Have you ever been considered scandalous? Someone whose actions have raised a sense of indignation and outrage in others? If you have, was it because you stood up for something good and noble, or because you stuck your foot in your mouth and did something earth-shatteringly stupid?

Most of us, if we are scandalous at all, probably fit into the second category. Sure, some of us have been called ‘scandalous’ because of the way we dress, the colour of our hair, or the volume of our music. But in the grander scheme of things, have we ever been the sort of ‘scandalous’ that creates a real stir; a sense of outcry and uproar?

In many ways, the life of Jesus was that kind of scandalous.

Consider his birth. Unwed pregnant teenager, claiming to be a virgin. Scandalous enough today sure, but two thousand years ago in a traditional Jewish community? That’s potentially a stoning offence. Yet it was how Jesus came into the world. Questions of his “legitimacy” dogged him throughout his life, and caused people to turn their noses up at him.

Jesus did not have an easy start in life. He grew up in Nazareth, which was not exactly well known for producing the finest of minds, or the finest of anything, really. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” was one of the disparaging remarks directed towards Jesus during his ministry. To have a teacher, let alone a would-be Messiah, coming out of the town of Nazareth was a ludicrous proposal.

He spent a lot of time with people that wouldn’t have fit the celebrity ‘A’ list of the day, including fishermen, women, the sick, the lame, tax collectors (who were reviled as traitors and thieves) and zealots (who were considered extremist in the violent hatred for the Roman Empire).

He wouldn’t ‘play ball’ with the authorities either. He wouldn’t observe the special legalities they had put in place to order how people lived their lives and interacted with their God. He did not behave properly, he would not be controlled or categorised, and he was a menace to those whose power depended on the sanctity of certain rules, regulations, and structures.

“You want to see sacred?” Jesus seemed to say. “I’ll show you what sacred looks like…” He performed miracles when he wasn’t supposed to; he forgave people’s sins when - in the eyes of his contemporaries - only God had that right; he raised people from the dead when they should have stayed in their tombs; he cleared the Temple with a whip when people were making a mockery out of it; he told stories with shocking endings; he claimed an intimacy with God that was blasphemous. He got the whole countryside in an uproar so scandalous that something had to be done about it.

Something was done about it. He died a scandalous death, falsely accused and convicted, whipped and beaten, with a mocking crown pushed onto his head. He died a criminal’s death, a cursed death. A scandalous death, to befit a scandalous life. The Cross is a stumbling block to the Jews. Foolishness to the Greeks. A scandal to the world.

And the greatest scandal of all? He wouldn’t stay dead.

Jesus chose the way of scandal, and in doing so identified with everyone who has stood firm when the tide of opinion was against them, who was not afraid to appear foolish in defence of the truth. Jesus was willing to risk absolutely everything, to be a scandal in front of his entire creation, so that he could communicate his scandalous love to us.

What will you risk?