But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them.
- 2 Samuel 24:24
David has screwed up. Big time. He took a census, mainly to be able to boast in how awesome his army was. This ticked God off, because David (and because the people follow the king- Israel as well) was trusting in himself, and not God. So,God gives David a choice- 3 years of famine, 3 months of pursuit by enemies, or 3 days of plague. David goes with plague. So for three days, 70,000 people die, but God relents at the threshing floor of Araunah. David goes to build an altar of remembrance there, and Araunah wants to give it to him: no charge. This elicits David's response above. And it points us to true worship, thousands of years later.
Jesus was tough to follow. Not just because He spoke in thinly veiled parables and seemed to prefer going on foot everywhere. He was (and is) hard to follow because He expects so much from us.
Wait. Jesus expects things from us? How does that jive with the modern idea that Jesus is all about grace and forgiveness and taking care of us?
The truth is, it doesn't. And it does. Jesus does offer grace, forgiveness and provision. And He requires nothing of us to receive His salvation- His rescue from our failures and mistakes and sins. But if you take His name, if you claim to KNOW Him, there better be some evidence.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
-Matthew 7:21-23
Jesus says doing things in His name doesn't mean you know Him. Just because one attends church, wears a cross or ichthus, obeys the 'rules,' prays and reads the Bible doesn't mean they know Him. For a lot of people, we become fearful and concerned that we don't really know Him, that we are just faking it- with the best of intentions. I've been there.
I've had those times of doubting my relationship with God. Not that He was holding up His end, but that I was being genuine in mine. I've had times in my life when my consistency with prayer and time in the Bible was like clockwork. But looking back, my relationship with Jesus was at best distant. I was doing things that seemed right because that's what everyone said I was supposed to do to have a 'strong relationship with God.' The problem is, prayer and Bible study- just like "prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles" can be done without a relationship with God. The Bible tells us that the name of Jesus is powerful, and we see that people without God in their lives can do miraculous things. And they can do things that seem holy, but are in fact...well, selfish.
The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
- Isaiah 29:13
All the way back to the Old Testament, people were faking it. Maybe that's not entirely accurate, maybe it was more that they were fooling themselves. They were doing what man said we had to do, not what The LORD said to do. The Pharisees came about because of this type of thinking, and they were the biggest opposition to Jesus. Why? Because He spoke of knowing and listening to the Words of the Father- they wanted to just keep reading and re-interpreting to maintain their control, their way of living.
They didn't want to give anything to God that cost them something.
So, what does it mean for us? Can we be secure in our relationship with Jesus? Or will we be the people Jesus says He never knew?
I believe we can answer that. Starting with the Matthew passage above- what Jesus tells us is that those who do the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The only way for us know the will of the Father is to listen for it- and the best way to listen and respond to someone is to be in a relationship with them. The will of the Father, when we look at the whole of Scripture, is that we desire and pursue knowing Him. Not knowing about Him, but knowing Him like you know friends and family. The Isaiah passage is God summing that idea up into bringing your heart near to Him. And you don't do that by giving Him lip service and going through the motions. So, how do our hearts draw near to Him?
The answer is: How do you draw your heart near to a loved one? You want to be with them. You make time for them- real, genuine time, not just to check it off. You give them your attention, your affection, and you desire- deeply- them returning theirs. If you love them enough, you will sacrifice your own will and desires and schedules to be with them.
And so we come back to David. He wouldn't give to God anything that cost him nothing. David, we hear, is a man after God's heart. If we want God, it is going to cost us. It'll cost us our precious sins and selfishness. It may cost our comfort and security. It may cost us earthly relationships and success. It will most definitely cost us our lives. We may not die physically, but we must relinquish all that we hold dear to Him. We must be willing to walk away from attitudes, actions, hobbies, interests, and ideologies. See, He demands it all. And He has the right to demand our all.
After all, He gave us His all on the Cross.
So I challenge you, whatever it is that holds you back from Him today- give it to Him. Though the cost may seem more than you can bear, the cost of hearing Jesus say He never knew you is far more than you can imagine.
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, February 28, 2011
How Jesus Beat Temptation and You Can, Too!
What if Jesus sinned?
It's a scary thought, really. I mean, if Jesus had sinned, we'd still be in need of a Savior. He was perfect in His life, so His sacrifice was worthy- perfect, that is- to fulfill the law's demands for punishment. The problem is, I think we tend to forget or at least gloss over the fact that Jesus could have sinned.
