Jesus is a Purple Cow

As I celebrated Easter this year, I spent Good Friday morning watching Mel Gibson's, "Passion of the Christ" with my friend Jens. I can't say that I enjoyed the movie, but it really helped me to reflect on what Christ did for us. (As tough as it was to watch, it is something that you should see if you haven't seen it yet.) I spent some time reading these accounts in the Bible this weekend and was reminded once again of our historic passion for money and power. From my perspective it usually gets in the way of everything. But from God's perspective it was just part of the plan.

Everybody was giddy and blown away by Jesus, His knowledge of the scriptures, His miracles...there was a buzz in the air. I always hear people talk about change, and their sincere desire to make change...until you mess with their money or their power. The same thing was going on thousands of years ago. The existence of Jesus threatened the power and stability of the Sanhedrin, and the abuse of power and money lived on as the story unfolded.

Leading up to His death, he had performed some remarkable feats. He walked on water, He healed people, He foretold the future, He healed the blind, and raised the dead. No PR machine, no iPhone, no agency, He just did amazing things that people talked about (and still talk about). That is what author Seth Godin might call a Purple Cow (I would certainly call it that). Don't get these stories confused with a Disney movie or a Greek myth. Jesus was a real person. He did not perform the ridiculous, He performed the remarkable. He is the red thread that ties the entire Bible together. It wasn't a storyboard by Pixar, but a plan from God. That red thread was foreshadowed and concealed in the old testament and then later revealed through the gospels in the new testament. A good friend shared it to me this way, "the old testament of the Bible is the new testament concealed, and the new testament of the Bible is the old testament revealed." —What a plan!

A virgin birth, a life with temptation but without sin—a brutal punishment, and crucifixion, coupled with darkness an earthquake and a mass of bodies rising from their graves as Christ died on the cross, and arose from the grave three days later. Not for money and not for power—and not because we deserved anything, but because He loved us...Now that is a Purple Cow!