“Jesus was a rebel” is a favorite slogan of Christian pastors and authors trying to “reach twentysomethings,” as they say. The logic? 1) Young people think Christianity is tired, boring, stale. 2) Young people are naturally rebellious and contrarian. THEREFORE… 3) Maybe Christianity will be fresh and exciting to them if it is framed in the context of subversion and rebellion.

But I’m not so sure that’s a sound syllogism.

It’s not a stretch to say that Jesus was a rebel. He was. He was bucking the system, turning over tables, and saying all sorts of subversive things in the days when he was walking the earth. It is perfectly appropriate, then, for Christians to call Jesus a rebel or a subversive. And it certainly fits neatly into any sort of a “Christianity is hip” PR ambition a church might be undertaking. Hipsters love rebels, and even if they loathe church or Christians, most of them still think Jesus is pretty dang cool.

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I was the sixteen-year-old who gasped when my friend tattooed Winnie the Pooh to her pelvic bone. All I could picture was her eighty-year-old frame and a saggy, wrinkled bear waving a red balloon.

But now I’m a little different.

I like tattoos.

Was out the other night and saw a mesmerizing one from across the room. The lighting was dim, so at first I couldn’t make out more than a kaleidoscope of hues. But as I moved closer, the colors wrote themselves into, RUINED FOR LESS. I rarely remember Scripture references, so if it weren’t for this phrase being in the Acknowledgements of my first book, I would've missed it.

But I did.

In Isaiah 6, the prophet describes a radical experience of coming face to face with God. “Woe to me, for I am ruined,” he said, aghast that the majesties of God chose to intersect with him. And never again, he implies, may we be ruined by anything less.

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