The Beauty of Being Ordinary

[HKHaugan]

The Beauty of Being Ordinary

 The ordinary man---he is an individual, unknown, not a public figure, average, no one gives him a second look, rarely memorable. However, this is the kind of person the Lord picks to do His work. Acts 3 recalls the Apostles Peter and John (common fishermen) healing a crippled man and then preaching about Jesus. The rulers in Jerusalem heard about Peter and John and their observation is worth noting, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).” Unschooled in the Jewish community meant the lack of sophisticated theological education; the knowledge and application of the Law. Ordinary meant having no social, religious or economic position, the measures of accepted authority at that time. Unschooled and ordinary describes 99% of us.

 But the one distinguishing characteristic that made the ordinary individual disciple stand out from the crowd was how they were recognized. They were followers of Jesus. Not only that, the disciples of Jesus must have gotten their knowledge of Scripture from their time with Jesus (who also was ‘unschooled’ and from an ordinary family, Mk.11:28) and the waiting period in Jerusalem before the Holy Spirit was given (Acts 1:12-26).

 As we expand this idea of common and ordinary, it had to be a jarring experience for the established authorities that so many people turned to Jesus both before and after His Resurrection. Consider the fact that it was women who were the first witnesses as well as crippled, mentally disturbed and spiritually oppressed people. Two ordinary men on the road to Emmaus talked to the resurrected Jesus and had supper with Him. A rejected and depressed woman met Him at Jacob’s well and was changed so dramatically that she spread the news about Him in her town. When you start assessing the people Jesus touched, the bulk of them were ordinary. Nicodemus from the Sanhedrin, a Roman centurion, Joseph of Arimathea and a synagogue ruler represent the few socially recognized leaders whom He touched, and they came to Him. He wasn’t avoiding the social elite. Rather His mission was to lift up the forgotten, the rejected, the lonely and the oppressed.

 The lonely and the oppressed really covers everyone when you consider that those in leadership are always looking over their shoulder because their jobs entail responsibility beyond themselves or they might fear loss of power to those who seek to unseat them. Leadership has its lonely pressures. Decision making, involving large numbers of people, is a lonely platform. Think about corporate executives who are slaves to public opinion and cave in wherever public noise is loudest. The fear of economic loss drives their engines. They need spiritual support to approach their work with the kind of faith that overcomes fear. This can only come through a relationship with the Lord.

 Politics is a field that is rife with all kinds of spirits. Lust for power, manipulative strategies to maintain and gain power, the compromises that confuse and blind those trying to make right choices. Then the pressures that arise from the opinion charged issues that cause people to demonstrate in blind anger and rage toward authority especially when it is emotionally based on personality dislike. Violence, abusive and obscene language, rejection of the mind, become the authorities for the moment. Just read the signs and faces of demonstrators. Rational discourse is swallowed by the irrational behavior of mindless mob mentality. There is no question as to the spiritual source behind it. The echoes of those who called for the crucifixion of Jesus ring across the centuries.

 So now, we who have been called to be disciples of Jesus, are called to reach out to those who are lost in their issues, distracted by things over which they have no control. At some point the frustration and anger consuming them will bubble up into a lonely depression only the Lord can overcome. Remember what happened in Acts when Peter preached, and the common people recognized their participation in the death of Jesus (Acts 2:37)? There was a massive repentance.

 At some point in our lives we will be called to respond to those who are crucifying others whom they dislike. We are the common ordinary people, the culturally anonymous, the theologically unsophisticated, whom Jesus brought to Himself through grace, who are called to witness in the midst of a hostile world. Our testimony is sharing how Jesus makes a difference in our hearts. Our witness is where we are with the common folks like us who need Jesus. The very fact that Jesus chose to offer eternal life first to common ordinary people makes them special. After all, isn’t that us? Being part of the common and the ordinary is really beautiful because He did the same thing being born to common people in an ordinary family. Our glory in Christ is to be known as His followers and that being common and ordinary is a gift.