Luke 4 contains one of three versions of the temptation in the desert- all of them begin with Jesus being led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. Wait- check that out- Jesus was led by the Spirit knowingly into a situation that would hold massive temptation. It is almost like Jesus was being tested by the Spirit- and His Father. Now, the other 2/3's of the Trinity did not cause the temptation, but they did put Jesus in Satan's cross-hairs (heh, pun un-intended). The Father and the Spirit knew that a Savior who got a free pass would not be much of a Savior- Jesus had to be able to actually face and resist temptation to be the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God. If Jesus had never faced temptation, He would not know how to relate to us when we are tempted. Instead, Jesus listened to the tempting voice of Satan, and said, "Nope."
It wasn't just that He refused to give in, it was how. He responded, each time, with Scripture. Not a hollow kind of Scripture memory, words Jesus chose to use were pointed to the specific temptation of Satan.
What Kind of Bread?
When Satan tempted with bread, Jesus spoke words that referred to Deuteronomy 8:3, "He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." Luke only records Jesus saying the "man doesn't live on bread alone" part, but the reference is clearly stating that man needs the words of God. Jesus knew of this need, because He had come to the desert after His baptism- a baptism in which He heard His Father proclaim, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) Jesus is telling Satan (and us) that the affirmation of our Father is more sustenance than any bread- literal or figurative. Jesus knew the power of those words, and used that power to withstand all of Satan's attacks.
Power Play
Satan next appeals to the power hungry. Fortunately Jesus is not power hungry. The Accuser offers power over all the world- something I believe Satan had the authority to give, you know, being the prince of this world and all. The funny thing is, Satan offers what Jesus will ultimately have anyway. Jesus will reign over the earth- so the temptation Satan offered was a short cut. Worship Satan, get power now without suffering the Cross. Jesus responds by saying something that hearkened back to Deuteronomy 6:13. Jesus says worship, where Deuteronomy says "Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name." Revere God only. No one else is above the Father, not Satan, not the Son. See, Satan says worship me, but the real temptation was for Jesus to be a 'self-made man.' To get all the power coming to Him by way of a path apart from the Father's Will. The worship would ultimately be a worship of Himself apart from the Father, because He had made it Himself. Jesus knew that for the Father's plan to work, He had to stick to it, and at the heart of it all, Jesus loved and revered the Father more than Himself.
Don't Test Me
Finally, Satan throws his curve. He quotes the Psalms about Jesus having the power to command the angels to protect Him. The appeal here is to entitlement. "Jesus, the Father OWES you protection." Again Jesus goes to that book that we so often glance past quickly, Deuteronomy 6:16: "Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah." Massah is the place where the Israelites called God out, saying He brought them out of the plentiful food and water (and slavery) of Egypt to die in the dry, foodless desert. Moses was told to strike a rock, and water flowed. But the damage had been done, the Israelites had claimed their entitlement- "If we're really the Chosen Ones, come through. Hold up your end of the bargain- if you're really there." Jesus knew that the Father OWED Him nothing. Jesus was a servant of His Father...and a Servant of all people. To claim His importance in such a way as Satan tempted would be Jesus claiming His own greatness- that He was more than us. And though He is more than us, He came to walk amongst us, to know our sufferings, to know our pains. And yes, to know our temptations.
That's the heart of the temptation in the desert. To get Jesus to take the easy way out. And really, that's the same temptation we face daily- to take the easy, self-centered path. None of us are called to be Savior like Jesus was, but I bet we're called to live a life of importance to God. When we face temptation and give in, we are surrendering the greater plan the Father has for us. Yes, we will fail. But we must, at some point, face those temptations that derail and respond as Jesus did.
And how did He respond? Out of a vibrant and active relationship with His Father. No matter what defenses we set up against temptation, they will fail if our relationship with God is weak. Jesus was secure and strong in His relationship. He was walking in that strength when He went into the desert to be tested. Just as He walked with the Father in all of His days. And when Satan returned to tempt at a more opportune time, as Luke 4:13 says, Jesus was ready.
For He still walked hand and hand with the Father. And nothing could separate that.
Imagine what we could be if we lived like Jesus did through His temptation.
It's a scary thought, really. I mean, if Jesus had sinned, we'd still be in need of a Savior. He was perfect in His life, so His sacrifice was worthy- perfect, that is- to fulfill the law's demands for punishment. The problem is, I think we tend to forget or at least gloss over the fact that Jesus could have sinned.
