The Gospel Will Make You Look Weird—And That’s the Point
Being Spirit-filled isn't always understood. PLUS: That time I was technically "drunk" as a kid, Acts 2, and 1 Corinthians 2.
Technically, I would have fallen into the “theatre kid” category for most of my childhood. I wasn’t sporty, I was decently academic but not as much as the other complete nerds who got into Harvard, and I definitely wasn’t a band kid—Lord, no. Unless you count “student government” as a category for social groups, I most identified with the theatre kids.
From a pretty young age, I was involved in plays and performance arts, either through school or other means. I ended up retiring in sophomore year after starring in the off-off-off-off-off-off-Broadway performance of The State vs. Max Cooper as, yes indeed, Max Cooper himself! However, before my retirement, and after another starring role as the Head Chef in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, I participated in a production of Tom Sawyer through Christian Youth Theater.
As the name suggests, Christian Youth Theater (which wasn’t even cool enough to spell “theatre” the British way) was an extracurricular performance company with a Christian influence. I think it was mostly just a way for homeschoolers to speak to another human besides their mom or sibling. Despite the Christian nature, it wasn’t a whole lot different from other productions. Although the cast party didn’t include a girl trying to give people lap dances like in the public school 7th and 8th grade production of Cinderella (where one of the cast members got a little too bold, probably because it was at her house and her stepmom was “famous” for doing the jingle to a very specific mattress store commercial in the Portland, Oregon area).
However, the story of Tom Sawyer does include some questionable characters. For one, you have Muff Potter, the town drunk. That role went to yours truly. He’s involved with Racially-Insensitively-Named Joe and ends up getting blamed for murder! I still remember one line: “Say it ain’t so, Joe!” To play the part, my cheeks were made rosy-red with blush. I consistently wobbled and slightly slurred my words. You know, because Muff Potter is the town drunk!
Here’s the catch, though: the directors told me that because it was a Christian production and we were performing in a church, I couldn’t be drunk! In their words, and I quote, “I was just a bit silly.” A few lines of dialogue were altered to say I was just the town crazy person. Sure, but I was still directed to act exactly like a stereotypical drunk person!
There I was, 13 or so years old, and already a drunk! Or at least, I was “a bit silly.”
It’s my personal conviction not to drink alcohol, as I desire to always face my problems instead of numbing them, I have a family history of addiction, and am uninterested in the loss of judgment, which is the first thing to go when the alcohol gets settled in. So really, the only experience I have of being drunk is acting like I was in front of hundreds of people for two weekends!
When I was up in front of people, I wanted them to think of me as “drunk” or some close approximation, but in most case you don’t want people to think you are drunk when you up in front of people! For instance, when the Apostles and the other Jerusalem-based believers were in front of people, they were only accidentally considered “drunk!”
They weren’t drunk though. Instead, they had this neat little gift: the Holy Spirit.
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Acts 2 opens with the believers (some assume the 120 mentioned in the previous chapter) hanging out in Jerusalem, just as Jesus had instructed. Jesus had made a bold promise that they were waiting for:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
-Acts 1:8
And then he immediately zipped over to Heaven, out of sight! That was his final teaching. The Holy Spirit was going to pick up the ministry where he left off, but more than that, it was going to give them the power to do Jesus-like ministry to the far reaches of the globe.
Now on the Day of Pentecost, taking place 50 days after Passover, the promised power comes! And it seems like it’s such a weird, strange thing that the writer of Acts can’t quite describe what’s going on:
“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
-Acts 2:2-4
Pentecost (or Shavuot) is one of three Jewish festivals that requires everyone to come to Jerusalem to celebrate. It’s associated with a wheat harvest, but sometime between the Testaments it became a special day to make covenants with God and was seen as celebrating the giving of the Torah on Sinai—50 days after leaving Egypt. A LOT of Jews were in Jerusalem during this time.
And all these Jews scattered around heard the disciples of Jesus (who probably left their house), and all eyebrows ticked up.
