Although it has been lonely towards the end of the day I have been reading and mulling over my relationship with Jesus and church and chritians in general really.
It hit me this morning how very extravagant Jesus was in the gospels and how this can contrast with both the charictature and reality of Christians. It just seems to be that we are so conservative, reserved and ‘British’ while Jesus encouraged the oppsite. I acknowledge he was in 1st century Jewish culture but even so …
Take for example the feeding of the 5000. Jesus did not just feed them – he massively over catered. Why was that? Didhe miscount? I don’t think Jesus can have made a mistake with the figures, but I do wonder why there were 12 full baskets left over! You could say what a waste and how insensitive when working with people who were struggling through poverty
I can just imagine the comments I would get after a church BBQ if I had so massively over-catered. There would be those who laughed, but I’m guessing (maybe wrongly) those that would frown on the wanton waste of good food. The extravagance would be frowned upon or questioned.
Or … take the wedding at Cana. Not just a little bit of wine there! 180 gallons of the stuff! This, too, was after they had been partying throughout the day already! And it was not any of your cheap plonk if the comments are anything to go by! I wish someone would invite me to a wedding like that! Surely, though this was inciting people to drink? How irresponsible of Jesus!!! I can hear the voices now!
Imagine bringing 180 gallons of good quality wine to a Christian party – what would people say? Would they welcome the gift or question and frown on the extravagance
Don’t get me wrong – I am not having a dig at others, because I think I would question and frown myself. It’s in our genes. It seems to be in the way we have brought up and been taught over the centuries. 
Check out the picture – do those jars look like they would carry 30 gallons as outlined in John ch 2?
It like that new Christian fad around where you are keen to share how little you paid for the new ‘thing’, or what a great bargain the shoes were. We think we are being counter-cultural as others outside Christianity are keen to share how they bought the biggest and most expensive! I don’t think we are being counter-cultural, we are trying to appease our guilt feelings because we do not think we should be extravagant. We should have what we need, not what we want!
I seem to be missing something here. I have been brought up in evangelical churches which talk about restraint, moderation, discipline … and here I see a Jesus who was radical, didn’t care what people thought, and incredibly incredibly extravagant. He certainly knew how to party! He didn’t just do it for others, he allowed personal extravagnace to himself – remember Mary and the very expensive perfume
Why this extravagance? Jesus rarely did stuff without a reason. What was he trying to say and teach us? We are told to follow Jesus, to use him as an example. Well lets get on out there and party and stop worrying about being so moderate
Maybe a genuine love for life and people in the extravagant style of Jesus is what will attract people to Him again
The Shiny Headed Prophet 