Luke 4 contains one of three versions of the temptation in the desert- all of them begin with Jesus being led into the desert by the Holy Spirit. Wait- check that out- Jesus was led by the Spirit knowingly into a situation that would hold massive temptation. It is almost like Jesus was being tested by the Spirit- and His Father. Now, the other 2/3's of the Trinity did not cause the temptation, but they did put Jesus in Satan's cross-hairs (heh, pun un-intended). The Father and the Spirit knew that a Savior who got a free pass would not be much of a Savior- Jesus had to be able to actually face and resist temptation to be the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God. If Jesus had never faced temptation, He would not know how to relate to us when we are tempted. Instead, Jesus listened to the tempting voice of Satan, and said, "Nope."
It wasn't just that He refused to give in, it was how. He responded, each time, with Scripture. Not a hollow kind of Scripture memory, words Jesus chose to use were pointed to the specific temptation of Satan.
What Kind of Bread?
When Satan tempted with bread, Jesus spoke words that referred to Deuteronomy 8:3, "He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." Luke only records Jesus saying the "man doesn't live on bread alone" part, but the reference is clearly stating that man needs the words of God. Jesus knew of this need, because He had come to the desert after His baptism- a baptism in which He heard His Father proclaim, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) Jesus is telling Satan (and us) that the affirmation of our Father is more sustenance than any bread- literal or figurative. Jesus knew the power of those words, and used that power to withstand all of Satan's attacks.
Power Play
Satan next appeals to the power hungry. Fortunately Jesus is not power hungry. The Accuser offers power over all the world- something I believe Satan had the authority to give, you know, being the prince of this world and all. The funny thing is, Satan offers what Jesus will ultimately have anyway. Jesus will reign over the earth- so the temptation Satan offered was a short cut. Worship Satan, get power now without suffering the Cross. Jesus responds by saying something that hearkened back to Deuteronomy 6:13. Jesus says worship, where Deuteronomy says "Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name." Revere God only. No one else is above the Father, not Satan, not the Son. See, Satan says worship me, but the real temptation was for Jesus to be a 'self-made man.' To get all the power coming to Him by way of a path apart from the Father's Will. The worship would ultimately be a worship of Himself apart from the Father, because He had made it Himself. Jesus knew that for the Father's plan to work, He had to stick to it, and at the heart of it all, Jesus loved and revered the Father more than Himself.
Don't Test Me
Finally, Satan throws his curve. He quotes the Psalms about Jesus having the power to command the angels to protect Him. The appeal here is to entitlement. "Jesus, the Father OWES you protection." Again Jesus goes to that book that we so often glance past quickly, Deuteronomy 6:16: "Do not put the LORD your God to the test as you did at Massah." Massah is the place where the Israelites called God out, saying He brought them out of the plentiful food and water (and slavery) of Egypt to die in the dry, foodless desert. Moses was told to strike a rock, and water flowed. But the damage had been done, the Israelites had claimed their entitlement- "If we're really the Chosen Ones, come through. Hold up your end of the bargain- if you're really there." Jesus knew that the Father OWED Him nothing. Jesus was a servant of His Father...and a Servant of all people. To claim His importance in such a way as Satan tempted would be Jesus claiming His own greatness- that He was more than us. And though He is more than us, He came to walk amongst us, to know our sufferings, to know our pains. And yes, to know our temptations.
That's the heart of the temptation in the desert. To get Jesus to take the easy way out. And really, that's the same temptation we face daily- to take the easy, self-centered path. None of us are called to be Savior like Jesus was, but I bet we're called to live a life of importance to God. When we face temptation and give in, we are surrendering the greater plan the Father has for us. Yes, we will fail. But we must, at some point, face those temptations that derail and respond as Jesus did.
And how did He respond? Out of a vibrant and active relationship with His Father. No matter what defenses we set up against temptation, they will fail if our relationship with God is weak. Jesus was secure and strong in His relationship. He was walking in that strength when He went into the desert to be tested. Just as He walked with the Father in all of His days. And when Satan returned to tempt at a more opportune time, as Luke 4:13 says, Jesus was ready.
For He still walked hand and hand with the Father. And nothing could separate that.
Imagine what we could be if we lived like Jesus did through His temptation.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Is Jesus Legalistic or Grace?
I don't speed.
I just don't do it. I keep my cruise set at whatever the speed limit is posted at and don't rise above or below it. I don't do it because I'm a good person, I do it because I hate spending money on things I don't want. Like tickets.
I guess if I'm honest, I follow most rules simply because I don't like the consequences of not following them. I don't love laws- in fact I think we have too many. (I don't like the government telling me how long I have to keep my kid in a car seat- which since my kids are tiny will be until they get their license.) But I keep them because I don't want to pay a fine or hear the harsh clang of steel bars. To be fair, some laws I follow because I feel morally obligated- like the whole not killing or stealing or committing adultery (which is most definitely a spiritual law, not a judicial one in our society).
