Jesus was a rabble-rouser who disrupted societal norms and the status quo. This is not the image of God who we often celebrate or lift up. We like to paint him as a picture of peace and gentleness because these characteristics are what he preached to all those who gathered around him to be: meek, kind, gentle, and to turn the other cheek. Yet, exploring his journey on earth we see a man who ruffled religious leaders’  and government leaders’ feathers. A man who broke God’s law of the Sabbath. A man who was anything but gentle when he went head to head with those who dictated the course of society’s thinking and moral behavior. If we see Christ as passive, then we miss out on the deeper lessons taught in his parables. The lessons that we can all immediately relate to and not feel good about ourselves when we do. If we were standing in the crowd listening to Jesus today, would we want to exalt him, stone him, or write him off psychologically imbalanced?