Jesus Freaks
Quick question: Who wants to be a saint?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes a saint as someone who "practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace" (paragraph 828). In other words, in order to become a saint, you gotta be a freak!
Or how about St. Francis of Assisi? Here's a rich kid, very popular, going to all the parties and hangin' with his friends--until one day he gets sick on the way to the Crusades, comes home, and while he's recovering he hears God speak to him! From that point on, he gives up all his wealth, his status, even his family name! He goes around begging for his food and preaching the Gospel, helping lepers, and even goes to the Crusades--not to fight, but to preach to the Muslims! People thought he was a fool; people thought he was crazy; people thought he was a freak. We think of him as a saint.
What about Joan of Arc? This is a girl in her early teens, who starts hearing voices, and listens to them! She dresses like a boy, joins the French army, and leads it to victory (despite whatever French jokes you may have heard)! Well, the English, those people whom Joan's conquests beat down, didn't like that so much, so they captured her, put her on a mock trial on trumped up charges, and still she didn't deny her faith. She was burned at the stake for serving God, and now we call her Saint Joan of Arc!
I could go on and on about people who have lived lives so radically, freakishly devoted to Christ, but one more example will suffice. We all remember Blessed Mother Teresa. She's not a saint, yet, but she will be! She was a woman who was called by God to go to India, where Hinduism has set up a caste system. On the bottom of the castes are the "dalit", or the untouchables. These are the poorest of the poor, and you don't talk to them, or feed them, or touch them. You don't acknowledge them at all! Unless, that is, you are a Christian--specifically, a small, in-your-face woman named Mother Teresa! She left everything that she had behind and went to India to minister to these people. Why? Because in their suffering faces, she saw the suffering Face of Christ!
The Bible talks about people like these. In Hebrews chapter 11, it talks about the Old Testament Saints, commending their faith and devotion. The chapter concludes with these words:
The bridge of the song asks us,
Have a freakish Christmas!
God bless!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes a saint as someone who "practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace" (paragraph 828). In other words, in order to become a saint, you gotta be a freak!
Jesus FreakAll of the thousands of saints have this one thing in common: They were freaks! They were not normal in the eyes of the world! Think about it: the guy that the song talks about in the second verse--Here's a guy who lives in the desert, in camel skin, on a diet of locusts and honey, telling people that the Messiah is coming and they need to repent. The authorities didn't like that so much, and he got his head chopped off! Now we know him as Saint John the Baptist.
DC Talk
Separated, I cut myself clean
From a past that comes back in my darkest of dreams
Been apprehended by a spiritual force
And a grace that replaced all the me I've divorced
Saw a man with a tat on his big fat belly
It wriggled around like marmalade jelly
It took me a while to catch what it said
'Cause I had to match the rhythm
Of his belly with my head
'Jesus Saves' is what it raved in a typical tattoo green
He stood on a box in the middle of the city
And claimed he had a dream...
What will people think when they hear that I'm a Jesus Freak?
What will people do if they find out it's true?
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus Freak
There ain't no disguising the truth!
Kamikaze, my death is gain
I've been marked by my Maker, a peculiar display
The high and lofty, they see me as weak
'Cause I won't live and die for the power they seek
There was a man from the desert with maps in his head
The sand that he walked was also his bed
The words that he spoke made the people assume
There wasn't too much left in the Upper Room
With skins on his back and hair on his face
They thought he was strange by the locusts he ate
Y'see the Pharisees tripped when they heard him speak
'Til the king took the head of this Jesus Freak
What will people think when they hear that I'm a Jesus Freak?
What will people do if they find out it's true?
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus Freak
There ain't no disguising the truth!
People think I'm strange; does it make me a stranger
That my Best Friend was born in a manger?
People think I'm strange; does it make me a stranger
That my Best Friend was born in a manger?
What will people think when they hear that I'm a Jesus Freak?
What will people do if they find out it's true?
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus Freak
There ain't no disguising the truth!
What will people think [What will people think]?
What will people do [What will people do]?
I don't really care [What else can I say?]
There ain’t no disguising the truth [Jesus is the Way!]
Or how about St. Francis of Assisi? Here's a rich kid, very popular, going to all the parties and hangin' with his friends--until one day he gets sick on the way to the Crusades, comes home, and while he's recovering he hears God speak to him! From that point on, he gives up all his wealth, his status, even his family name! He goes around begging for his food and preaching the Gospel, helping lepers, and even goes to the Crusades--not to fight, but to preach to the Muslims! People thought he was a fool; people thought he was crazy; people thought he was a freak. We think of him as a saint.