It could be said we have laws for lots of reasons like safety and civility. I think we also have laws to make us feel in control. If we obey the rules, we know we are good people and good people control their own destiny. We like rules because they tell us just what we need to do.
God knew this about us, which is why He gave us the Commandments. He knew we'd never figure it out on our own, and we felt we needed to control our own lives, so He gave us Laws. With Laws came consequences and punishments. With consequences and punishment came judgment. With judgment came Pharisees. With Pharisees came Jesus. And with Jesus came fulfilment.
The Law is not the problem, even if that is what much of the world would have you believe. They say the problem with God is that He has too many rules, and thus He is no fun. Jesus walked into the world and said, very clearly, that the rules were not going away just because He came. No, they were in fact going to be fulfilled. This was what we call a 'bummer' to the Jews, a society oppressed with countless laws on top of the Law. See, they were burden by laws that men made to make God's Law more difficult to live by. Laws that took away freedom. Laws that bound the keeper- not to God, but to the laws. In simplistic terms, they no longer refused to murder because the loved God, they refused to murder because they loved the law.
Jesus came on and said that the law stands, but what needs to change is our reasoning for keeping it. We don't keep it for fear of consequence, or for respect for the man-made institutions that keep the law: we are to keep the Law out of Love for God. And Jesus set out to keep the Law. That is, the Law of God, not the Pharisaical law. See, he came to expose the control-minded laws of man by living out the Laws of God. Law Lovers say it is more important to pass the injured man by if it is the Sabbath (day of rest), lest we help him and sin by breaking the Sabbath. God Lovers say it is more important that the man be rescued so that he can enjoy the restful day of Sabbath and those that follow. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, Pharisees let you rot. The Law had been allowed to make us selfish- legalism was about making sure we were right to the exclusion of concern for others.
Jesus fulfilled the Law by completing the "don't" laws as well as the "do" laws. Not only did He abstain from murder, theft, adultery and the lot, He fully engaged in caring for His fellow humans and worshiping God. More than that, He fulfilled the Law of God by taking the punishment the Law owed to all who fell short. His death was fulfilment in that the punishment for all sin was given to the one man who didn't deserve it. He became the scapegoat ( a Jewish tradition of sending a goat covered with the sins of the people out in the wilderness to die, thus taking the people's sin with it) for all of mankind. Our sins died with Him, even though He didn't deserve to die and we didn't deserve to live.
So, the age old question of whether Jesus was about the Law or about Grace is answered in true, God-like fashion: He's both. On this side of the Cross, we have the Grace covering our screw-ups, but there is still this expectation that we would seek to live to please God. And that's just it- we should follow God's Laws not for the sake of following the rules, or being a good person, but for the love we have for our God. The kind of Law following Jesus shows us is the kind that puts the focus on God- never on us. We would fall forever short of the scrutiny and intricacies of the Law.
But Jesus can take it. And He did.
For us.
I just don't do it. I keep my cruise set at whatever the speed limit is posted at and don't rise above or below it. I don't do it because I'm a good person, I do it because I hate spending money on things I don't want. Like tickets.
I guess if I'm honest, I follow most rules simply because I don't like the consequences of not following them. I don't love laws- in fact I think we have too many. (I don't like the government telling me how long I have to keep my kid in a car seat- which since my kids are tiny will be until they get their license.) But I keep them because I don't want to pay a fine or hear the harsh clang of steel bars. To be fair, some laws I follow because I feel morally obligated- like the whole not killing or stealing or committing adultery (which is most definitely a spiritual law, not a judicial one in our society).
It could be said we have laws for lots of reasons like safety and civility. I think we also have laws to make us feel in control. If we obey the rules, we know we are good people and good people control their own destiny. We like rules because they tell us just what we need to do.
God knew this about us, which is why He gave us the Commandments. He knew we'd never figure it out on our own, and we felt we needed to control our own lives, so He gave us Laws. With Laws came consequences and punishments. With consequences and punishment came judgment. With judgment came Pharisees. With Pharisees came Jesus. And with Jesus came fulfilment.
The Law is not the problem, even if that is what much of the world would have you believe. They say the problem with God is that He has too many rules, and thus He is no fun. Jesus walked into the world and said, very clearly, that the rules were not going away just because He came. No, they were in fact going to be fulfilled. This was what we call a 'bummer' to the Jews, a society oppressed with countless laws on top of the Law. See, they were burden by laws that men made to make God's Law more difficult to live by. Laws that took away freedom. Laws that bound the keeper- not to God, but to the laws. In simplistic terms, they no longer refused to murder because the loved God, they refused to murder because they loved the law.
