In an iconic scene in the American film classic "Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby," the eponymous main character is sitting at the dinner table with his family and best friend and offering a blessing before the meal. He (played by Will Ferrell) begins his prayer to "dear little baby Jesus." His wife interrupts him and demands that he not keep praying to a little baby because it is off-putting. He counters by declaring that he "likes the Christmas Jesus best!"
As a preacher, I like the Christmas Jesus best too. You don't get into nearly as much trouble as a preacher when you work with texts about mangers and shepherds as when you deal with laborers who come late in the day or being nice to unclean people. Grown up Jesus is a trouble maker. Preaching would be so much easier (if a little boring) if we could spend 52 Sundays each year in the romanticized gentility of the baby Jesus. At least you would think it would be easier.
The trouble is that even as a baby, Jesus was a trouble maker. His very birth was like poking the establishment with a sharp stick. And he kept going from there. The gentle Jesus is tempting, but not terribly faithful as a universal image of the one who turned the world upside down 2000 years ago and continues to today.
Jesus- baby, rebelling teenager, preaching young adult and resurrected Messiah- brings a troubling word into a hostile world. It is troubling to those voices who would seek to divide, demean and neglect our neighbors. It is a troubling voice for those who sit in a posture of self satisfaction knowing that their worldview is the only right and righteous one. And it is troubling to those of us who are in both of those camps. In our brokenness, we create a hostile world for the Word of God. Neighbor love is pretty far from our collective minds. Especially in these troubled times. However hostile the world becomes, Jesus comes right back with his eternal command to love God and love neighbor. Even at his most adamant, Jesus never stopped loving God's children- all of them. Even at our most anxious, we must not either.
The true gentleness of Jesus is found not in a romantic image of a cute little baby but in the willingness of God incarnate to rebuke and admonish a hostile world while never ceasing in his love for it. The antidote to the hostility that surrounds us is not retreat into a simple gentle image of Jesus but a re-commitment to the gentleness of Jesus' daring and demanding love.
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