THE FAITH DISRUPTORS
[6-minute read]
Living with a high degree of predictability and routine may be beneficial in some settings and for a season of life. But for Christian growth, we must leave the door open to some degree of spontaneity, change and even disruptions in life. As urbanites who are accustomed to relying on apps for everything from calendar management to travel, exercise and leisure, disruptions can be endlessly frustrating and seem extremely unproductive.
How did Jesus ever react to disruptions? He was constantly on the move, regularly disrupted in His plans, and often stopped in His tracks. Yet, His life seemed to have a special place to accommodate unplanned disruptions. Rather than being relegated to footnotes in His ministry, He turned them into keynotes for teachings about the life of faith.
Not surprisingly, the Bible is not short of people who are Faith Disruptors. Collins dictionary describes disruption as a person or thing that interrupts a process or event by preventing it from continuing in a normal way. While the word ‘disrupt’ often suggests an interruption that carries negative connotations, ‘Faith Disruptors’ are those who cause changes in the lives and faith of the people they interact with.
Here are three such ‘Faith Disruptors’ mentioned in the Bible:
1. Four Best Friends Forever
Luke 5:17-20 and 24b-26 detailed four loyal friends who disrupted Jesus when He was in a teaching session and healing people. Instead of approaching Jesus in the normal and expected way, they took unconventional steps to make sure that their paralyzed friend could get near Jesus for the chance to be healed. On account of their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” By calling him ‘Friend’, he was no longer just the paralyzed person (physical condition) or a sinner (spiritual condition), but now also a friend of Jesus.
2. One Grateful Illustrious Woman
Luke 7:36-38 described a woman with a dubious reputation who showed up uninvited at a prestigious by-invite-only dinner. What she carried was a heart of gratefulness that gave her the entry permit to get close to Jesus. Instead of being embarrassed by her, the Lord told her “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:50).
3. One Desperate Ostracized Woman
Finally, Luke 8:42b-48 narrated the story of a woman who had an unusual health condition and although it was not contagious, she was alienated by her community because of the stigma of that condition. She approached Jesus furtively when He was en route to heal a 12-year-old girl who was dying.
Here are three things we can learn from these disruptors:
No name to make a name
Today, if what these faith disruptors did went viral on social media, their identities would be revealed very quickly and publicly. While we can surmise that the four friends who helped their handicapped friend in such a public way were known to the paralytic, and we also know that the woman with a questionable past who poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet was known to the dinner host, we know next to nothing about them or even about the woman who emerged from obscurity with an incurable illness.
None of them did what they did because they held important social positions, or they wanted to become famous. We cannot confuse prominence with significance. Significant things can be done without drawing special attention to ourselves. For that reason, a faith disruptor can be a nameless actor in society, or just another face in the crowd.
Yet God sees everything. As such, when Jesus called her, ‘Daughter’, the woman who was ostracized because of the stigma of her illness walked away not only healed, but also given a name closer than that of a friend.
Not bothered by limitations and boundaries
God is love. Love invites, initiates, intervenes and invents new ways to make something work for someone without self-gain. The four friends did not allow a full-capacity situation to stop them from being creative and committed to their mission to help their friend. No one would blame them for not trying harder, or for putting off their mission out of safety considerations. Today, we could think of similar excuses for not converting our love into action. We don’t drive. We have no one to help us carry out our care mission. We must have permission to do things right. All these excuses sound so right.
Tell that to the woman who gate-crashed a private event to approach Jesus. To the respectable crowd that night, she might have carried the stench of a contemptible past life but to Jesus, the perfume she poured on His feet carried the fragrance of passion that all the affluence and prominence of the people in the room could not give Him.
And when the woman who had been sick for 12 years found herself at the precipice of change, she went for broke and pressed through the immovable and impenetrable packs of people around Jesus – and succeeded. No obstacle could outmatch her desire to reach the Lord.
Jesus’ ministry was not compromised
None of the acts of these faith disruptors compromised Jesus’ ministry. If anything, they became the main protaganists who showed us what faith and love should look like. They might have disrupted the Lord’s itinerary, conversations and even ‘time off’, but they did not disrupt the course of His ministry. Rather, it was the opposite!
When Jesus said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home” and the man stood up and ‘went home praising God’, it created an explosion of praise among the crowds who declared, “We have seen remarkable things today.” Was Jesus upstaged? No way.
When the woman lavished on Jesus the precious perfume from her alabaster jar, wiping and kissing His feet with deep expressions of gratitude, He restored her dignity by writing a new chapter in her biography (Luke 7:44-47).
When the other unnamed woman went home knowing that she was healed before Jesus even identified her from the crowd, she showed us that faith does not operate by religious artefacts and church programmes.
What this all means is that anyone of us can become faith disruptors instead of being secret Christians, afraid of being detected. Disruptors are powered by something beyond their natural abilities and personality to put themselves out there for a necessary change. And disruptions are not necessarily earth-shaking moves. Disruptive presence, disruptive conversations, disruptive surprises are all great ways to deliver courage and comfort to others in their ordinary moments of life when God is most real. The disruptors’ disruptions will change their own growth trajectory. Think of a disruptive move to instill faith, hope and joy into someone’s life today! Let’s all be unstoppable faith disruptors.
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 29 April 2023.
