Quite unlike Hitler or the Stones or Hefner--who also changed the world, simply by intuiting which way the parade was heading and getting in front of it--Jesus did not give us a message we wanted to hear. He came to turn the parade in precisely the opposite direction; he spoke words hard for our canny hearts even to give credence to, much less heed: take the last place (the real parade is heading the other way), forget yourself (even your shortcomings), take up your cross, heal the hateful.