There’s a common expression to “play it safe.”  Meaning to be careful, to not go all in, to hedge your bets so as not to risk too much — so as not to loose control. 

Jesus was so unsafe. Everything Jesus did on the earth was unsafe. He frightened people, he broke laws, angered the establishment. And yet every single person that came to him was healed.

Following him means that I stand against much of what society strives for; to be secure, safe, to know what is going on — instantly. I usually feel unsafe giving my whole heart, without reserve, to whatever I may be doing. What if I look foolish, what if I do something inappropriate, like loose my temper, or reach out to love someone, and they don’t love me back? Most of the day I’m careful — I worry about the consequences of my actions.

But Jesus was so unsafe. At the Transfiguration, the one moment Jesus was revealed as God on earth, Mark writes in his Gospel that the disciples “did not know what to say, for they were terrified.”

Sometimes in feeling terrified we may be witnesses of something great, something very much bigger then ourselves, like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. The paradox is that by loving in a way that may feel unsafe, we end up making safe living possible. We are much safer living in the hope of something much grander, and much more everlasting than ourselves.  This idea can feel unsafe, but Jesus is safe.