His words turned heads; his deeds saved souls

Getting people's attention, in a world full of distractions, calls for creative strategies.

At one time in our nation's history, when traffic moved more slowly on two-lane roads before the advent of the interstate highway system, a particular company found a way to get motorists to take note of its product.

Those of a certain age will recall the genius behind the old Burma Shave shaving cream placards. The owners of the company began putting up small sequential road signs in 1925. They featured brief phrases that built on one another in succession. To wit: No matter/How you slice it/It's still your face/Be humane/Use/Burma Shave. Six signs and passing motorists were enraptured -- eager to learn the punchline. Here's another: Does your husband/Misbehave/Grunt and grumble/Rant and rave/Shoot the brute some/Burma Shave. Always six sequential signs. Sales for Burma Shave exploded. When the interstate highway system took hold in the 1950s and speeds increased, it became very difficult to read the Burma Shave signs and the company discontinued their use in 1963.

Today, drivers look at their GPS devices and talk into their cellphones. Attention-getting messages come from an illuminated screen rather than by sequential roadside placards. It's a wonder we still pay much attention to the road with all the beeping and buzzing going on inside the passenger compartment.

Was it easier for Jesus to get and keep the attention of people during his earthly ministry? It was a world with no motorized vehicles, no technology of any contemporary variety and absent the constant visual stimuli we all take for granted. For those who trust, the book of Isaiah contains accurate prophecies of the coming Messiah, then it can be posited that Jesus of Nazareth didn't turn heads with his appearance. "He had no dignity or beauty to make us take notice of him. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing that would draw us to him." (Isaiah 53:2/Good News Translation)

What was it about Jesus that made grown men leave their jobs -- and sometimes their families (e.g., Peter) to follow him around for more than three years? Certainly his reputation as a healer brought crowds from Galilee and later Judea. Even a cursory examination of the early first century A.D., though, reveals that there were other miracle workers making the rounds in Palestine. There had to be more about Jesus that got attention.

There was. Put simply his words turned heads. They were sometimes very direct: "No one comes to the Father but through me," (John 14:6) or "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." (John 8:7). More often, though, his words were mysterious. He spoke in parables to make his listeners think. He compared the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed, one of the smallest seeds produced in creation and which can easily be lost in the palm of one's hand. (Matthew 13:31) His words about forgiving endlessly, "seventy times seven," (Matthew 18:22) were simply revolutionary. In an environment of Roman oppression, where might made right, his words spoke of a world where earthly values simply have no currency -- about turning the other cheek and about letting the man who sues you for a shirt have your cloak as well. No one ever talked that way before.

As his words turned heads, his deeds saved souls. Crucified by a Roman procurator eager to get Jerusalem settled down at Passover, Jesus forgave his killers on the cross, for his executioners "know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) And by faith, I am persuaded that by his stripes, I am healed of my sin -- past, present and future.

How to sum this man up using the Burma Shave method? No one/Can reach God/But in Jesus/A way was found/For God/To reach us.

Dr. Jeff Long of Jackson is executive director of the Chateau Girardeau Foundation and teaches religion at SEMO.