"The most important aspect of Christianity is not the work we do, but the relationship we maintain and the surrounding influence and qualities produced by that relationship. That is all God asks us to give our attention to, and it is the one thing that is continually under attack.
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- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Over the last four or five years I've been spending time with "historical Jesus" studies. Scholars like N.T. Wright, Howard Marshall, Ben Witherington, and Scot McKight have refreshed and revolutionized the way I read the Gospels.
These studies typically involve historical reviews of previous "quests" for the historical Jesus, and the common consensus is that most quests involve a scholarly look down the deep, dark well of history and result in the looker seeing his own reflection.
But lest we think "Jesus in our own image" is a sin solely owned by so-called "liberal" academics and historians, we should at least acknowledge the Western Church of the modern world is frequently just as guilty. Just because our Jesus looks different doesn't mean He's the historical Jesus.
Justin Holcomb had a good post last week at Common Grounds Online called Jesus is For Losers:
I am currently reading Stephen Prothero's American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon, which investigates the various constructions of Jesus in American history. He argues convincingly that what Americans have seen in Jesus has been a reflection of themselves. I haven't liked most versions of Jesus that Prothero sees in American cultural history—Enlightened Sage, Manly Redeemer, or Superstar—because they are mainly reflections of American ideals and hopes. While reading American Jesus I also read the Gospel accounts of Jesus and saw another interesting version: Jesus as Loser Lover (thanks to Steve Taylor for his brilliant song "Jesus is for Losers"). Jesus loved the spiritual losers: swindlers, whores, and drunkards. These were not people "achieving growth in noble virtues." Jesus told us what to think about his mission for losers: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
I'd suggest even more errant Jesuses propagated by American evangelicalism -- Success Guru Jesus, Mystical Experience Jesus, Politically Correct Jesus, Fundamentalist Jesus, Patriotic Jesus, Co-Pilot Buddy Jesus, Tony Robbins Jesus, Personal ATM Jesus, and last but certainly not least My Own "Personal" Jesus.
How do we sort through these myriad Jesuses, each of which has just enough truth in them (even if just a dash) to make them dangerous, to find the real Person Jesus Christ? I think we ought to start with the Gospels, which usually are the last texts consulted. We think we are quite familiar with them, but we are not. We think we know their stories and have been building on them for years, but the army of false Jesuses marching in the hearts of well-meaning Christians testifies otherwise.
And the Jesus Cottage Industry is making a killing on all the ways we have Jesus without the gravity of His real personality. We have endless books offering alternative histories and secret messages and "what he really said" and hidden gospels. When, if we cared to see it, the four Gospels we already have contain enough truth to challenge, comfort, convict, and create us for eternity.
Yes, I said "create" us. It was G.K. Chesterton who, in his defense of Christian orthodoxy, said, "I did not make it. It is making me."
Can we say that of Jesus? Can we say the Jesus we believe in, rest in, trust in is the Jesus who is making us? Or is He the one we'd prefer, the one who's most like us, who's safer and nicer, who reflects all of our personal or political values and idiosyncrasies? Is Jesus making us, or is he the Jesus of our own making?
It is quite possible to make an idol of Jesus. Which is not to say that Jesus is not to be worshiped. He is the only Man worthy of worship. What I mean is, it is possible to project a self-idolatry onto Jesus, to mistake our own satisfaction with ourselves for authentic discipleship, instead of worshiping the real, living God in the real, resurrected person of Jesus Christ.
Here's one personal test I subject my own reading of the Gospels to (which actually works quite well when reading any Scripture):
Is it freaking me out? :-)
Am I convicted, challenged, impressed, scared, or inspired? Am I moved?
The Word of God -- both the living Word and the written Word -- is transformational revelation. If we are not being transformed by Christ and Scripture, we are not reading Christ and Scripture correctly.
