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Crazy About
Jesus
By Will McCabe
One day a student asked me in one of my high school classes, “Will, do
you live in your own little world?” She meant this as an insult, but
was surprised when I responded with, “yeah, and it’s a lot better than
the world here.” I immediately turned to one of my friends and started
talking as if nothing happened.
Needless to say, that particular student and I were not friends. I
accepted something about myself long before I talked to that girl: I’m
crazy. Sounds like a scary thing to admit, doesn’t it? But before you
start calling psychiatrists and the men in white to throw me in a
padded room, hear me out.
Yep, some people already knew it, and I bet they’re high-fiving each
other, boasting in how right they were. Little do they know that I’m
right there with them, high-fiving them, too.
See, people so often see craziness as such a negative thing. Why? When
we think crazy, we think of a guy frothing at the mouth, claiming he’s
the Queen of England, or we think of Batman’s arch-nemesis: Joker.
But what does it mean to be crazy? The Oxford dictionary says crazy can
mean “out of the ordinary.” Insane can be described using words such as
“absurd” and “extreme.” My favorite idea behind insanity is that it is
against the norm. It isn’t seen as being normal or proper or what is
acceptable. People who know me very well know that I don’t always fit
in with normal, proper, or acceptable.
But here’s the thing, what if I told you that we weren’t meant to be
normal, to be sane? What if we are supposed to be ones which make
people tilt their head like a confused dog and say “that kid ain’t
right”? Because do you know that term also fits the same definition as
being against the norm, is extreme, and out of the ordinary?
Christianity.
Before you start writing your angry letters, think about it. How did
outsiders feel about Jesus? John 10:20 says “Many of them said, ‘He is
demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?’” (NIV)
There’s more. Matthew 9 discusses how the Pharisees thought he had bats
in his belfry when seeing Him heal a man on the Sabbath and eating with
tax collectors. And who could forget about when Jesus rampaged through
the temple courts, flipping over tables and chairs and throwing out
those who tried to make a quick buck in a holy place? How could anyone
follow this insane madman?!
There’s other times in the Bible we can see insanity. In the book of
Judges (Chapters 6-8), we learn of a man named Gideon. Even though he
was a meek little squirt, God had him lead an army of just a few
hundred people to defeat an army of thousands. We can look at the early
Israelites and how they took down Jericho. They didn’t do the rational
thing and attack the city. Instead, they walked around it. Not once,
but did so for several days. Then, on the final day, they screamed at
the top of their lungs, just as God commanded them, and as the Sunday
school song goes: the walls came tumbling down.
Does that sound normal to you? But here these people are, following
God. John the Baptist, one of the greatest prophets and speakers ever,
was one of the craziest people in the Bible. Here’s a man that lived in
the wilderness, ate wild honey and locusts (sounds yummy, doesn’t it?),
and wore camel hair. He probably looked like the kind of person you see
on the corner of a street that screams about the end of the world
approaching. He was so crazy that he stood by his faith, even to the
point of imprisonment and decapitation.
Paul describes it this way in 1 Corinthians 3:19-20: “For the wisdom of
this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the
wise in their craftiness- and again, The Lord knows the reasons of the
wise, that they are futile.” (HCSB).
When we are asked to be Christians, to follow Jesus, are we supposed to
follow the ways of the world? No. We aren’t supposed to follow
“conventional wisdom” or do what the world tells us is acceptable. We
shouldn’t look for approval from others, what good are they? They don’t
control our future, they don’t have control over us after we die.
Matthew 10:28: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot
kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul
and body in hell.” (NIV)
We are to follow Jesus’ example, and if His devotion to God was so
great that people thought He was cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, then by golly
so should we. One of my Biblical heroes is Isaiah. In Isaiah 6:8, God
asks out loud "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” Isaiah,
before even finding out what it is he is being asked to do, replies
“Here I am. Send me.” That’s crazy! That’s how devoted Isaiah was.
Instead of doing what the world wants and live a “normal” or “safe’
life, I prefer to follow the Being that loves me so much He gave His
one and only Son as a Living Sacrifice to save me from my sins, all
while I was still sinning and rejecting Him.
And not only that, but I’m going to be so devoted to this Being that
people will think it’s odd the way I look, the way I act, the things I
talk about, and the decisions that define who. I. am. Even other
Christians will question me, saying I’m too extreme or out there or say
I’m not making sense. I’m so crazy, that I follow this Being, this God
of Love and live a life that is absolutely irrational to the world. Are
you this crazy?
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