Jesus and Friends

"Jesus and Friends" is a TV show on the TV show, South Park.  Why does Jesus have a TV show on South Park?  Are the writers being sacrilegious?  Are the writers demeaning who Jesus was, i.e., why would the son of God have a TV show?  I don't think it's any of those things.  I think, by giving Jesus a TV show, the writers of South Park are saying that we wouldn't recognize him as the son of God, just as the first century Jews didn't.  We want to think that, if Jesus showed up at our church or at our front door, we would warmly welcome him.  I'm just not sure this is true.  The writers of South Park are saying that, if Jesus was alive today, he would need to introduce himself to us, because we would not recognize him for who He really is.

So, why didn't the Jews recognize him, and why wouldn't we?  First, the Jews thought that the Messiah would come on a white horse and liberate Israel from the Romans.  They were expecting someone who would exact worldly victory.  We think that, if Jesus came back, he would heap blessings on America--that He would make America the "shining city on the hill."  Instead, Jesus came and was killed by the religious people of his time.  The non-religious types, the Romans, actually tried to save Him, but the religious people wouldn't have it--Jesus was an affront to their view of God.  If Jesus was God, then there would be no earthly victory for Israel, no earthly victory for the religious people.  If Jesus came today, He wouldn't be about saving America--the religious people of America wouldn't like this or put up with it any more than the first century religious people did.

Second, Jesus hung around with the social outcasts.  He hung around with the tax collectors, the poor--the non-religious people.  If He came today, who would he hang out with--the religious people or the non-religious people?  Recently, I was attending a funeral with my daughter.  She wanted to prepare me to meet some of the young people that would be there.  She said:  "You know dad, there will be a transgender person, a friend of mine."  At the funeral, I met several of my daughter's friends and acquaintances.  They asked her whether she was going to sit with them or with her dad.  I overheard and asked why they didn't think I would sit with them.  "Oh, you probably wouldn't like us very much."  I am sure that I looked like just another religious person to them.  But, in God's grace, I got to have a nice chat with them.  It really brought home to me again how religious I can be at times.  Jesus did not come to found a religion or a church--Jesus came to bring solace to sufferers.  If Jesus showed up at our churches with persons of different sexual orientation, would we let Him in?  If Jesus showed up with Abraham (a man who offered his wife sexually to another man), with David (an adulterer and murderer), with the "rag tag" prophets, would we let Him in?