He Did Not Conform

Be yourself, no matter what they say.

Recently I spent a lot of the day listening on repeat to a particular track. I love this version more than the original, which is saying something.

In listening to it, that line repeated at the end hung around – be yourself, no matter what they say. That is not possible if you don’t have a fairly good idea of who you are. It’s going to be a problem as well, because there are quire a number of sources that are eager to help out by shaping and defining you according to their values.

They will have it all laid out for you – this is what right and wrong is, this is how you’re supposed to behave, this is how we do it and this is how you’ll do it too. They will be persuasive too because they can appeal to celebs who are like that and before you know it a lot of your peers are like that too.

In the light of that, the more I look at it, the more amazing the life and ministry of Jesus is. Here he is relating to people from all walks of life and displaying the compassion and lovingkindness in human form of a reality that has been present since before creation. He has not problem coming alongside the downtrodden, the neglected and scorned of society. He mixes with all types at different levels of life. It’s amazing to watch. In it all, He does not conform.

He challenges the humanity around him to consider the truth of humanity in himself and reflect that. That’s why for all his good deeds the challenge of discipleship given in various forms remains a sticking point for crowds. It’s great being healed of diseases, but to then commit and devote yourself to this new true humanity – eating his flesh, drinking his blood, taking up your cross, loving your enemies, not saying a cross word to a brother – all of that and more is challenging.

This picture of the Kingdom is inviting and engaging to hearers looking for respite from the oppression of powerful forces. Yet hearing the nature of this Kingdom and who is welcome to be a part of it can strike some as almost counter-intuitive. So it would have been understandable if Jesus took things a little easy with folks and compromised here and there to make the message more palatable and marketable. But no. He did not conform.

That did not dampen his compassion or make him mute, on the contrary he showed the compassion all the more by speaking up for those who had been neglected by the society. He did not conform.

He was himself no matter what people said.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden