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Jesus often made radical remarks. If you are slapped across the face, offer them your other cheek for another whack. If you want to be truly rich, give everything away. And His one-word invitation: Die.
These ideas as well as others made some people think Jesus was not sane. As if claiming to be God wasn’t enough—He continues to teach bizarre things, they thought.
Some of Jesus’ most unsettling claims are packed into the Beatitudes, the opening to His well-known Sermon on the Mount. He had spent recent days touching the lepers, the orphans, the prostitutes—all penniless and powerless. All rejects.
The religious elite were disgusted with Jesus’ distasteful acts, embracing the filthy outcasts. But even this intense disdain did not prepare them for the subversive words Jesus was about to speak.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The realities of the first century were little different than today’s. Power was king. Social status, wealth, and political alliances were all hoarded away to amass one thing: power.
Jesus’ words unnerved the elite. He said it was the poor in spirit, the destitute, the helpless, who were citizens of heaven’s kingdom. It was the outcasts, like the ones He had just healed and caressed, who were blessed.
Let's embrace radical thinking. The most radical of anything He said, was that He was going to come live with you if you invite Him in. Have you made that invitation? Just give thanks for what He did and say that you believe who He said he was. That will make you a radical thinker.
Warmest Light Everyone!
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