I heard this yesterday from Larry Crabb, guest speaking to a group at my local church. For some reason I find it very refreshing when people say things like this. When someone you respect says something you would normally disagree with, it suddenly becomes much more reasonable.

Jesus isn't very good at answering questions. He was talking about the passage where Jesus curses the fig tree, and then talks about moving mountains and praying for anything you want. Jesus saw a fig tree with leaves before fig season.

He walks up to it with his disciples, there's no figs (remember.. it's before fig season), and he starts yelling and cursing at the tree! Doesn't really seem characteristic of the messiah. The disciples ask him about this, and Jesus says "Not only can you do this" -- well... Jesus... I didn't really want to go around cursing fig trees... "but you can say to that mountain 'move' and it will!"

We've gotten so used to the sayings of Jesus, we miss the fact that what Jesus says is hard to understand.

It's confusing.

People who were with Jesus walked away from him because what he taught was so confusing, and difficult to accept. Jesus was extreme - "If you do not eat my body and drink my blood, you cannot follow me", "If anyone does not hate his father and his mother...".

What Jesus said is confusing. It's supposed to be. If you're really interested, you'll try to figure out what in the world he's talking about - that's seeking Jesus. Those who aren't really interested will just gloss over what he says, and ignore the difficulties and seeming contradictions in what he says.

I have a co-worker who recently began to start a life of follow Jesus - she has no church background. For her, everything is new. What in the world is Jesus talking about when he says "Feed my sheep" or "Fig trees don't grow thistles"? My co-worker has said that she has sometimes wished that Jesus didn't always talk in parables.

But what happens next is amazing. She wonders - why is Jesus talking about feeding sheep? But she really wants to know! And she figures it out, and then it just begins to make sense. It's incredibly refreshing and a huge reminder to me that I need to be walking this same journey when I read what Jesus said.

As Larry Crabb pointed out, he's in his 60s, and feels like he's just beginning to understand prayer - the topic about which he was speaking. There is always this crazy mystery in what Jesus says, and we get to figure it out.

Have you ever been telling a story or a joke and someone else interrupts and says the conclusion or the punch-line? It totally deflates the delivery: the suspense, the curiosity, and the drama that you feel and are trying to share.

For many Christians, their faith is just a sequence of story spoilers.

In my house, we're really sucked into Lost, the ABC television show. People discuss the story online, and some people have information about plot spoilers. The real fans will avoid any plot spoilers because they want to enjoy the ride of the story.

For so many of us, we don't even remember that there is suspense in the story of Jesus and what he teaches, and all we do is read and live the spoilers.

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