Jesus is My Homeboy

I was walking in the mall today and went past Journeys. Displayed on the wall near the entrance was a T-shirt that pictured Christ with this message "Jesus is my homeboy".



I thought to myself what is that? What does that mean?

I was offended.

Jesus is so much more than that!

"Homeboy" just seems to minimize His worth. I thought Jesus is my SAVIOR! my REDEEMER! My CREATOR!

How can someone lower His status to "homeboy", and then I really started to think about it. What is a "homeboy"? So I went to my trusted source, the Urban Dictionary. A homeboy is one's "closest friend" by one informal definition.

Jesus is my friend. He calls me friend. Jesus desires a close personal relationship with me. What, Who can be closer than the Lover of my Soul? I wondered now, is Jesus my homeboy?

So I went to Dictionary.com and learned

home-boy n. Slang
1. A male friend or acquaintance from one's neighborhood or hometown.
2. A fellow male gang member.

Ok, I can deal with a couple of the definitions of "homeboy", but I am thinking that in fact some of the meanings of the word "homeboy" just aren't very edifying at all. Jesus is NOT a gang member...sure, He led a "gang" of people around, but I don't think people locked their car doors when they came near. In the Urban Dictionary one definition actually says a homeboy is "a cat I...puff with, roll with..." I don't think Jesus was puffing, except when he dragged that cross to Golgotha. I really don't see him "rolling" with anyone either.

I am not sure how I feel about calling Jesus my homeboy. I guess if that is the terminology one is familiar with, it may be appropriate to use, but for me, I find the terminology innappropriate to use to describe Him. No word, or words, can describe Him because He IS the Word. Unfortunately, I find too many negative connotations with the word "homeboy" and nothing negative should ever be connected to Him. I don't think I will call Jesus my homeboy.