A Man of No Reputation

by John Roy

Footnoted but not followed.

Quoted, misquoted, used, and co-opted.

Turned into slogans, t-shirts, and bumper stickers.

Crowds are fickle, and truth has a way of thinning them out. Then and now, most heard but did not follow.

Misunderstood, hunted, envied—but also fully alive. Not careful, not measured, a man of no reputation.

Jesus said the un-say-able. Others thought it, but Jesus did not care about his reputation so he said it—out loud, in public, without apology.

Love your enemies.

Try to find that in Roman literature, or even American literature.

Love people who don’t love you.

Love those who hate you.

Love those who persecute you.

No strategy there. No leverage. No advantage.

When it came to scripture, he talked back to it. He read it, certainly respected it—but, “you’ve heard it said… but I say to you.” How dare him!

He wouldn’t let scripture be used as a weapon, even when it had been used that way for generations.

He loosened it.

He internalized it.

He confronted religious frauds and holy grifters.

He even contradicted expectations of scripture every now and then—at least the way people had learned to use it.

Healing on the wrong day

Forgiving without obligation.

Touching who you don’t touch.

Eating with the “others.”

Jesus spoke of God differently—a God who is loving to the stranger, the broken, the one who leaves and the one who gets lost.

Not conditional love. Not reciprocal love.

Revolutionary love.

That sounds different, even holy.

Because it removes all the usual boundaries.

No more “us” and “them.”

No more moral high ground to stand on.

The way of Jesus does not get likes. A lot of Christians are unfamiliar with his work, other than knowing he loves us.

But even that gets tempered.

Love becomes  comfort.

Detached from demand.

Because the kind of love he talks about doesn’t just console—it confronts.

It serves.

It gives.

Sell what you have.

Forgive again.

Go the second mile.

Take up a cross.

This is not branding. This is not mass appeal.

So we quote him when it helps,

explain him away when it doesn’t,

and ignore him when he gets into our business.

Maybe that’s why he still feels distant—not because he’s hard to understand, but because he’s hard to agree with.