Because they heard the sound of talking and were puzzled that they were hearing their own languages! Jews came from as far east as Parthia (modern Iran) and as far west as Rome, yet they were hearing bits of their own tongues being spoken by Galilean fishermen. They came from as far south as Egypt and as far north as Pontus (modern northern Turkey), and they were “amazed and perplexed” (Acts 2:12).
Then it gets good—it gets real rich. Verse 13 says:
“Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’”
I have limited experience with drunkenness and even less experience with these ancient languages, but apparently speaking Cappadocian or Cretan sounds like being absolutely plastered!
The experience illustrates a truth of Christian living: we will not always be understood. What is happening at Pentecost is powerful and prophetic—a pouring out of God’s Spirit. Ages earlier, Moses had said, “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:29). Now, it’s happening. Finally happening!
But people don’t accept what’s right in front of them. Too many people shrug when they see Jesus raise a dude from the dead. They turn a blind eye as lepers, condemned to waste away, return home cured and whole. They see the manifestation of the Spirit, and the best they can say is they’ve had a bit too much to drink!
Paul notes in 1 Corinthians 1 that Christ is a stumbling block for Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. They just don’t get it. In chapter 2, he explains that the missing ingredient is the Spirit. Spirit-filled people have a distinct advantage:
“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”
-1 Corinthians 2:12-14
People will think we are drunk. Psycho. Weird. Perhaps belonging to the looney-bin... That’s just what it means to have access to a Spirit and power that help you see a whole world that everyone else has shut their eyes to.
In Acts 2:14, Peter gets up flanked by his eleven ride-or-die brothers. He explains the significance of the speaking in tongues because not one can comprehend it on their own. He directly calls out the Statler and Waldorf types who said they were drunk, reminding them that it’s 9 in the morning, so there hasn’t been enough time to get totally hammered!
Peter spends the next few verses quoting from the prophet Joel about what’s going down in the “last days.” Well, the “last days” are now, kicked off because of Jesus’ death. We are in these last days where the Spirit is poured out on all people, where miraculous things happen with men and women, where wonders are shown in Heaven and signs are on earth.
So, yeah, it’s going to be weird.
At least four times in the Gospels, antagonists to Jesus call him demon-possessed or at least in cahoots with demons! On one occasion, after talking about being the Good Shepherd, some people grumbled and said, “He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?” (John 10:20). As Jesus will say a few chapters after that, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:20)—so we can surely expect this kind of treatment. Not everyone will understand what we say and do in the name of Jesus.
Of course, the big caveat is that we can’t excuse bad behavior with a line like, “Well, because people are getting on my case, it’s a sign I’m doing good!” Wisdom is still needed. Accountability from fellow believers is a must. The actual measure of the legitimacy of our actions is if they produce the fruits of the Spirit.
Years after Pentecost, after having been jeered, beaten, and rejected many more times, Peter writes that all believers should come to expect this kind of behavior:
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.”
-1 Peter 4:12-14
The Spirit that first came to the followers of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, and soon found its way to the Gentiles, is a troublemaker. No doubt about it, to have the Spirit of God is a gift. It’s the only thing that enables us to do what is impossible for us to do—to live like Christ. But that kind of living rubs people the wrong way. We will do weird things. And people will call us out on it!
Maybe they’ll say we’re drunk. Or demon-possessed! Maybe they’ll notice how our values don’t align with the world’s and they’ll throw around other terms like unpatriotic or anti-family or traditional or impractical or extremist or intolerant.
If we are doing Christianity right, we are going to be weird. That’s just what happens when you have the Spirit, so buckle up! And so it’s safe to assume people will let us know we are weird, and in some cases, there will be consequences to our standing in society because we are one of those Jesus Freaks.
It’s been happening since Day 1 of the Church, and it’s going to keep happening.
Yet since we have the Spirit of the Lord, that name-calling can be a badge of honor. It’s a reminder that we have access to a power that others don’t possess, which hopefully urges us to ever more share the Good News of that power with others.
Let’s end with a quote from the philosophy trio known as D.C. Talk:
What will people think when they hear that I'm a Jesus freak?
What will people do when they find that it's true?
I don't really care if they label me a Jesus freak
There ain't no disguisin' the truth.
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Weirdos unite,
Jake Doberenz
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