Jesus came on and said that the law stands, but what needs to change is our reasoning for keeping it. We don't keep it for fear of consequence, or for respect for the man-made institutions that keep the law: we are to keep the Law out of Love for God. And Jesus set out to keep the Law. That is, the Law of God, not the Pharisaical law. See, he came to expose the control-minded laws of man by living out the Laws of God. Law Lovers say it is more important to pass the injured man by if it is the Sabbath (day of rest), lest we help him and sin by breaking the Sabbath. God Lovers say it is more important that the man be rescued so that he can enjoy the restful day of Sabbath and those that follow. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, Pharisees let you rot. The Law had been allowed to make us selfish- legalism was about making sure we were right to the exclusion of concern for others.
Jesus fulfilled the Law by completing the "don't" laws as well as the "do" laws. Not only did He abstain from murder, theft, adultery and the lot, He fully engaged in caring for His fellow humans and worshiping God. More than that, He fulfilled the Law of God by taking the punishment the Law owed to all who fell short. His death was fulfilment in that the punishment for all sin was given to the one man who didn't deserve it. He became the scapegoat ( a Jewish tradition of sending a goat covered with the sins of the people out in the wilderness to die, thus taking the people's sin with it) for all of mankind. Our sins died with Him, even though He didn't deserve to die and we didn't deserve to live.
So, the age old question of whether Jesus was about the Law or about Grace is answered in true, God-like fashion: He's both. On this side of the Cross, we have the Grace covering our screw-ups, but there is still this expectation that we would seek to live to please God. And that's just it- we should follow God's Laws not for the sake of following the rules, or being a good person, but for the love we have for our God. The kind of Law following Jesus shows us is the kind that puts the focus on God- never on us. We would fall forever short of the scrutiny and intricacies of the Law.
But Jesus can take it. And He did.
For us.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Who Do You Say He Is?
I've been a Batman fan for as long as I can remember. I first learned of him through Super Friends re-runs and the '60's TV show. I read the occasional comic book. Then it was 1989 and Tim Burton did a movie that changed things for me. Batman was serious, and dangerous. Then I really became a fan. Burton continued with Batman Returns, but then Joel Schumacher made Batman Forever, and the goofy came back. This was not my Batman anymore. Then there was Batman and Robin. I'll not say anything else about that. But I had another version of Batman to keep me happy- found in the animated series and later the Justice League cartoon. All the while, the comic book Batman stayed like I liked him- dark, serious, and not a people person. When Christopher Nolan brought his more realistic, more serious version of Batman to life in Batman Begins and the Dark Knight- I was ecstatic. MY favorite version of Batman was out there for the world to see.
There have been numerous directors and actors to bring their vision of Batman to life- each with his own twist, his own little bit of definition that makes it 'their' Batman. And thats not to mention the 70+ years of writers who put their mark on the character. They can look at their work and say proudly, "That's who I say he is." And they have every right to do that- he is a fictional character and he is meant to be molded to the vision of the creator currently handling him. He is a tool of entertainment.
But Jesus isn't. Never has been. But like actors, directors, and writers we want to put OUR stamp on Jesus. It's so tempting to try to see Jesus as we want to see Him. Part of that is good and needs to happen: we need to see Jesus as we experience Him in our day to day lives. But the danger is when we try to change, however subtly it may be, the Truth of who He is.
It's nothing new. Jesus' own contemporaries wanted Him to be something He wasn't: a conquering political leader. Many grew frustrated and left Him when they realized the revolution He was leading would not take down an oppressive government. John the Baptist's followers questioned whether or not He was the one they expected, because He didn't fit their perceptions. Those closest to Him struggled with who He really was even after seeing all the miracles- it wasn't until after He ascended to Heaven after the Resurrection that they began to really see.
Now, we mostly like to pick and choose the things about Jesus we want to believe. Occasionally we ( and by we, I mean cult leaders, politicians and pastors like me) put words in His mouth, but mostly we just like to ignore the things He said we don't like, or justify why we don't have to still follow that teaching. We want to quote those passages about forgiveness and turning the other cheek, but conveniently forget that Jesus PHYSICALLY threw money changers out of the temple and verbally assaulted the Pharisees on numerous occasions. We want to think Jesus doesn't care about sin because He always forgives, but conveniently forget that He forgives and asks us to "go and sin no more." We take those teachings about confronting those in sin, but leave the parts about confronting in love and "removing the long in our own eye." We claim to be His chosen people, then look down on those who don't believe as if the 'chosen' part was really about something we did to earn it.
