What You Gonna Do About Jesus?

            I am amazed, really, by the take-it-or-leave-it attitude that so many people have toward Jesus.  Okay, so maybe not everyone is ready to believe in him as Son of God.  I won’t push or insist.  But there is something radically unique about Jesus and I am amazed how anyone can brush him off and what he represents.

Most people admire him.  Thomas Jefferson appreciated his moral teaching though he was not, himself, a Christian.  He couldn’t accept the miraculous.  Interesting, for all of Jefferson’s admiration for Jesus’ morality, he was not particularly moral when it came to his opinions about slavery.  You might excuse Jefferson as simply being a product of his times, reflecting the values of his age. Meanwhile, people like John Wesley and John Wilberforce of the same generation were arguing for the abolition of slavery.  And both Wesley and Wilberforce considered Jesus as Son of God and accepted the miraculous as inevitably a part of his nature.  Perhaps Jefferson would have been a more moral man if he had considered Jesus MORE than a great teacher.

An old argument goes like this:  Jesus was either a great imposter, was crazy, or was what he claimed to be.  If he was an imposter it seems unlikely he would have kept up the charade to the point of dying.  If he was crazy why is there no evidence of erratic behavior.  As Gary Collins, a psychologist quoted * in Lee Strobel’s, The Case for Christ, says,

He was loving but didn't let his compassion immobilize him; he didn't have a bloated ego, even though he was often surrounded by adoring crowds; he maintained balance despite an often demanding lifestyle; he always knew what he was doing and where he was going; he cared deeply about people, including women and children, who weren't seen as being important back then; he was able to accept people while not merely winking at their sin; he responded to individuals based on where they were . . . and what they uniquely needed. All in all I just don't see signs that Jesus was suffering from any known mental illness.

          So, if he was not an imposter or crazy, then he must have been what he claimed to be.  However, what he claimed for himself was always veiled in symbolic language.  He spoke of himself as the “Son of Man,” and rarely made any self-promoting claims to be God.  Yet, those who followed him saw God in him.  They saw in him what countless generations have seen – an authentic life lived in perfect integrity for the sake of others – such integrity of life that he has been the inspiration for imitators throughout history.

          You could do worse than follow a man like that.  So, maybe you’re not ready to call him Son of God.  But don’t make Jefferson’s mistake and simply say he was a great teacher with nice ideas.  For all his brilliance Jefferson’s lack of integrity is no example to follow. 

          So, maybe you’re not ready to embrace the miracles.  What about the very miracle of his incredible life?  Who else has ever lived with such integrity?

What you gonna do about Jesus?  In this take-him-or-leave him world I just can’t imagine anyone leaving him, ignoring him, dismissing him.  Yet they do.  Now tell me who’s crazy.  

         

*Lee Strobel, 1998, The Case for Christ, Grand Rapids Michigan/Zondervan Publishing House, p. 147

Righteousness Is Out of Fashion

You never hear the word “righteous” anymore. I’m not talking about its use a decade ago, describing something as “cool” (“The paint job on that car is righteous!”). I suppose the word was used a generation ago in churches to describe moral, upstanding behavior on the part of the Christian believer (You Bible scholars think of James 5:16, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”).

Still, I wonder if the use of the word in the previous generation had the same connotation as its original intent. When Jesus said at his baptism, “Thus it is fitting to fulfill all righteousness,” I don’t think he was talking about moral, upstanding behavior. He was thinking of more than a standard of individual conduct, he had in mind the will and purposes of God. There was a time when we thought righteousness had more to do with purity of life than anything else (“I don’t smoke and I don’t chew, and I don’t go out with girls that do”). Righteous seemed to be more about what we didn’t do than what we did. Nowadays I’m not sure that even Christians understand what is meant by the word righteous.

One place to begin our quest for understanding is the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7. In the midst of this collection of Jesus’ sayings, we find him like a reborn Moses, issuing a reinterpretation of Mosaic Law. “You’ve heard it said . . . BUT, I say to you . . .” He pronounces blessings on those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” and he helps us set priorities, “Seek first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.” Matthew portrays Jesus as being especially concerned about this righteousness, whatever it is.

Eugene Peterson in The Message, interprets that “seek ye first,” phrase as, “pay attention to what God is doing.” I like that. Righteousness as attentiveness to what God is doing. That seems to be the right order of things. Instead of righteousness being a standard of behavior for me to follow, it is, rather, a call to tune in to the activity of God. God’s activity is prior to my activity. And attentiveness is both an act of will and an alertness of body. If I’m paying attention, like a runner at the blocks waiting for the starting gun to go off, I’m more than ready to do something. I’m not just thinking about it. I’m not just looking on as an observer. But I wait for the right cue before I dash off.

Maybe righteousness will come back in fashion when we start paying more attention to what God is doing, instead of obsessing about what we’re going to do next. What is God doing these days? Well, I think God is doing what God has always been doing – turning the world right side up. Look for calamity, catastrophe and suffering, and when in the midst of it all, you see goodness, kindness, peace and justice, there is God’s kingdom of righteousness. I pray it does come back into fashion. Wouldn’t that be righteous?

I have more I want to say about righteousness, but I’m not sure what it is yet. I’m just waiting for the gun to go off.