by Elizabeth

In John 7:37-38 we read that “On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to Me! Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink!'” These statements are followed by an uproar in the crowds.

When I read these verses earlier this week, I realized afresh that people must have thought Jesus was crazy. I certainly would have. Yet He was not deterred: early the next morning, we see Him back at the Temple, teaching the crowds.

It wasn’t enough for Jesus to go to the synagogue as He did in Luke 4, to read the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and to declare the fulfillment of that Scripture that very day. No, he had to keep.doing.crazy.things.

I am sure if I had been a regular religious person in that time, I would have thought he was nuts, not that He was a prophet — or even less likely, the Messiah. He was always speaking in riddles and parables, and I’m sure even if I HAD been His disciple, I wouldn’t have understood even half of what He was saying. I might have been hopelessly lost, even with the Savior of the world standing right in front of me.

As I thought about this, I remembered Michael Card’s song “God’s Own Fool.” His songs are sometimes deceptively short, but the lyrics are incredibly rich in meaning:

Seems I’ve imagined Him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God’s Holy wisdom is foolish to man
He must have seemed out of His mind
Even His family said He was mad
And the priest said a demon’s to blame
But, God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane

We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
We in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong

So we follow God’s own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter’s son
For a madman who died for a dream
And You’ll have the faith His first followers had
And you’ll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Find the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see

So we follow God’s own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well