Basic Comprehension

Given that the name of this blog is Basic Comprehension, I wanted to share some things about what I've been thinking in my reading of the Bible lately.

I've been spending quite a lot of time reading and thinking about the gospels, in particular Luke's Gospel, which I really like and think is understudied by most churches, usually in favour of Mark and John.  I've also been reading and listening to quite a bit of stuff by Francis Chan.  Francis is not your conventional evangelical expositor.  He would not make a very good Sydney Anglican minister and he is welcomed in lots of circles that don't really get along with each other.  This surprises me, because the things he says are pretty tough. 

One of the things he does that I have been really challenged by is wonder whether Jesus meant what he said and said what he meant.  Jesus said some pretty crazily challenging stuff and Francis dares to think that he meant it pretty much as he said it.  To often I hear Jesus' words reduced to ideas where what he meant was... and the message of what he meant is quite different to what he actually said. 

The classic example is the rich young ruler in Luke 18 who comes to Jesus and asks him what he must do to inhert eternal life.  He obeys the law and seems to love God.  But when Jesus tells him to sell all he has, give it to the poor and follow Him, the man goes away sad because he loves his money too much for that.  Whenever I hear a sermon or explanation of this, the explanation seems to begin with 'Now, Jesus isn't telling us to sell ll we have and give it to the poor.  What the message really is..." and so we reduce it to a vague idea of the pursuit of God over money and feel good about continuing on living our lives as we are. 

As I've been reading through the gospels and wondering what Jesus realy wants of us when he says "Follow Me", I'm thinking more and more that he does ask some people to sell all they have and give it to the poor.  I need to be willing to be one of those people if it's asked of me.  (How you know you're one of those people is a different discussion)

I'm trying to read the gospels, especially, more and more with an attitude of 'What if Jesus means what he says and says what he means?  What would that look like in my life, and how is that different to how I live now?"  Or, if I think he doesn't mean what he says literally, why not, and am I just kidding myself so I can continue to live in sin?