This is a blog about "church," so-to-speak, but maybe we miss the mark a bit if we don’t keep putting the focus back on the One who precedes the church and everything else. The church is, no doubt, meant to be a much more radical movement than we have understood it to be. How much more important is it for us to see that Jesus, the head of the church, is a far more radical man/God than we can even begin to understand. He is the One we, His church, are designed to imitate. Perhaps if we get Jesus right, and our imitation of Him in keeping with who He is, we will naturally get church right.
Jesus is so… much… more than we can begin to define in a few words, or thoughts, or even a lifetime of both.
He is uncontainable, unpredictable, unorthodox, and unconventional. As soon as someone would try to put Him in a box, He would break the mold. If you thought He was meek, He would pick up a whip. If you thought He was kosher, He would start talking about other people eating his flesh. If you thought He was a paragon of mercy, He would pronounce woes and judgements.
But wait! If you asked Him to condemn a sinful woman, He proclaimed forgiveness and grace. If you told Him a man was a tax-collecting thief, he loved him all the more. If you nailed Him to a cross, He prayed for you.
He was (and is) radically and completely God… living above the expectations of others, the mores of his culture, and the rules of society. Tell Him that the Sabbath was for resting, and He would work. Tell Him not to touch lepers, and He would hold and heal them. Tell him not to socialize with Samaritans, and He would deliberately converse with a Samaritan woman.
He marched to His own drumbeat. He lived with a vision set only on kingdom. He walked out of a perspective that never placed value on temporal things. He was not of this world and every moment that He lived and word that He spoke portrayed this.
Do we really even know who He is, really? How honestly are we willing to look at Him knowing that our calling is to imitate Him and be like Him?
I’m just thinking that if we kept our focus really on Him, every church, house church, simple church, and mega-church would be absolutely, thoroughly, and completely transformed and turned upside down in more ways than we can imagine merely by the irresistable force of the life of Jesus pulsing through His imitators.
Comments
7 responses to “Honest Look at Jesus”
Roger, I couldn’t agree more! It is so true that if we would focus on HIM instead of on style, format, structure(Hebrews 12:1-2), maybe we would really see all that Jesus has for us as His Body.
We continually get the “how” before the “who”. The “who” is Jesus, and if we are focused on him the “how” of doing whatever is before us will fall into place, and just naturally happen. It is about the journey with Him and getting to be in relationship with Him as we journey…..much more than about a certian destination or accomplishment of mission. The fact we to often forget is that God doesn’t need us…WE NEED HIM!
Thanks again Roger for your pointing us back to HIM…where the focus should be in the first place.
The “who” instead of the “how.” I like that.
I like your question, “how honestly do we look at Jesus?” This is worth pondering at length… Those he loved the most, often didnt have a clue who he was???
– Road to emmaus
– Mary outside the tomb
– The man born blind who was healed
– the disciples in the boat
Christians often seem to treat jesus the way the Pharisees treated God.. “Us? WE have the inside information.. WE know Jesus!” It would be refreshing to see some of todays followers of Jesus acting the same way his first ones did…confused, doubting, unsure, totally freaked out, overjoyed, scared, uncertain.. instead of using Him like a text book of pat answers to every honest question.. they are faced with.
You have indeed raised something og the highest order to talk about there Roger. I’m amazed how our picture of Jesus effects our every actions including our ministry and even the Churches.
For example I was driving home with my 4 year old daughter and my 3 year old son, when they both unexpectedly started singing this song; “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when clouds are grey”. I grinned from ear to ear!
Later that week I was sitting in a prayer meeting when I heard the story again about Abraham receiving a visit from the Lord and my fellow Pastor made this statement “do you like God?”
You know I have never been asked that before. I have been asked ‘do I love Him?’ To which I have always thought, of course, I have served God. I would like to think I have honored God. I have given huge amounts of my time, money and efforts to Him. I have thrown away any real chance of ‘making it’ in life. OF COURSE I LOVE HIM!
……But do I like Him?
If I was sitting in the back sit of a car and God was driving, would I burst out singing, “you are my sunshine”?
This thought has now nagged me for days and your article has been another cataylst for it. It has made me think, what does it mean to like God? Is it important?
So I endeavored to think of people who I like, and of the things I do and experience with those people.
Here is a list of things I could think of;
Most generally have a common interest connection
Most are not self centered, or ego centric
Most listen and speak kindly and encourage me
Most seem happy when I am with them
Most are truthful with me
Have fun together
I am relaxed near them
I don’t feel pressured to pretend
I am free to express myself
Hang on a minute I see something here….. Yes I do like God! I feel and experience every one of those things with God. Yes I do love and like Him! Phew what a relief…. I thought I was in serious trouble then.
I think we’re more comfortable with the form of religion, with God in a box, a nice predictable Jesus, vicarious and co-dependent relationships with priesthoods, audience Christianity, and either hyper-emotionalism or Christian philosophy. What can we do with the radical Jesus you describe? We couldn’t really be like Him, could we? That Jesus you profile leaves us no formula. Like the Spirit He blows where He will. Yes, more than a bit higher than our ways and our thoughts, even a bit mystical, isn’t He? Yet, that’s what makes Him wonderful. You’re right though, it’s about Him, pure and simple devotion to Christ, even the pure and undefiled religion of visiting widows and orphans in distress, and serving the “least of these”. That and, of course, the radical love He spoke of as the “greatest of these”, the all-consuming love of God and our brothers. Oh yeah, I remember, it’s the relationship, not the system of things that is paramount. Only He can make us like Him. Not a Church or a formula in the land can serve as a substitute for the real thing. I think it’s likely what was being spoken to the Church at Ephesus when Christ said they’d left their first love, and that they needed to remember from where they’d fallen, repent, and do the things they did at first, lest their lampstand be removed. We could do a lot worse than asking Him every day in prayer to keep our first love relationship burning with the divine fire. I believe everything else would then truly fall in place with His will.
“…keep putting the focus back on the One who precedes the church and everything else.”
Amen, amen, amen.
Thanks, Roger.
Well put, Roger.
It’s all about Jesus.
In Matthew 17:4-8, and the story of Christ’s transfiguration, we see a beautiful scriptural example of this:
4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.
7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
When Peter began talking about “structures,” God said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” It was all about Jesus.
And when the disciples had fallen on their faces, and then looked up, “they saw no one except Jesus.”
When we take our eyes off of the structures and look up, all we will see is Jesus.
Thanks for sharing thoughts that we should all pause to consider, Roger…..