And if we constantly find them confirming our sense of self and our prejudices, leaving us unrepentant or unmoved, we have the chief indication we are looking down the deep, dark well of our own heart and seeing our own reflection.
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Comments on "My Jesus, I Love Me -- er, I Mean Thee":
3. raindream
- 02/02/2007 7:43 am CST
Kudos on this post. I think we get this way in part because we don't read the Bible or don't read it carefully. We know that material, so why read it again? We don't realize that we don't understand certain hard, radical statements Jesus makes.
What does "abiding in Him" mean?
What does "take up your cross" mean?
What does "where your treasure is, your heart is" mean?
4. Shrode
- 02/02/2007 10:12 am CST
If you think Scripture is telling you what you want to hear, take a long, hard second look
OK. That's awesome. Can I use that? Well, even if you tell me no, I still will. :)
De, put that in the quote queue dude. As is. It's simple, succint, powerful, convicting and true.
6. De
- 02/02/2007 10:41 am CST
In the rotation. It will show up in a couple hundred days (we have a long list :-)
7. Brian
- 02/02/2007 11:25 am CST
Good point about projecting ourselves and our desires onto Jesus and thus missing who He is. It's been that way since the Jews wanted a political/earthly savior and will likely never stop.
As fas as reading the Gospels, have you read The Gospel Solution? Interesting look at what Jesus was trying to accomplish during his ministry. You might like it.
8. The Ancient Mariner
- 02/02/2007 2:49 pm CST
As far as reading the Gospels, have you read The Gospel Solution?
From the website, I'm not all that impressed. Where does he go with it?
9. Bird
- 02/02/2007 3:41 pm CST
Great title--better post. :)
Seriously, this is a GOOD post, Rod. Thanks for hitting us with the truth.
10. The Ancient Mariner
- 02/02/2007 4:16 pm CST
Nice one, Bird. :) But I'll second your point all over again, because this is not only an excellent post, it's something we all need to keep alert about.
11. Brian
- 02/03/2007 12:22 am CST
From the website, I'm not all that impressed. Where does he go with it?
Here's a sample taken from a section discussing the Sermon on the Mount. I'd say it's fairly indicative :
"The main reason Jesus uttered the Sermon on the Mount was to bring people like Tom Weaver to that place where he would admit he was entirely unworthy of being in the presence of a holy God. Like that Roman soldier, I know that I do not deserve to ask the Lord to do anything for me. I’m completely without hope and merit. But fortunately, that knowledge prepares me for the marvelous message of the gospel of grace found in Christ Jesus. It prepares me without my keeping the law, without forgiving, without loving my enemies. Why? Because I’m hopelessly unable to do any of those things to ever win my salvation.
If you can accept that the teachings of the Lord before the cross were not designed to tell you how to live but to flatten out your self-righteousness, you will be right where God wants you. You will be ready to accept the work of Jesus on the cross, without which no one will ever come to the Father. This teaching is not the ultimate pattern for living. It demonstrates God’s standards, and those standards are impossibly high for unworthy people. Their purpose is to bring us to the place where we fall at His feet and cry: “Lord, be gracious to me, a sinner.â€"
12. The Ancient Mariner
- 02/03/2007 10:25 am CST
OK; in that case, he sounds rather like an Arminian who's just discovered Calvinism.
13. leslie28
- 02/03/2007 1:46 pm CST
Jared,
This post is a shining example of what keeps me coming back over and over. You bring it, shamelessly. If only more people would be satisfied with the simple truth of Jesus' words rather than pontificating about Arminianism and Calvinism and credobaptism and paedobaptism and the eucharist and communion and orthodoxy and charisma and. . .I am guilty of the same. . .how would people view Christianity in America?
And that second look is rarely pretty, is it? Thank God for Grace. No, seriously. Thanks be to my God for His grace.
Great post--better title. :) My own version of that is the hermeneutical principle I regularly recommend to my congregation: if you think Scripture is telling you what you want to hear, take a long, hard second look.