To put it into better words than my own, “He [God] is the great iconoclast” (C.S. Lewis from A Grief Observed). For several centuries now we have become accustom to an idea, this idea of a “historical Jesus”. Now what do I mean when I say “historical Jesus”, I mean an idea that the Jesus depicted in the Gospels is not what the man Jesus of Nazareth was like. If you wanted to be more specific, then you would see that my first mention of the “historical Jesus” was fallacious, because I said “an idea” not several ideas. The fact of the matter is that the only consistent depiction of Jesus is that of the Gospels. For there have been several different ideas based not on facts or reputable sources, but on the person who was searching for this “historical Jesus”, everything from a simpleton that got caught up on the wrong side of persecution as a scapegoat to a lavish traveler who didn’t really die on the cross. This ladies and gentlemen is what people refer to as having an agenda.
Now I know that this idea is not original in any way, shape, form, or fashion, but I wanted to put my spin on it; to give a go at writing down what my wandering mind is fixed on for this particular moment… oooo, birdie… sorry let me focus again.
The greatest consistency to the several ideas about a “historical Jesus” is that they are so inconsistent. I find myself wondering what people think of when they come up with these false pictures of Jesus. Anywhere from shady sources to even spirit guides, if nothing else they are extremely creative and if they would have changed the name of the main character of their stories to almost any other name they may have quite a good novel in their hands, but instead they are search of the “truth”, or so they say. The sad fact is that most of these authors or historians or psychics are much like teenage girls, always seeking to be shocking never caring if what they have to say is true or relevant. And the saddest fact of all is that we, the populous, eat it up and grant them the attention that they so ceaselessly crave.
The amazing thing about the Gospel is that it is something that we would never expect (shout out to Kierkegaard), we couldn’t possibly have seen Jesus coming, at least in the way that He did. What is so amazing about all of the “historical Jesus’s” that are out there is that they are so obviously conjured up by a human mind. They have Jesus as a grandiose prince who traveled the known world gathering methods of teaching and prayer from all the various religions of the day, and brought these methods back to Israel so that we can all know the greatest gospel of all, the gospel of this modern age, “I’m okay, you’re okay.” Or even, Jesus did come to save Israel, and he was a great moral teacher, but certainly not a miracle maker for after all there are no such things as miracles; he saved Israel by dying so that Jerusalem wouldn’t go to war with the Romans; he sacrificed himself so that Rome would think that the threat of war was dead with Jesus, and all that about dying on a cross is bull honky, he was stabbed in a home, but when he fell his arms were stretched out at his side and that is how Christians get the symbol of the Cross. It makes so much sense, wap, wap, whaaaaaaaa….
These are just two of the “historical Jesus” ideas that I have heard in the past year. Each one fails to use what God has given us to reveal Himself. And they fail to recognize that they are not only talking about a person in the past, but a person who is and will be forever. If they were to only encounter the Living God then He would avail them of all the misrepresentations that have befallen them and destroy any and all ideas that hang like sacred idols of a false god, the god that they themselves have made, but in order for that to happen we must step up to the plate and show them who He is. For this is our mission, and we are called by Christ to be His presence to the world, we are the Church, the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ and we are called to be obedient to His command, to be who He made us to be.
Enough of the sad facts, let us remember the glorious fact: God, you know the One, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, the God of my ancestors, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the Creator, the Giver of the Law, the God of the Living came down from heaven to take on our human nature in the glorious mystery of the Incarnation and was most perfectly who He Is, because He is the great, the powerful, the simply “I AM”.
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