Essentially, we try to write Jesus as a character. We want to put our spin on it. And we do it with the best of intentions. There are parts of the character of Jesus- and even more so, God in the Old Testament- that aren't easy to digest, so we clean it up a bit. We try to make God as a whole easier to take, like He's medicine that needs a spoonful of sugar. We think, "What's the harm in making Jesus and God less exclusive, less difficult, more human?" If people come to know the safe (read "our") Jesus, that's all the matters, right?
At best, when they finally realize that Jesus is not so easy to grasp, that we 'sugared' Him up to make Him more palatable, then they grow frustrated. Maybe with God, maybe with the Church. At worst, we water Him down or beef Him up so much that they realize the Jesus they accepted was not really Jesus at all, but in actuality our projection of who we want Him to be.
I think this is one reason behind the Exodus of teens from the Church when they go off to college or career. They've met Jesus, but not ever really engaged Him as He is. They know a little of Him, mostly what others have said, and when they get independent and start really looking at who He is, they decide they don't really like the way Jesus characterizes Himself. They find other characters to read that make them feel good about themselves as they are. Characters that make more sense to them.
I've not read Batman comics for a year or so now because I don't like the characterization of Batman. I've moved on to Green Lantern and Flash, and I can do that with no qualms, no major consequences. I like their characters better right now, so I invest in them. I can do this because they aren't real. They are shaped by their creators. And if I don't like it, I can read about something else.
But with Christ, He is the Creator and we are the characters. It is supposed to be Him writing our actions, scripting our dialog, not the other way around. For me to stop seeking God because I don't like the way He works is the ultimate form of idolatry- it's putting me as god over God. It'd be like Batman stopping in the middle of a scene or comic panel and looking at the director or writer and saying, "Eh, I'm going to go a different way with this. It's just not working for me."
We must come to the point where we stop trying to add our characterizations to God to get Him to be who we want Him to be. We can't force Him to accept our actions, we can't justify doing things He clearly says are wrong and still call Him God or Lord. It's time we read our Bible without a preconceived notion who God should be. It's time we open it's pages and ask the Spirit to lead us to see Him as He is. When Jesus asked Peter, "Who do you say I am?" Peter said, "You are the Messiah, the son of the Living God." Jesus told him this confession came not from other people, or even from the finite mind of Peter, but was revealed to Peter by the Divine. God wants to reveal Himself to us. He longs for it because He wants to be known by us. But our prejudices and ideas of who He should be get in the way. We must go to Him and ask Him to reveal Himself, and in doing so to burn away all the junk that clutters our perception of Him.
If Christopher Nolan's version of Batman is my favorite version of Batman- then God's version of Himself is not only my favorite version of Him, it's the only true version of Him.
By that reasoning, the best version of me is the one written and directed by Jesus.
There have been numerous directors and actors to bring their vision of Batman to life- each with his own twist, his own little bit of definition that makes it 'their' Batman. And thats not to mention the 70+ years of writers who put their mark on the character. They can look at their work and say proudly, "That's who I say he is." And they have every right to do that- he is a fictional character and he is meant to be molded to the vision of the creator currently handling him. He is a tool of entertainment.
But Jesus isn't. Never has been. But like actors, directors, and writers we want to put OUR stamp on Jesus. It's so tempting to try to see Jesus as we want to see Him. Part of that is good and needs to happen: we need to see Jesus as we experience Him in our day to day lives. But the danger is when we try to change, however subtly it may be, the Truth of who He is.
It's nothing new. Jesus' own contemporaries wanted Him to be something He wasn't: a conquering political leader. Many grew frustrated and left Him when they realized the revolution He was leading would not take down an oppressive government. John the Baptist's followers questioned whether or not He was the one they expected, because He didn't fit their perceptions. Those closest to Him struggled with who He really was even after seeing all the miracles- it wasn't until after He ascended to Heaven after the Resurrection that they began to really see.
Now, we mostly like to pick and choose the things about Jesus we want to believe. Occasionally we ( and by we, I mean cult leaders, politicians and pastors like me) put words in His mouth, but mostly we just like to ignore the things He said we don't like, or justify why we don't have to still follow that teaching. We want to quote those passages about forgiveness and turning the other cheek, but conveniently forget that Jesus PHYSICALLY threw money changers out of the temple and verbally assaulted the Pharisees on numerous occasions. We want to think Jesus doesn't care about sin because He always forgives, but conveniently forget that He forgives and asks us to "go and sin no more." We take those teachings about confronting those in sin, but leave the parts about confronting in love and "removing the long in our own eye." We claim to be His chosen people, then look down on those who don't believe as if the 'chosen' part was really about something we did to earn it.
