Just Give Me The Fluffy Pink Jesus

Every now and then, circumstances seem to push me to "hurry up and put that thought down in writing." Over the past week, a combination of David, TJ and Jesus triple-teamed me, so here we are.

Everyone knows Jesus, but who are David and TJ?

The American

David is a friend of mine from college who has been living in Turkey for nearly twenty years. Now, Turkey is not the most dangerous nation in the world, but in my generation there is an immortalized quote from that 70s movie Airplane: "Joey, have you ever been in a... in a Turkish prison?"

No, Joey has not been to a Turkish prison. And the humor, of course, involves the fact that that nobody else wants to, either.

But my friend David has been in Turkish prisons (note the plural). The Turkish government (Turkish and international laws be damned) doesn't like what David is doing in Turkey. Which is?

Oh, just faithfully living as a servant of Jesus Christ in Turkey.

That's a crime? Yes, Joey. Well, No. But the government wants it to be.

(Internet links go stale eventually: Here's a portion of the article...)

U.S. Evangelist in Turkey Detained, Ordered To Be Deported

Turkish authorities have detained a U.S. evangelist and ordered him held for 30 days without charge ahead of deportation, sources said.

Declaring David Byle “a danger to public order,” authorities in Turkey took him into custody on April 6 after asking him to report to the immigration office in Istanbul regarding his application for a residency permit.

The Turk

So David is a very unwelcome American living in Turkey. TJ the Turk? I met him through circumstances only God could arrange. That story for another day.

Suffice it to say that David, TJ and I got together several times while I was visiting David in Turkey in 2002. TJ "escaped" his homeland not too long after that, however, and he has no desire to ever live in Turkey again.

One other thing to know: TJ grew up in a Muslim home but abandoned that faith system a long time ago. He very much loves Jesus, but does not call himself a Christian. (And since so many Christians today are voting for Donald Trump, who can blame him? But we digress.)

So let's get to the point of our story.

Over the years, TJ has continually lamented the fact that David is still living in Turkey. TJ is of the firm opinion that a father of five has no business throwing himself under a Turkish bus.

And since TJ is not a Christian, that's an understandable opinion. What I keep trying to explain to TJ, however, is that David puts Jesus first in his life, and for that love he is willing to risk everything.

Sharing Jesus in Turkey is exactly what David loves to do. (Yes, people do sometimes get killed for that sort of thing in Turkey.)

TJ just can't get his mind around that idea.

...And let's face it. Many professed Christians share TJ's perspective.

It's one thing to profess affection for Jesus. Another to claim to follow him. But it's an act of lunacy to put oneself in physical danger for Jesus. That, my friends, is taking this religious thing a step too far.

With all that as backdrop, a brick hit me in the head a few days ago as I read a commentary on the gospel of Mark. For the first time I realized that this debate between TJ and David is an echo of another much older one that, come to find out, is pretty similar.

The Jew

Mark 3:20-21
Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

So I've read that passage many times before, but here's the difference. I always figured his family really did think Jesus had lost his mind. On this pass, thanks to a commentary, I read those words differently.

The NIV Bible Background Commentary explains...

Because false teachers were sometimes thought to be inspired by demons and the official penalty for misleading God's people this way was death (Deut 13:5; 18:20), Jesus' family had reason to want to reach him before the legal experts did.

Is there any indication from Mark that this is what they were worried about? Let's read the next verse.

Mark 3:22
And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

Does TJ really think David is insane? No! He just thinks that David is behaving irresponsibly, throwing his life away under a Turkish bus.

Did Jesus's family really think he was insane? No! But I bet they did think he was throwing his life away under a Jerusalem bus.

TJ is a wonderful person, and he really cares about David. He just doesn't want David to get hurt. Jesus' family had similar concerns.

So what's the right response? Read on.

Mark 3:31-35
Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

“Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

The right response is this: Radical faith requires radical actions. Even if people think you're behaving irresponsibly.

Fluffy faith likes a fluffy Jesus. But Jesus wasn't fluffy. Jesus was radical.

More from that commentary:

"Thinking of one's coreligionists as brothers and sisters was common; Respecting older persons as mothers or fathers was also widespread. But allowing ties in the religious community to take precedence over family ties was unheard-of in Judaism..."

Doesn't that sound exactly like Christianity in the West today? Brothers, sisters... lovey-dovey and a fluffy pink Jesus. But nobody should risk their lives or the lives of loved ones for any of this stuff! Family first!

But Jesus doesn't see it that way. He begs to differ. Will we hear his voice?

The commentary continues:

"Jesus is not rejecting his earthly family althogether but stating his priories, because they want to declare him mentally incompetent to rescue him from the dangers he is sure to face from religious authorities if he continues on his present path.

So the question is this: Which Jesus do we want? Fluffy Pink? Or Radical? The path we take will likely make it clear how we decided on that question.

I cracked open Facebook this morning and saw this post.

"Yeah," I thought to myself, "I should write that blog."

With that very thought rattling in my head, I then went upstairs, where I heard my wife praying a child out the door to school. "And thank you Jesus, for bringing David home to his family."

OK, maybe get it down today?

So here I am, wrapping up the story of Jesus' choice. Of David's choice.

What, my friends, will we choose?