If "funny" is thought of in terms of strange, unusual, or other than what is expected, then almost everything we are told about Jesus' life falls into that category.
A baby born in a barn among the animals... attracting an unlikely mixture of humble shepherds and wealthy kings to come and worship him... bringing with them unsuitable gifts for a newborn... and finding him by means of a moving, magic star.
Though reared in the home of a tradesman, this precocious young carpenter boy, able to astound the learned priests in the temple...and answering his parents' inquiries in a manner that indicated wisdom and awareness far beyond that expected from an adolescent.
The many miracles attributed to him were hardly run-of-the-mill variety. Arriving too late to prevent his friend, Lazarus', death so calling him forth from his grave... establishing the first potluck by sharing just five loaves and two fish with the large crowd... rescuing the embarassed host who was short on wine at the wedding in Cana.. and making the blind see and the lame leap... hardly every day occurences.
He often surprised even those who knew him best... appearing to espouse Mary's laziness, at least in her busy sister Martha's eyes... singling out righteous Pharisees to condemn most harshly of all... while ¯offering tenderness and forgiveness to a woman of the streets... and choosing such unreliables to be his closest friends and disciples, some who would deny and betray him, and all of whom would leave him to agonize alone in Gethsemane's garden. Funny that one reared in a working man's home...a righteous man, said to be without sin himself... one whom some would equate with God...would take these perplexing stands and make such wrong choices.
And how strange that when he was about to be put to death with criminals, he entered a city where people cheered him with palm branches and shouts of "Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord"... A few moments of adulation sandwiched in between his suffering in the wilderness and his execution on the cross.
Easter is often mistakenly viewed as about new life and new birth. It is really about resurrecting to life that which though once real and vital, meaningful and alive, has been lost. It's about experiencing the impossible, or at least the unexpected. It's about despair and loss and death turning into hope and recovery and life. For Jesus, it was not about perpetual peace and sunshine and daffodils. It didn't happen in a vacuum, but rather followed tears and loss, betrayal and denial, aloneness and desertion, painful thorns and Golgotha itself. But it did come. Easter did happen, even then. And whether in the struggles and despairing Fridays of our personal lives, or those of our family and friends, we too can be hopeful... for there is still the sure promise of Easter.
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