Essentially, we try to write Jesus as a character. We want to put our spin on it. And we do it with the best of intentions. There are parts of the character of Jesus- and even more so, God in the Old Testament- that aren't easy to digest, so we clean it up a bit. We try to make God as a whole easier to take, like He's medicine that needs a spoonful of sugar. We think, "What's the harm in making Jesus and God less exclusive, less difficult, more human?" If people come to know the safe (read "our") Jesus, that's all the matters, right?
At best, when they finally realize that Jesus is not so easy to grasp, that we 'sugared' Him up to make Him more palatable, then they grow frustrated. Maybe with God, maybe with the Church. At worst, we water Him down or beef Him up so much that they realize the Jesus they accepted was not really Jesus at all, but in actuality our projection of who we want Him to be.
I think this is one reason behind the Exodus of teens from the Church when they go off to college or career. They've met Jesus, but not ever really engaged Him as He is. They know a little of Him, mostly what others have said, and when they get independent and start really looking at who He is, they decide they don't really like the way Jesus characterizes Himself. They find other characters to read that make them feel good about themselves as they are. Characters that make more sense to them.
I've not read Batman comics for a year or so now because I don't like the characterization of Batman. I've moved on to Green Lantern and Flash, and I can do that with no qualms, no major consequences. I like their characters better right now, so I invest in them. I can do this because they aren't real. They are shaped by their creators. And if I don't like it, I can read about something else.
But with Christ, He is the Creator and we are the characters. It is supposed to be Him writing our actions, scripting our dialog, not the other way around. For me to stop seeking God because I don't like the way He works is the ultimate form of idolatry- it's putting me as god over God. It'd be like Batman stopping in the middle of a scene or comic panel and looking at the director or writer and saying, "Eh, I'm going to go a different way with this. It's just not working for me."
We must come to the point where we stop trying to add our characterizations to God to get Him to be who we want Him to be. We can't force Him to accept our actions, we can't justify doing things He clearly says are wrong and still call Him God or Lord. It's time we read our Bible without a preconceived notion who God should be. It's time we open it's pages and ask the Spirit to lead us to see Him as He is. When Jesus asked Peter, "Who do you say I am?" Peter said, "You are the Messiah, the son of the Living God." Jesus told him this confession came not from other people, or even from the finite mind of Peter, but was revealed to Peter by the Divine. God wants to reveal Himself to us. He longs for it because He wants to be known by us. But our prejudices and ideas of who He should be get in the way. We must go to Him and ask Him to reveal Himself, and in doing so to burn away all the junk that clutters our perception of Him.
If Christopher Nolan's version of Batman is my favorite version of Batman- then God's version of Himself is not only my favorite version of Him, it's the only true version of Him.
By that reasoning, the best version of me is the one written and directed by Jesus.
Friday, December 10, 2010
How is Jesus?
Occasionally, I run into an old college friend that I haven't seen in awhile. We talk about where we've been with our lives, our families, our careers. Usually we get around to old mutual friends, and the question will come up, "How have they been?"
Part of what I love about the age we live in is that with all the social media out there, we can keep up with old friends, and even reconnect with people we haven't seen in ages. But even with all that, there is still one thing missing. Real personal contact. That question asking how someone has been goes far beyond a tweet or a status update, its deeper than the pictures they post, but it is also a doorway to a less 'safe' relationship. To get to how people are really doing, really feeling, it means opening up our lives to theirs, and vice versa.
I began to notice something recently amongst our fellow Gate members. We talked a lot about Aggie football, a lot about new movies coming out, or new games we'd played, even some about comic books or TV shows. We spent a good deal of time talking about the things that stress us out like tests and work, and even a little time discussing how to make the church stronger and more active in service to the community. We talked about God and religion.
But someone was going the way of the old college friend we hadn't seen in a while. Sure, he was on our minds, but he was far from our conversations. I can't say if this was because we were afraid to speak his name, or if we didn't feel comfortable talking about him so personally, or if he had disappeared from our personal lives so much that we just didn't care to speak of him.
We had grown silent on Jesus.
