Question: Who is the Real Jesus! Who is Jesus to you? What does he do? What doesn't he do?
Lets face it, the Bible means different things to different people! As a consequence Jesus means different things to different people! This is a known fact.
By what standard to we accept these different meanings as valid? I am frankly saturated with the various views on Jesus, God, and all this other theological theory. How can a new believer know what to believe with all of this variety.
Brian McLaren (brief biography)in his new book A New Kind of Christianity address the different ideas of Jesus through the hilarious and ridiculous comedy "Talladega Nights."
He makes these points
- People are still tempted to define Jesus the way they want Jesus to be
- Old opinion and view will produce Old interpretations and Old applications
- The interpretation of Jesus found in the Book of Revelation (19:11-16) was appropriate for the time that the author was writing. It was also appropriate for the context and challenges of that day
- Jesus in the book of Revelation is the same as Jesus in the Gospels
- Jesus has not adapted to methods of peacemaking that were used by the Greco Roman rulers and government. In other words, Jesus still plans to use peace to bring peace
As a result Mc Laren concludes this:
- All interpretations of Jesus are NOT CORRECT! IN FACT SOME OF THEM ARE UNACCEPTABLE!
- Jesus coming back to KILL IS INACCURATE! (see revelation 19)
- Jesus is strong even though he will not use violence as a means of salvation
Now,
The question still remains....Who is the Real Jesus! Who is Jesus to you?
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I believe in Jesus Christ his only son our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilot, crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
ReplyDeleteThis was the first thing that popped into my head when you asked the question. Sometimes the creed brings a great deal of comfort to me. In the midst of so many questions about Jesus I can recite these simple words from memory and feel like my two feet are back on the ground - even if questions still remain.
I just did a message to youth, where I used various scripture passages to identify with Jesus in various ways other than "hippie Jesus" as McLaren described on page 120. I wanted to teach them something to connect them to a Jesus that they can relate to in their life in hopes to get closer to him. I realize that I could potentially put Jesus in a place where he could be anything a person would want...and that's not exactly true. But the hopes of creating a space in which we talk about who Jesus is could be exactly what this world needs.
ReplyDeleteTruth is, if Jesus is God and people cannot accurately describe God, i would assume to say that we cannot really describe Jesus, with the exception that we can define as a start, and create a dialogue to build upon that understanding.
Charles, when you asked the question "Who is Jesus" about seven-dozen billion different answers came into my mind. Unfortunately one of the images that came to mind was a story from friend told me about how she was asked once in all seriousness if Jesus really did kill lesbians. The question came from someone whose only experience I think that there are some images of Jesus as a warrior that have been used to justify hatred and prejudice in today's society, and yes I agree with McLaren that those are BAD images of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteI think I appreciate this hippy Jesus, because I like images of Jesus that while firm in his convictions, are like God, all-compassionate and all-loving.
I think his reintepretation of Jesus is not wrong. But, simultaneously, I come to realize that today Christianity-problem might not be an interpretation-problem. If Christianity could take off the cloth of Greco-Roman narrative, could it change? Maybe it will put on another one which it wants.
ReplyDelete"The WHOLE Christian Bible was derived from the sacred books of Egypt, such as:
ReplyDeleteTHE BOOK OF THE DEAD, THE PYRAMID TEXTS, AND THE BOOKS OF THOTH."
EA Wallis Budge
(Keeper of the Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities at the British Museum)
That's who is to me
true jesus the real one was from egypt
ReplyDelete