Born again

You must be born again.

What kind of talk is that? 

And who is he to question anyone’s parentage.

His lineage isn’t exactly squeaky clean.

You must be born again.

I suppose he has demonstrated that he can perform miracles.

But being born again?

Surely, even for him, that’s stretching it a bit too far – literally.

He comes away with some bumpers, that Jesus.

Why can’t he just talk straight

instead of all this confusing language?

Camels going through the eye of a needle.

At least that conjured up an amusing image.

But – you must be born again.

I certainly don’t want to picture that in my mind.

And maybe that’s the problem.

It all comes down to what we can imagine and what we can explain.

That’s the world from which we operate.

But this Jesus doesn’t seem to operate from the same world as us.

He seems to be living on a different planet.

I mean he’s so touchy feely.

So emotional.

You know he’s even cried in public.

What kind of a man is that?

But I think that’s what confuses us so much.

We deal with what we can prove.

With what we can argue and debate and work out logically.

That doesn’t seem to work with the stuff he’s throwing at us.

So what to do?

Dismiss him as a disturbed alien?

But he’s good entertainment value.

I’d be reluctant just to write him off.

And, in spite of his unorthodox beginnings – I’m not sure that he quite made it into the honeymoon baby category – in spite of that, he comes from good stock.

Respected folks, orthodox, not a line of nutters.

So his emotional side that he insists on flouting must have come from somewhere.

Must have some legitimacy.

Its just not our way.

Not what we’re used to.

Maybe that’s why there’s so many women following his every move.

Its not so much his looks.

It’s the fact that here’s a guy not frightened of his emotions.

Not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve.

So, when he talks about being born again, maybe we need to get beyond the pictures.

Get beyond the logic nonsense.

And think of it in a whole different way.

A whole new concept.

Whooaa.

That’s scary.

Having to engage with our emotions and not just our brains.

That’s really scary.

Letting his words filter into our hearts and not just our heads.

That’s really, really, scary.

Don’t know if I can handle that.

Don’t know if I want to be changed that much.

He’s asking a lot.

And maybe that’s the crux of the matter.

Liz Crumlish 2009