We’ve been looking at the unaltered, unadulterated, and unchanging Jesus. We have enough challenges in following Jesus without being ignorant about who it is we worship. This post continues the discussion about the Jesus presented in the scriptures to draw some clearer distinctions between the timeless Jesus of history and the pretend one we hear about much too often.
Our problem is this: we usually discover him [Jesus] within some denominational or Christian ghetto. We meet him in a province and, having caught some little view, we paint him in smaller strokes. The Lion of Judah is reduced to something kittenish because our understanding cannot, at first, write larger definitions. ~Calvin Miller
Some of us get the idea somewhere along the way that Jesus can be confined to the little box we put him in.
So, as we have discussed in the last two posts, Jesus isn’t committed to a political party, or an agenda we set for him. He isn’t committed to our ideologies. He isn’t limited in his actions by our theories. And he isn’t constrained by the boundaries we set for him.
The Jesus who said Let the children come to me; was the same Jesus who ran the money grubbers out of the temple. The Jesus who fed the poor, healed the sick, brought sight to the blind, and raised the dead; was the same Jesus who hung out regularly with the shady and those with murky resumes. The Jesus who left the riches and comforts of Heaven; was the same Jesus who knelt down and washed the stinky feet of his disciples. The Jesus who rebuked and riled the religious bigots of his day; was the same Jesus whose closest confidants predominantly included blue collar every day folks. And the Jesus who turned the water into wine and surely turned a few heads in doing so; was the same Jesus who prayed for his killers as he lay beaten in a pool of his own blood—Father forgive them, they know not what they do.
He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called her over. “Woman, you’re free!” He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.
The meeting-place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation, “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath.”
But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?”
When he put it that way, his critics were left looking quite silly and redfaced. The congregation was delighted and cheered him on (Luke 13:10-17, The Message).
And just as Jesus would not refrain from healing on the Sabbath, he will not be subject to our inferior thinking either. Attempting to box in Jesus is no new phenomenon.
It’s pretty clear; Jesus was too concerned with meeting the most desperate needs of people to let trite and meaningless rule-keeping stop him from doing what others said he shouldn’t.
We might take note and follow his lead.
10 Comments
February 15, 2009 at 4:55 pm
What in particular do you think boxes Jesus in?
February 15, 2009 at 5:07 pm
…great question you raise Tim, I had to think for a second (and that is not always a good thing).
I think my point here (and I think its a correct one), is that Jesus can’t be boxed in. Try as we may, he’s not going to be contained. I’d also add that much too often it is the ideas of man and his rules that we ourselves follow—rather than Jesus.
Thanks for stoppping by and thanks for commenting.
February 15, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Thank you for this post. I think that too many of us are following a counterfeit Jesus, one that focuses on rules and politics in our comfortable Christian bubble we’ve engineered so that nothing threatens or challenges our faith. And then we’re all agreeing with each other over our paths to righteousness (or distracted by arguments over the same), when somebody else out there just needs the simple love of Jesus.
February 15, 2009 at 5:17 pm
the “comfortable Christian bubble we’ve engineered”… may God pop it. You are so right. And expose “‘our’ paths to righteousness” as well. Your comments have encouraged me, and have reminded me, that we need one another for just that.
February 15, 2009 at 5:23 pm
“the wind blows south and north, here and there, twisting back and forth, getting nowhere” Ecclesiates 6-7 I think man made rules are like chasing the wind. (Not that I know much but this verse came to mind when I read this) Your post makes perfect sense to me. Rule-keeping does keep you boxed in. Following his lead is freeing.
February 15, 2009 at 5:35 pm
rule-keeping is a cop out when we’d just assume not follow Jesus instead Lori, good point.
February 16, 2009 at 8:28 pm
I agree with you that Jesus is often defined by man’s thoughts that are completely contrary to what he reveals. How often do we hear that hell doesn’t seem to fit with the loving picture of Jesus. Jesus spoke about hell more than anything else!
However, sometimes the “boxes” churches have are defined by the Bible. Some may say calling Jesus “gracious” is a box. It isn’t! It’s defining something in his character, and it isn’t wrong. Jesus is gracious. He is also powerful, just, merciful, the Son of God. All these are “boxes” but it’s not we who put him there. They are just words describing where he himself is.
Basically what I’m trying to say, it’s okay to have doctrinal statements that define what Jesus has done, but it’s not okay to have doctrinal statements that attempt (and fail) to make Jesus do something he doesn’t.
It’s the difference between saying Wayne Rooney is a striker (because that is where he always plays) and ringing him up and saying “You better not play left wing!”. The first we are completely within our rights to do, we are just describing something he does (play attacking football) with a term. The second is outrageous, we can’t tell Rooney where to play!
It’s the same with Jesus. We can say Jesus is a saviour, because that describes his character. But we can’t say “Jesus you better save everyone!”. That’s not our decision to make.
I’m sorry if that’s what you mean, just I know a lot of people who would mean something different with those words.
February 16, 2009 at 8:47 pm
I’m with you. Hell is real. And creeds and statements of faith or belief are good so long as the are grounded in bible doctrine. Assuming that because Jesus healed one blind person means he will heal them all is to make a leap the bible doesn’t make, and I think that is what you are saying in a sense—I know there is a word the theologians would use here but that’s the best I can do.
I appreciate the dialogue.
February 16, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Then we’re agreeed! I’m adding your RSS feed by the way.
September 10, 2009 at 10:00 pm
(Snarky comment, proceed with caution!)
Did you ever visit one of those mega-ultra-churches, sit among the thousands, then see the ensuing traffic snarl when it’s all over, and wonder, If the gate is small and the path narrow and only a few find it, then who are all of these people and where are they going?
I once had a friend ask for prayer for his type 1 diabetes at a small, house type bible study group. The whole group gasped and seemed to take a step backward. I got the feeling that we weren’t supposed to have any real problems, and yes these folks were very well off, comfortable, and they smelled pretty good too, but the problem was that their Jesus was in one of those boxes you spoke of and a fairly small one at that.
The same thing happened in another similar group when we asked them to pray for a gay friend who was showing an interest in the Lord. We had the distinct impression that we could never bring that young man to that church, because no one would sit near us or greet us once they had figured out who he was. Pretty tight quarters for the Lord to inhabit, eh?
Don’t you wish that all the tares just naturally were attracted to and wore something like the Wisconsin cheese head hat or something else so that we wheat could quit hanging around that type of person?
Uh, hmmm, maybe there’s a reason why it’s so difficult to tell.
Who among us, could have predicted the spiritual potential of Saul when he was arresting Christians and throwing them in jail?
Yeah, we probably would have chosen some of the older, quieter, richer pharisees to witness to, instead of Saul, they would be less scary, and hey at least they might be able to help out when the next building drive starts up.