What about Joan of Arc? This is a girl in her early teens, who starts hearing voices, and listens to them! She dresses like a boy, joins the French army, and leads it to victory (despite whatever French jokes you may have heard)! Well, the English, those people whom Joan's conquests beat down, didn't like that so much, so they captured her, put her on a mock trial on trumped up charges, and still she didn't deny her faith. She was burned at the stake for serving God, and now we call her Saint Joan of Arc!
I could go on and on about people who have lived lives so radically, freakishly devoted to Christ, but one more example will suffice. We all remember Blessed Mother Teresa. She's not a saint, yet, but she will be! She was a woman who was called by God to go to India, where Hinduism has set up a caste system. On the bottom of the castes are the "dalit", or the untouchables. These are the poorest of the poor, and you don't talk to them, or feed them, or touch them. You don't acknowledge them at all! Unless, that is, you are a Christian--specifically, a small, in-your-face woman named Mother Teresa! She left everything that she had behind and went to India to minister to these people. Why? Because in their suffering faces, she saw the suffering Face of Christ!
The Bible talks about people like these. In Hebrews chapter 11, it talks about the Old Testament Saints, commending their faith and devotion. The chapter concludes with these words:
These were men who through faith conquered kingdoms, did what was upright and earned the promises. They could keep a lion's mouth shut, put out blazing fires and emerge unscathed from battle. They were weak people who were given strength to be brave in war and drive back foreign invaders. Some returned to their wives from the dead by resurrection; and others submitted to torture, refusing release so that they would rise again to a better life. Some had to bear being pilloried and flogged, or even chained up in prison. They were stoned, or sawn in half, or killed by the sword; they were homeless, and wore only the skins of sheep and goats; they were in want and hardship, and maltreated. They were too good for the world and they wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and ravines.Chapter 12 begins by bringing their example home to us:
With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running the race which lies ahead of us. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which lay ahead of Him, He endured the cross, disregarding the shame of it, and has taken His seat at the right of God's throne. Think of the way He persevered against such opposition from sinners and then you will not lose heart and come to grief. In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of bloodshed.We must be willing to follow Christ, even if that means that we have to sacrifice our coolness, or our popularity, or even our wealth. We must be willing to stick with Him, even if it costs us our freedom, or even our very lives. We must be willing to be Jesus Freaks.
The bridge of the song asks us,
People think I'm strange; does it make me a strangerFirst of all, is Jesus your best friend? If you can't honestly answer "yes" to that question, then something needs to change in your heart. Jesus said that He no longer calls us "servants", but "friends" (John 15:15), but right before that, He says that His friends do whatever He tells them (v. 14). Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to be a stranger for the One who was born in a Manger?
That my Best Friend was born in a manger?
Have a freakish Christmas!
God bless!
Labels: Christmas, Jesus, Saints, St. Andrew's, Virtue
posted by Gregory at 2:38 p.m.
3 Comments:
Matthew,
I'm fairly certain that Gregory was not meaning freak in the sense of a twisted, mentally unstable, or socially vacant personality. More than likely he was suggesting a freak as someone who acts on, reacts to, and initiates counter-cultural agendas while claiming, and proclaiming the Christian faith. Doing that, no matter how reserved one is in doing it, will always ring out as freakish to the watching world.
Was Pope John Paul the Great a Jesus freak? I'm willing to place the odds in his favour. Given the list of things he did, I'm fairly certain they are far enough outside of the world's modus operandii to be considered freakish. But, "here we go round the colloquial bush..."
Christopher J. Freeman
Thanks Chris.
Matt, John Paul the Great was a freak par excellence, in my opinion! I would have devoted a paragraph to him but then quickly realised that it would quickly become a full length post, or more, of its own!
Here we have a gifted actor, who instead of pursuing his talent, becomes a celibate priest (and celibacy, in our sex-crazed culture, is enough to brand anyone a freak!), who eventually becomes the Pope! He fatally wounded Communism in Europe, remained staunchly conservative in his theology, and spread the Gospel all over. He was old, but loved the youth. He was sick, but still strong and determined. He wrote volumes on why the world's atheistic, humanistic, materialistic philosophy was evil, and called us out of it, called us to fight against it!
Was John Paul the Great a freak? Maybe not to us, but then, we're freaks, too!
God bless!
Yeah. I had done that yesterday, and for whatever reason, when I hit post, I got the "Couldn't Find Server" page and lost it all. When I went back and hit "Recover Post" I got the first two paragraphs. I'll be retyping it, well, now.
God bless!
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