Post 1001: Visions of Jesus
I'm blogging today, and I just finished my 1000th post. This is 1001. I'll do one more and take a break. My husband is out of town and I have the house to myself, so it's quiet and I can read. I should clean but reading is so much more appealing.
This post is about the group Red Letter Christians. Well, not really. It's about the our conceptions of Jesus. We all have a mental picture of Jesus, whether we will admit to it or not, that comes most readily, perhaps first, to our minds when we hear the referent "Jesus." Some see a baby or little boy. This speaks to Jesus as incarnate, one of us (like a slob on a bus, as the song goes, pretty irreverently, but I imagine Jesus would have ridden a bus before a limousine or before buying a Mercedes or even a Honda Civic). Some see him as healer and miracle worker. Some see him as teacher, doing the Socratic thing with the twelve. Some see him as "angry Jesus," which to me reflects that one views him as not quite right in some way. Some see him as gentle Jesus, with children on his knees or like the typical picture, sheep in his arms. (He was a stone mason in real life, not a shepherd--that is an analogy he made, not a statement about his profession.) Some see him on the cross; some see him in a white robe and blue sash after the resurrection. Some see him in heaven as the eternal Son of God; some see him as the triumphant warrior on a white horse, slashing away.
If this all seems a little harsh, please forgive. All of these are true pictures of Jesus yet at the same time limited and perhaps marred because they are limited. They are limited because we can't, or won't see all of them at once, won't see Jesus as truly complex as he is and as not a projection of what we want him to be. Mr. Nice Guy. Mr. Rambo. Mr. Sacrifice. Mr. Triumphant. I think evangelicals tend to see him on the cross and outside the tomb, because they define everything he did in terms of our salvation or spiritual experience (hey, it's all about me!)
So, back to Red Letter Christians. Their version of Jesus is the teacher, I think, who because he never said anything about certain subjects--same-sex marriage, abortion, politics--but who did feed the poor and help the afflicted, we should conclude that that is the complete Jesus and the complete will of God. And further, we should conclude that same-sex marriage is ok, that abortion should be legal, and that only left-leaning politics are legitimate. Strange thinking, for my part--quite a leap. Not that I disrespect Campolo; I think he's a good man, and we do need a counterbalance to the extremes of the religious right and how the church has been co-opted cynically by some of the Republican party. But some of the followers of Red Letter Christian leave me scratching my head or just plain angry.
When tempted to see one Jesus, turn your head. See him, not your limited version of him.
This post is about the group Red Letter Christians. Well, not really. It's about the our conceptions of Jesus. We all have a mental picture of Jesus, whether we will admit to it or not, that comes most readily, perhaps first, to our minds when we hear the referent "Jesus." Some see a baby or little boy. This speaks to Jesus as incarnate, one of us (like a slob on a bus, as the song goes, pretty irreverently, but I imagine Jesus would have ridden a bus before a limousine or before buying a Mercedes or even a Honda Civic). Some see him as healer and miracle worker. Some see him as teacher, doing the Socratic thing with the twelve. Some see him as "angry Jesus," which to me reflects that one views him as not quite right in some way. Some see him as gentle Jesus, with children on his knees or like the typical picture, sheep in his arms. (He was a stone mason in real life, not a shepherd--that is an analogy he made, not a statement about his profession.) Some see him on the cross; some see him in a white robe and blue sash after the resurrection. Some see him in heaven as the eternal Son of God; some see him as the triumphant warrior on a white horse, slashing away.
If this all seems a little harsh, please forgive. All of these are true pictures of Jesus yet at the same time limited and perhaps marred because they are limited. They are limited because we can't, or won't see all of them at once, won't see Jesus as truly complex as he is and as not a projection of what we want him to be. Mr. Nice Guy. Mr. Rambo. Mr. Sacrifice. Mr. Triumphant. I think evangelicals tend to see him on the cross and outside the tomb, because they define everything he did in terms of our salvation or spiritual experience (hey, it's all about me!)
So, back to Red Letter Christians. Their version of Jesus is the teacher, I think, who because he never said anything about certain subjects--same-sex marriage, abortion, politics--but who did feed the poor and help the afflicted, we should conclude that that is the complete Jesus and the complete will of God. And further, we should conclude that same-sex marriage is ok, that abortion should be legal, and that only left-leaning politics are legitimate. Strange thinking, for my part--quite a leap. Not that I disrespect Campolo; I think he's a good man, and we do need a counterbalance to the extremes of the religious right and how the church has been co-opted cynically by some of the Republican party. But some of the followers of Red Letter Christian leave me scratching my head or just plain angry.
When tempted to see one Jesus, turn your head. See him, not your limited version of him.
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