Is heaven more fun than your church? Cheekiness is to have fun with social boundaries and to overstep certain parameters with a twinkle in the eye. Cheekiness is ‘naughty’, but, in the words of Paul de Jong from Christian Life Centre in Auckland, naughty but not ‘naughty naughty.’
With a short study of the life of Jesus, it’s easy to see that many Christians are ‘nicer’ than Jesus was, and it’s also easy to see that many Christians are more ‘conservative’ than Jesus ever was. It appears that Jesus was both compassionate and cheeky! How much is cheekiness a part of heaven? Let’s find out!
The First Miracle
Billions of years in the planning – the choice was made. The first miracle in the miracle ministry of Jesus Christ would not be the healing of a leper or a blind man – it would be the creation of wine! To immediately tread in an area that has created conflict throughout the church for 21 centuries is highly controversial. Is heaven a cheeky place? By all accounts it is not a traditional way to start a mission of compassion!
The ‘Pigs Can Fly’ Saga
To cross a lake and deliver a ‘legion’ of 2000 spirits is a mighty task full of power and compassion. To take a thriving business of pig rearing and decimate it in one swoop is a strangely humorous scenario. That’s out of the box planning that breaks the nicer than nice view many have of Jesus.
The Pop Quiz
“Who do men say I am?” Jesus was either sincerely interested in the fact that some say He’s Jeremiah (!) or He was entering into a serious proclamation with a light-hearted banter.
The Mud in Eye incident
Again, it be strange that Jesus didn’t just say ‘be healed’! To spit, make, slap on and send away must certainly have deeper connotations – but it is mildly amazing, seeing a blind man with a mud pack heading to a distant pool.
The People Watching
To hang around and see how much people are placing in the offering bowl would seem a little precocious for a group of disciples, yet out of a lazy Sunday afternoon, comes a profound lesson – “This woman gave more than everyone else put together!”
It’s time for the church to break free of the confines that keep it too serious to operate effectively in the 21st century. It’s imperative to hold deep conviction but it must be accompanies by a lot of cheekiness to make it mirror the very nature of God Himself!