Sure, he was mentioned in our songs and our teachings, but our day to day conversation? Not so much. Honestly, I've always found it easier to talk about God than to talk about Jesus. Yeah, they are the same guy, but God is like a title, and can be ambiguous enough to not offend. Jesus is a guy's name. It's personal. It makes him more real.
Really, I was seeing our lack of speaking of Jesus as a metaphor for how we had become spiritually. See, speaking of God is way more 'clinical,' way more religion than relationship. We can discuss theology and talk God like he is a textbook case study. We can get at the facts and the details and the historical stories. But Jesus is deeper. Jesus is about relationship. Jesus is a dude you can really get to know, and scarier yet, he can really get to know you. We as a group- all of us, including us in leadership- had chosen to discuss things of a spiritual nature in a clinical, less relational way. And we were giving in to following a religion more than a relationship.
Then one day it hit me. If Jesus is like that old college friend that we haven't spoken of or to in a while, why not ask how he's doing? So I have come up with an approach that will hopefully serve to remind us of the RELATIONSHIP we are supposed to have with Jesus. When we see each other- and I am limiting this to people in our church and other close friends I know are followers (I'm not advocating doing this to random people on the street)- I'll ask, "How is Jesus?"
It is a question meant to cover two bases. One, have you thought about Jesus at all that day. And two, because he is active in our lives, whether we know it or not, it asks what he has been doing with or teaching to us. "How is Jesus?" reminds us to think of him not as a thing to be studied, but as a person to connect with.
I hope it will mean a deeper-than-Facebook type relationship with Jesus for not only our church, but for me personally. I realize that I daily need to connect with him, not just to mark off an item on the to-do list or to learn a new fact, but to know him. Really know him. And in knowing him, to share in his life, victories and sufferings. To know him like this:
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. --Philippians 3:10-11.
Part of what I love about the age we live in is that with all the social media out there, we can keep up with old friends, and even reconnect with people we haven't seen in ages. But even with all that, there is still one thing missing. Real personal contact. That question asking how someone has been goes far beyond a tweet or a status update, its deeper than the pictures they post, but it is also a doorway to a less 'safe' relationship. To get to how people are really doing, really feeling, it means opening up our lives to theirs, and vice versa.
I began to notice something recently amongst our fellow Gate members. We talked a lot about Aggie football, a lot about new movies coming out, or new games we'd played, even some about comic books or TV shows. We spent a good deal of time talking about the things that stress us out like tests and work, and even a little time discussing how to make the church stronger and more active in service to the community. We talked about God and religion.
But someone was going the way of the old college friend we hadn't seen in a while. Sure, he was on our minds, but he was far from our conversations. I can't say if this was because we were afraid to speak his name, or if we didn't feel comfortable talking about him so personally, or if he had disappeared from our personal lives so much that we just didn't care to speak of him.
We had grown silent on Jesus.
Sure, he was mentioned in our songs and our teachings, but our day to day conversation? Not so much. Honestly, I've always found it easier to talk about God than to talk about Jesus. Yeah, they are the same guy, but God is like a title, and can be ambiguous enough to not offend. Jesus is a guy's name. It's personal. It makes him more real.
Really, I was seeing our lack of speaking of Jesus as a metaphor for how we had become spiritually. See, speaking of God is way more 'clinical,' way more religion than relationship. We can discuss theology and talk God like he is a textbook case study. We can get at the facts and the details and the historical stories. But Jesus is deeper. Jesus is about relationship. Jesus is a dude you can really get to know, and scarier yet, he can really get to know you. We as a group- all of us, including us in leadership- had chosen to discuss things of a spiritual nature in a clinical, less relational way. And we were giving in to following a religion more than a relationship.
Then one day it hit me. If Jesus is like that old college friend that we haven't spoken of or to in a while, why not ask how he's doing? So I have come up with an approach that will hopefully serve to remind us of the RELATIONSHIP we are supposed to have with Jesus. When we see each other- and I am limiting this to people in our church and other close friends I know are followers (I'm not advocating doing this to random people on the street)- I'll ask, "How is Jesus?"
It is a question meant to cover two bases. One, have you thought about Jesus at all that day. And two, because he is active in our lives, whether we know it or not, it asks what he has been doing with or teaching to us. "How is Jesus?" reminds us to think of him not as a thing to be studied, but as a person to connect with.
I hope it will mean a deeper-than-Facebook type relationship with Jesus for not only our church, but for me personally. I realize that I daily need to connect with him, not just to mark off an item on the to-do list or to learn a new fact, but to know him. Really know him. And in knowing him, to share in his life, victories and sufferings. To know him like this:
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. --Philippians 3:10-11.
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