IVP - Strangely Dim - Just Like Jesus

August 2, 2006

Just Like Jesus

I'm working my way through the final draft of the forthcoming Likewise book The New Friars, a survey of global movements serving the world's poor by Scott Bessenecker. It's inspiring, challenging, distressing, motivating, and other participles too numerous to name. I came across this story that's three parts funny, two parts poignant.

I had dinner with Jesus earlier this year. He sleeps on the streets around Santa Monica pier and goes by the name Bill. . . . A few of us ended up at a McDonald's where many homeless hang out. While we were waiting for our order, a man with longish hair and a beard, wearing ragged clothes, stepped up next to me. . . . Hmm, I thought, this guy sort of looks like Jesus. . . . Bill sat down with us and told his story of schizophrenia and homelessness. "You know, I'm sort of like Jesus," he said, and then went on to quote Jesus from Matthew 8:20, "The foxes had holes but the Son of Man had no place to rest his head."
"You are kind of like Jesus," I agreed.
"I know I'm not really Jesus," he confessed. "I'm not that far gone yet."

I like the simpleness of this story. It's just a bit scandalous in the picture it paints of Jesus, but just a bit hopeful in the picture it paints of each of us. The people Scott profiles in The New Friars are living in solidarity with the poorest of the poor because Jesus calls us to identify him among us, to serve as though he were receiving our service. Some of these folks are in the Phillipines or Africa or South America, but some of them, like Bill, are at the McDonalds on Santa Monica pier. Who'd have thought you'd find Jesus in such a pedestrian pace.

I'm no new friar; I'm not that far gone yet. But this book is making me wish, just a bit, that I was one. Which I suppose is the point.

Posted by Dave Zimmerman at August 2, 2006 1:42 PM Bookmark and Share

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Behind the Strangeness

Lisa Rieck is a reader and writer who likes to discuss good ideas over hot drinks and gets inspired by the sky. She takes in all kinds of good ideas as a proofreader for InterVarsity Press.

Rebecca Larson is a writer/designer/creative type who has infiltrated IVP's web department, where she writes and edits online content. She enjoys a good pun and loves the smell of freshly printed books.

David A. Zimmerman is an editor for Likewise Books and a columnist for Burnside Writers Collective. He's written three books, most recently The Parable of the Unexpected Guest. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/unexpguest. Find his personal blog at loud-time.com.

Suanne Camfield is a publicist for InterVarsity Press and a freelance writer. She floats ungracefully between work, parenting and writing, and (much to her dismay) finds it impossible to read on a treadmill. She is a member of the Redbud Writers Guild and blogs at The Rough Cut.

Likewise Books from InterVarsity Press explore a thoughtful, active faith lived out in real time in the midst of an emerging culture.

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