Jesus is the Great Disruptor

It’s hard to convey how disruptive the life of Christ truly was here on earth. He was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, had no pedigree and was not trained with the elite religious Pharisees of the day. He was (and is) the King but He was not given the nod of approval from Rome, Herod, or the religious ruling class. His life disrupted the established order of both the Pharisees and the Romans. God intended it this way.

Perhaps the most brazen example of Jesus as disruptor is when He expels the moneylenders and sellers from the temple that God commissioned to be a house of prayer. He declared that it was turned into a den of thieves (Matthew 21:12-13). Zeal for His Father’s house consumed Him. This act puts his zeal on full display, but it’s certainly not His only disruptive moment.

We get so familiar with people talking to us about Jesus being gracious and kind, that we can fail to realize how radical He was in every way. The fishermen, tax-collectors, zealots, and women He called to be His disciples were people who had essentially dropped out of “Bible school.” He honored women in ways that conveyed the true heart of God and yet flew in the face of the culture of the day. He healed on the Sabbath, thus confronting the priorities of the religious experts. He pointed those devoted to the law to the heart of the law, which they had lost! The Shema, the most famous and common Jewish prayer of the day, called the people of God to love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul and strength and love their neighbor as themselves. Christ modeled this through His life, death and resurrection, thus becoming a living conviction of those who fell so horribly short of their central declaration. He disrupted the corrupt priesthood and called them to care, to reprioritize according to God’s priorities. He never used violence. Yet He was not weak or wimpy when it came to confrontation. Oh no, Jesus confronted almost every institution there was in His day and in this way was the greatest disruptor this world has ever seen.

Christ disrupted the oppressive fear of death by facing the most brutal death there was, death by crucifixion. He even disrupted death itself through his resurrection from the dead. The list goes on. He overthrew:

Death with life

Hate with love

Darkness with light

Chaos with order

Lies with truth

Evil with good

Hideousness with beauty

Christ is the Great Disruptor, the dispeller of lies, the breaker of bondage, the restorer of the Kingdom Order. While largely unpopular amongst the powers that ruled in His time, Christ unleashed a movement that has worked to this day to set the world right again. This is our King. This is our leader.

The United States and many Western nations are seriously broken and oppressed by the corruption of the entrenched political class. Many citizens are alarmed about the slow and often intentional demise of their beloved countries. People are starting to think that maybe the ruling class does not have their best interests in mind. The people are starting to call for a disruption of the systems currently in place.

At the time of the 2024 US election, average polling data on the “Direction of the Country” showed that 26.6% of the country believes we are on the right track while 63.0% said we are on the wrong track.

Much of the political class takes the status quo as inevitable. Those who run for office on this premise are seeking to keep the ship “on course” going pretty much where it is going currently. Too often Christians take it as inevitable as well. However, the people want a significant change. Mollie Hemingway the Editor-In-Chief of a web magazine called The Federalist, has observed that many of the nominees to lead the new Executive branch of the US government are “disruptors.” I had not thought of that, but my mind immediately went to the picture of the One who was the Great Disruptor, Jesus Christ Himself.

Hemingway recognizes that the 2024 elections were a call from the electorate for a drastic change in direction in the country. Citizens of the US do not simply want to elect politicians to manage the course of the ship. Instead, they want disruptors to change the direction of the ship.

The people are tired of a top-heavy Federal bureaucracy that seeks to control the people. They are saying that our nation is a nation where “We the People” rule and elect representatives to carry out our wishes. It’s as if the people are saying, “You can’t treat us as your slaves any longer.”

So, the people elected a businessman and Washington outsider named Donald Trump, whose vices often overwhelm his virtues, to be the 47th President. While lightyears away from our virtuous Messiah – Jesus Christ, Trump may well be known as the Disruptor in Chief. He is not a keeper of the status quo. He wants to overturn the status quo and is looking for fellow disruptors to join him in his cabinet.

One of the most corrupt departments of the US government is the Department of Justice. Hemingway recognizes this corruption and is not afraid to call it what it is. She calls it the Department of Injustice instead of the DOJ because it has politicized the entire justice system. Trump’s appointment of Pam Bondi as the next Attorney General is characterized by what one MSNBC and CNN political commentator as “dangerous “and “competent.” That’s a bad thing for folks who like the status quo. For better or worse, Trump’s presidency will disrupt the norms in our current cultural moment. What about the body of Christ? As followers of our King, we are called to disrupt the status quo if it is unjust and evil.

Catherine Booth Co-Founder of the Salvation Army understood that “If we are to better the future, we must disturb the present.” We as the body of Christ ought to be little disruptors ourselves. Christ was raised from the dead as the Lion of Judah, the Conquering King. He was The Great Disruptor. As his followers, if we care for our children and children’s children, if we care for the future of our nation, we need to learn to disrupt the status quo.

Letitia Shelton leader of Christians in Australia has said: “There seems to be something lacking in our churches these days. We have done a great job producing nice Christians, rather than dangerous Christians full of courage, ready to take risks” (Fighting for Our Daughters, 109).

Why do we as Christians so easily and eagerly accept the status quo when our King did not? Do you want a better future for your children, grandchildren, and nation? What is in your world that needs to be disrupted? What are you going to do about it?

Today, our nations need churches that will disciple courageous and dangerous Christians who will be disruptors of the status quo in society. Let’s get busy.

Let us work and pray that our nations can be brought back from the brink.