What kind of world do you think Jesus came to? This is so important for so many reasons. Because of time, space, and the countless fairytales you’ve heard throughout your life, you might be tempted to overlook the fact that the Jesus of Nazareth actually came to this world. The real world.

The gospels speak to this reality so clearly. When we see Jesus enter human history he does so in a way that nobody would expect GOD to arrive – humble, gracious, and accepting of the least of these. As soon as he’s born in a borrowed barn, he’s smuggled out of the country as a refugee. A refugee in the world he created.

The earth that was his footstool proved to be little more than a palace for the ungrateful and entitled and a bed of thorns for the weak. Jesus most definitely came to our real world filled with pain, rejection, setbacks, stubbed toes, cold spaghetti, deadlines, schmoozers, and rainy Saturdays. The infant lay surrounded by puffing beasts, buzzing flies, anxious parents, and grinding poverty.

And it is here that Jesus introduces a Kingdom that is completely upside down – where the poor are in fact wealthy, the outsiders are the insiders, and the unclean with their grimy fingers are welcome to eat at God’s table.