Yesterday in church my lines got blurred. Normally I think blurring the lines is a bad thing…things are not clear, there is no perspective, everything melds into one big pot of confusion. But something clicked yesterday for me. All my clear cut lines of faith were questioned. In some ways I am very open to different aspects of faith. I see Jesus as a sort of rebel who stood up to the religious figures of the day — someone who stood with the broken — someone who comforted the ones in despair — but that is where my image of Jesus stopped. I never once thought of Jesus as ’supernatural’. I am a big sci-fi person…if it deals with ghosts, aliens, paranormal, mythical, etc…I am in! The supernatural is fictional something that makes great stories but is not real.

Sunday siting in church my perception of supernatural was changed. In Acts 23 (and a few other places but for this sake I am keeping it to Acts 23) Jesus stands next to Paul. What is so strange about this? Well besides the fact that Jesus had already been crucified, buried AND rose from the dead the man, the Son of God had ascended into heaven. So despite all this Jesus stands next to Paul…now if that is not something right out of a Stephen King novel I am not sure what it.

The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” Acts 23:11

In the moment that Jesus came to Paul he told him to take courage that his future is set. At this time Paul was in prison and the Jews were out to kill him. Jesus comes in and says you will go on — you have work yet to do. I wonder what Paul was thinking…something along the lines of Now I know this guy has done all kinds of crazy things but I know he flew into Heaven but here He is standing next to me…standing next to me and telling me that I am going to live. That would have been amazingly awesome. Jesus standing there in his supernatural self.

My eyes were opened to the story in Acts 23 in a new way. I read it now and see scenes from the Matrix pop in my head. It makes me excited to re-read the gospels to look at them as a sci-fi movie and see all the wonders.

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