Was Jesus Seeker Sensitive? - Part 1

Of late, I have become convinced that Jesus was anything but seeker sensitive: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34). He repeatedly admonished individuals and groups to give up their wealth, religious traditions, vocations, and family relations to follow him. There was no 1,000 seat amphitheater in Capernaum where Jesus attempted to attract to himself droves of religious explorers with his 1st century beatnik/hipster style and his life-of-the-party miracles. There is no evidence in Scripture that Jesus registered visitors during the Sermon on the Mount, or handed out coffee outside the synagogue (though feeding the 5,000 was a sweet "First Impression"), or called church members when their attendance or giving declined. Jesus presented and embodied the in-breaking of a new reality - "the Kingdom of God has come near." This was not a new religious ideology or philosophical summae; it was a claim on the nature of existence and being, a claim on reality itself. Jesus quite simply gave his life to proclaiming, modeling, and ushering in a new reality. His call to follow is not merely a call to right thinking or right behavior; it is a call to a new reality characterized by peace, love, wholeness, life, repentance, forgiveness, grace, sacrifice, justice, truth, and reconciliation. One cannot make more palatable or inviting or inoffensive the truth or nature of reality itself. It is what it is. Jesus proclaimed, modeled, and ushered in a new reality that is what it is and no cross-less worship center, skinny jeans, or double latte will change that.