No More Christian Nice Guy

YOU have to wonder why so many atheists and non-believers are obsessed with Jesus.
They keep trying to put Christ back in his tomb, but he won’t stay there
It’s clear from the history that Jesus wasn’t a wimp. He was fearless and often brash.
His message talks about love. Yet, there is part of Jesus that is often overlooked. He was a tough guy who wasn’t afraid to speak his mind or face danger.
John Coleman, in his book The Unexpected Teachings of Jesus, points out that Jesus’s teachings were provocative and challenging, often making his listeners uncomfortable. Too many people sanitised Jesus and his message, Coleman wrote.
“We try to make Jesus cuddly,” he said.
In his book No More Christian Nice Guy, Paul Coughlin wondered what Jesus would say if he turned up unannounced in some of our churches today. Coughlin said Jesus might use some of the language quoted in the Bible. He might call some church people “hypocrites” and “white-washed tombs”.
“Given how nice the church expects Christians to be, I think we’d rush the pulpit and wrest the microphone from his hand.. ‘Tsk, tsk, tsk,’ we’d mutter scornfully. We’d wag our fingers, reminding him of the supreme importance placed on manners and appearances in this holy place. Some women, reaching for soap bars to wash out his mouth, would recite our unofficial church motto: ‘If you don’t have anything nice to say, Jesus, don’t say it at all’.”
Coughlin said not so long ago he would have joined the crowd in shushing Jesus. “That’s because I believed in a Savior who doesn’t really exist. Many of us believe in a wooden Jesus who was perpetually sombre, consistently robotic, consummately nice. He wouldn’t think of hurling sarcasm at anyone; his momma raised a Nice Boy with impeccable manners. Many sermons we hear are designed to make Jesus appear always approachable, always calm, and endlessly patient. That’s fiction right up there with The Da Vinci Code; this mild Jesus has more to do with Eastern mysticism than with the gospel record. “
The real Jesus, according to Coughlin and many others, did not remain “above it all,” emotionally hovering above us silly little humans. He got down in the muck and mire of life with us. He really lived; he really felt eye-watering joy and soul-crushing pain. He didn’t assume the Lotus, drinking tea and finding us mildly amusing while trying to clear his head of conflict and division. Jesus, the dissident, brought the world both–the kind of conflict and division needed to shake things up for our own good..