Reading Jesus: Part IV Obstacles
The greatest obstacle I discover in people who are "seeking spirituality", God, or however one defines it, is the attempt to overcome the walls constructed by those who claim to follow Jesus, or who call themselves Christian.
I am not sure how the message of God's love of creation has gotten so distorted that often those who claim to follow Jesus are sometimes the greatest obstacles to others having an encounter with God.
I spend a great deal of time reminding folks of the good that has been done in the name of God and by those who follow Jesus, for it seems that many folks only see and hear the bad. They hear messages of exclusion, hatred, judgement and violence against their enemies; the very things that Jesus seemed so opposed and attempted to overcome. It seems that often folks only hear the loud "law quoters" who think they are speaking for God, just like in the days of Jesus. Jesus ran into oppostion from those who we hellbent on following the law as they understood it. It is the very folks who claimed to have possessed the "correct doctrine" that struggled with Jesus' deeper message of love. The one's who "got it right" are the very ones who killed the WORD MADE FLESH-- Jesus. Something tells me that if Jesus showed-up on Sunday, that many congregations who claim to follow him are the very ones who would send him to the cross, and sadly most likely wouldn't recognize the very one they claim as their God.
READ JESUS: his life and actions. Read Jesus' Heart. Read his way. Read the truth of his nature and message. Read his LIFE. If Jesus' life was not defined first by God's love for him and then his love of God, self and others, then I have missed Jesus completely. Jesus' message of love streched his contemporaries beyond the well-defined comfortable context, and if Jesus' message of love does not stretch me beyond my safety zone of my well-defined religious laws then there's a good chance that I have not encountered the WORD MADE FLESH. When I stare into the eyes of the wounded, bleeding, loving one, I experience profound love staring back at me; perhaps that is just too much for me to comprehend; too much to absorb. Can Love love me that much? I think by his way, truth, and life Jesus would answer, "yes." It's when I truly believe in the way, truth, and life of God's love or WORD MADE FLESH-- that I am saved-- made whole. The law will never save me; being a religious believer will never save me; only love can save; only love can heal; and only love can resurrect life.
It's when I READ JESUS, the WORD MADE FLESH, that I realize how short I fall, not because of my inability or unwillingness to follow the law, but my inability to love.
7 Comments:
Rick,
i have learned a great deal about myself from reading your blog over the last year.
you have reminded me of my responsibility to love others...in spite of who or where they are.
the ongoing dialogue about sin and getting it right and getting it real is obviously differing views on the role of scripture.
can one really take Jesus out of scripture as a whole? can he alone be the determining factor about how one sees the bible and our relationship to each other?
i come down on the side that it cannot be like that. for scripture is always harmonious as a whole.
Jesus loved with passion, reminded us that people mattered, rebuked the fakers, but he also let the rich ruler walk away, demanded complete loyalty, focused on our purpose in him, and was quick to tell people to sin no more and reminded us of Gods demand that we be holy.
there is no Jesus outside the Bible. with out the Gospels, there is no christian Bible. with the Gospels alone, there is no Christian Bible.
what is important is the whole...and the life, passion, way, words and thopught of jesus is found in Genesis all the way through Revelation.
yeah, that love thing....it gives me problems too!
Jeff, I completely agree with you--we have to look to the scriptures as a unified whole. The story that I see revealed in that whole is one of love and redemption, a story in which God comes to humanity in a transformational and radical way by demonstrating love first and foremost. When one uses that overarching and unifying theme as the lens through which to interpret each passage of scripture, my experience is that a pursuit for love--which redeems (rather than law--which divides) is revealed.
Jesus, the Word, is all throughout scripture, not just in the gospels. I don't believe that Rick is trying to separate the gospels from the rest of scripture. I think he is trying to harmonize all of it. When I approach the Bible by looking to find Jesus' message in every facet of scriputre, that is when the Word comes alive to me. After all, in one form or another, what Jesus taught is what God has been trying to communicate since the beginning of time and ever since Christ walked on earth.
Thanks for the comments.
Ruth, thank you; you seem to have the ability to articulate better than I what I intend to say. :)
Jeff,
thanks for coming here and sharing your heart.
Christians claim to follow Jesus; not their bible. Like I have shared before, I read the bible nearly everyday, but if the bible doesn't point to the One, who is the way, truth and life or shows us the way, truth and life, then perhaps we have missed something.
It seems that the thing that most often divides and excludes others is their understanding of their bible or "the word"-- that seems contrary to the way, truth, and life that Jesus proclaimed by his very nature.
Now I know that some will take a passge from their bible and quote it as law that Jesus brings a sword, but perhaps we need to go learn what this means.
We must read Jesus-- his way, truth, and life.
Thanks, Rick
i guess this is where i get confused.
how is it that the bible can point to anything or anyone besides Jesus?
we, as tards can say one thing and not realize how far off the mark we are, but the essence of scripture is Jesus. all of it.
to seperate that fact from our search for love and redemption nulifies the entire argument.
it is not the Bible that needs to change, but our understanding of it. all of it.
one part does not now nor has it ever cancelled out another or made it antiquated. take one book out, such as James, and you do not have the canon that was brought together by God.
i do not worship or follow my bible, but through my bible, i have come to know God. not some ones distorted send me money for this prayer rag and annbointing oil version of God. but the God of the universe. the one who decided to kill his son from the foundation of the world.
my view, as narrow as it may seem ...draws me to the beauty and wonder of an old testament God who watched in sadness as his creation turned from the intamacy with him and turned toward sin...then chose for himself a people whom he called his own from slaves, loved them inspite of their harlotry and delivered them on countless occasions.
that love apexed at the cross when His own son became what was needed to restore what adam and eve gave away.
and those weird fisherman told everyone they saw, what they saw and heard.
take any of that out of the situation and it is incomplete. less than "it is finished."
thanks for allowing me to ramble.
I am not sure how the message of God's love of creation has gotten so distorted that often those who claim to follow Jesus are sometimes the greatest obstacles to others having an encounter with God.
Isn't it because we are human and bent that way?? I know here lately all I want to do is go around saying I'm sorry.....
Thanks Rick for always saying things so clearly and for making me think.
Post a Comment
<< Home