s house into a den of robbers?” Sure, our churches aren’t selling over-priced livestock for temple sacrifices. But many of them are selling the fattened calves of consumeristic Christianity that caters to self and not service to God. You wonder how many Sunday school classes Jesus would interrupt and ask, “Why don’t we get out of here and go down to the local shelter together? We can feed the poor, clothe the hungry and share the gospel. I can teach you the lesson in the church van on the way back.”
This would lead to the inevitable…“Our leadership team is headed in a different direction” conversation.
5. Jesus would be fired because His hair would be way too long to be taken seriously.
Below the ears is risky but below the shoulders? Come on! If you can’t trust a man to visit the barber once in a while, can you trust him to run a youth ministry? I didn’t think so!
