Order/Peace

Then they attempted to arrest Jesus, but actually no one laid a finger on him because the right moment had not yet come. Many of the crowd believed in him and kept on saying, “When Christ comes, is he going to show greater signs than this man?”

The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about him, and they and the chief priests sent officers to arrest him. (John 7:30-32)

I think it's impossible to overstate how much we, most of the time, underestimate the chaos into which Jesus threw everything around Him. We preach and teach Him as so placid and calm, but there’s always so much craziness happening where He is. Look at this John 7 scene, for example: Jesus has just spoken some bold words; one group lunges forward to try to grab Him; somehow He avoids them; another group is standing back, marveling and believing He’s the One; while, in the shadows, the Pharisees call over the officers and send them to arrest Him...

Personally, I would never describe Jesus’ ministry as being particularly orderly; most of the time, His words and actions actually disordered people’s comfortable understandings and forced them to confront their set spiritual patterns and behaviors. In fact, we should probably all beware any ministry in Jesus’ name that seems to claim to have it all figured out! Because Paul didn't say in 1 Corinthians: “God is not a God of disorder but of order,” he said, “God is not a God of disorder but of peace.” I think we probably need less orderliness in the Body of Christ and a greater dose of the peace He brings in the midst of His own brand of chaos.

The best and most-like-Jesus charge against the Early Church came at Thessalonica: “These men who have unsettled the whole world have now come here.” 

Oh, to be unsettling according to the pattern of Jesus!