As a progressive Christian, I believe there are many names for God and many ways to a loving God; this article reflects one of those ways. Take from here what works for you. Celebrate life with joy and peace!
In Mark 6:3 we read, “And they took offense at him.”
Somebody’s hot buttons were being pushed! We all have hot buttons. What are your hot buttons? You know the feeling of intense emotion that explodes within us when one of our hot buttons is triggered.
It seems like we live in hypersensitive times where it doesn’t take much to light someone’s fuse. Many books have been written to help people take responsibility for managing their hot buttons and to learn how not to hit the hot buttons of others.
Hot buttons are part of the human experience and they take place in the workplace, within peer groups, on the playground, with family and in communities of faith.
My brother David and I used to be master button pushers with each other. We are 16 months apart and all I can say is, “My poor mom!” I’ll never forget saying something to get him going, and he grabbed a shoe to throw at me, I ducked, and it went through the living room window!
I also have my personal set of hot buttons – when I see people littering – it drives me crazy!
I think one characteristic of Jesus’ life and ministry is that he pushed a lot of hot buttons, especially the hot buttons of the religious and political elite. In fact, Mark records a story of Jesus going to the synagogue on the Sabbath and there was a man with a withered hand there. Like vultures, the religious leadership was poised to pounce if Jesus departed from the strict Sabbath laws.
Well, he did and in a dramatic way too! He called the man front and center, and he restored his hand. Mark tells us the religious leadership responded by initiating a conspiracy to destroy him. I think Jesus pushed a very volatile hot button!
Mark also says that Jesus was angered and grieved by their hardness of heart. In other words, it looks as if they pushed Jesus’ hot button as well.
Jesus also triggered the hot buttons of those closest to him; his hometown neighbors and even his immediate family. In Luke 4 when Jesus was visiting his hometown, people became so infuriated with him that they drove him out of town and even attempted to throw him off a cliff! Some people get irrational and dangerous when their hot buttons are pushed.
The last TV I bought I got an upgrade: HD – high definition! Today, the word, “definition” has come to be associated with optics and video, and it means “sharpness of image.” The higher the definition or resolution, the sharper, clearer, more precise is the image. The higher the resolution the better and more expensive!
Using that analogy, the religion of Jesus’ time also had its version of HD (high definition), and it had nothing to do with computers, TV’s and smart phones. Theologian J. Holub says that it had to do with things they considered sacred. The religion of Jesus’ day had very clear, sharp, precise definitions of what was sacred and holy and so do we!
When Jesus came along and pushed their holy hot buttons, he provided new definitions that changed the resolution of their sacred things and they took offense at him!
And what’s really interesting is Jesus often changed it to a lower resolution. Rather than creating an even sharper, more precisely defined image at a higher resolution, he often blurred the picture; softened the rigid edges of their high definition sacred things.
By healing the man’s withered hand on the Sabbath, in the synagogue, strictly prohibited by the clearly defined, high resolution, high definition Sabbath laws, Jesus blurred the image.
Jesus wanted to show them that worship without compassion was hollow and empty; worship that cultivates hard hearts and unbending, dehumanizing and exclusive attitudes is a sham! It drove them crazy and pushed their holy hot buttons to the point that they conspired to destroy him.
Jesus changed the resolution of another sacred thing by redefining close relationships from being based on blood connections to grace connections. His new definition was based on grace, the infinite height, length, breadth and depth of God’s grace that left no one out and connected everybody. This is the Good News of God’s inclusive love that we proclaim loudly and unashamedly at MCC San Diego!
As we look at the ministry of Jesus, we see that he often redefined, or changed the definition of those things that people considered to be sacred and, in the process, pushed a lot of hot buttons.
Jesus challenged his followers and challenges us to decrease our legalistic, exclusive HD resolution and, rather, to grow in love, grow in grace, grow in compassion, grow in inclusion, and grow in the pursuit of social justice which changes the resolution and blurs the picture and makes the lines fuzzy.
In some ways, this makes life more complicated and less defined, but in the end we are set free from being unbending and exclusive and open to more grace, more inclusion, more compassion and more love.
God, thanks for pushing our holy hot buttons! Amen.
