Advent, Sort of

Last night I was saying to my dogs, I love my dogs. Then I realized I loved having dogs. I would not make the sacrifices for these dogs that I would for any friends or colleague or family member or co-Christian. But I am emotionally attached to them.

Last night I also watched the first episode of season 3 of The Chosen. I have great respect for what Dallas Jenkins is doing; I don’t agree with all his artistic choices, but that is none of my business. Critics are a dime a dozen; it is easy to find fault, and it is extremely hard to create and to achieve a creative vision. Most critics are not artists themselves.

What I came to was that we really do not worship Jesus as much as we worship or follow a representation of Him. We have created structures and systems to distance ourselves from what He really said and asked of us. Modern-day Evangelical Protestantism is the main culprit, although there are others. Sometimes we call it “easy believism” or “cheap grace” or rail against “Lordship salvation.” Or we make simply packaged expressions of the gospel like “Four Spiritual Laws” (not a dig at that, it was effective but probably incomplete). 

In all this we sidestep Jesus and focus on Christmas and Easter, birth, crucifixion, resurrection (as we should) rather than what He did for 33 years or even three at the end of His short life. He’s a whole package and we of all people don’t have the luxury or right of turning the lens on only one part of Who He is. I hope for myself to see Jesus, as the Greeks who came to Him asked in John 10. If we just see Him as someone who died and rose and ascended FOR OUR BENEFIT, we have missed it. He will rule and reign forever, and we only really get one legitimate response for eternity, no matter what we do here.