Have you noticed how misunderstood Jesus can be in today's American cultural context?

I sometimes worry about my faith needing to be understood. 

I mean, I want people to understand and "get it."

Perhaps you do, too. 

Some people may say Jesus started a new religion. Others might say Jesus came to free them to be spiritual and not religious. And many of us have seen the dangerous convictions that Jesus is at the center of modern social and political movements.

Apostle Paul, who saw Jesus with his own eyeballs describes it like this: Jews demand signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:22-25).

The Apostle Paul says that Jesus is misunderstood because He is a stumbling block (literally, a scandal). Why would the God of the universe love people so much that He took the curse and punishment of sin for people who wouldn't love Him back upon Himself? For some, Jesus was misunderstood because he challenged their religious beliefs about God and themselves.

The Apostle Paul also says that Jesus is misunderstood because He made irrational choices. Why would a Palestinian Jew go to a Samaritan well and bond with a woman by asking her for a drink of water? Why would a rabbi wash his disciples' feet? Why would the movement leader back down in the moments when he could rise up? For Greeks, Jesus was a fool.

Much like the 1st-century Greco-Roman culture on the isthmus of Asia and Italy, I am seeing how people today are struggling to live in a world that is increasingly polarized in every way. And I am convinced that the gospel is still the dynamite of God (Romans 1:16) that changes how we feel, think, and act — no matter how misunderstood it (and those who share it) might be.

The gospel did and continues to change how all people feel, think, and act because Jesus didn't come to start a new religion or to free us from religion to become more spiritual. And Jesus surely didn't come to bring a social justice or a political perspective.

Jesus came to seek and save people from the death penalty for their sins as well as their own devices. Taylor Swift is right: they come with prices and vices, and we end up in crises - it's a tale as old as time.

And if that’s true, then we are invited to live like Jesus to look, listen, and love the people in front of us - wherever we are... always... no matter how misunderstood it might be for us or for others looking and listening in.

If you want to get your heart and head into this week's message before Sunday, read Acts 19:1-19.