Would the real Jesus please stand?
.
For some reason as I was showering off throw-up in the shower (after the Foster Daughter we have for the weekend got sick in my arms tonight) I had a revelation: We have a shallow image of Jesus.
Now, perhaps this isn't a revelation to you, but it struck me. We tend to read the dialogues of Jesus in Scripture like they’re the script for the 35th annual Easter Pageant at your local community church… They’re stilted, simple, slow, and designed to be understood by an audience of 200 or 2000 people ranging in age from 7 to 70 who may or may not have a relationship with God.
Actor One stands partially facing the audience and talks over his shoulder to Actor Two. He enunciates clearly and projects his voice. He speaks slowly and emphasizes all the important words. Actor Two allows Actor One to finish his line and then takes a step (toward the audience not toward Actor One) and delivers his line. And so it goes, on and on, ad nausea. No passion, unless it’s necessary to the character. No interrupting. No interjections. Face the audience. Don’t turn you back downstage. Enter, speak, react, and leave.
Are you kidding me?! Is this really what we think Jesus talked like? Was he this supper clean guy with perfect hair, a great smile, and nothing better to do than soliloquize to star struck crowds (upstage and no talking please!) with a high and mighty glazed look in his eyes and sweeping arm gestures? Or was he the kind of guy an 11-month old might dare to throw up on while he was wrestling out real life spiritual stuff with the grubby band of guys and gals who followed him?
How much differently we would read Scripture if we allowed the scene to happen as it really might have happened. For example, John 3, where Nicodemus comes to visit Jesus at night. It’s not just a story to set up John 3:16 so we can write it on a poster board for the big game. It’s a gritty meeting between a religious leader whose dealing with issues that have pushed him way out of his comfort zone and a migrant street preacher who somehow seemed to have all the answers. How might we engage this passage if we understood that it’s supposed to feel more like a wrestling match than a poetry reading?
Nicodemus came to this seemingly crazy and potentially dangerous ‘Rabbi’ at night because his fellow religious officials intimidated him. After all, they could have ruined his career, his family, and his very life. Additionally, this Rabbi came out of nowhere and just shut down the temple of YHWH by driving folks out with a whip. Is Jesus planning a rebellion? Naturally, this sort of behavior makes the old boy nervous. Add to that the fact that Jesus is always surrounded by some really unsavory characters, any one of which might sell a guy like him out or mug him on his way home, and Nick’s not just nervous, he’s scared. He’s consumed by the need to meet with Jesus, but he’s still got his eye on the door in case someone who shouldn’t see him there walks in.
And then, there’s Jesus. The dude (Yeah, “dude”! Why not?)… The dude’s been on the road for weeks without a break. He’s hot. He’s dirty. He’s tired. Maybe he’s not even sure he’s cut out for this thing? I honestly don’t know. Sure, he’s God. But he also became one of us and was tempted as we are. Jesus “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” Additionally, he’s just had a run in with all Nick’s friends where they completely missed what he was saying. So, let’s ditch the halo and the faraway glazed look and try again. Jesus didn’t have a halo and from what I can tell he never looked off into space when he talked to you, he got close looked straight in your eyes pierce both marrow and spirit.
What might it actually look like for these two guys to meet in this setting? Were they inside? Were there whispers in the background? Did they talk in hushed tones? Were they face to face? Could Jesus have sounded urgent when he said, “What! You’re out there teaching all these people and you don’t even get this simple thing?” Do you think it’s possible they leaned into each other and talked with their hands up in front of their faces just like urgent men might do today? Is it possible that Jesus practically interrupted Nicodemus between verses 4 and 5 or had a brewing passion in his voice in verses 20 and 21?
Take some time. Read the story as it might have actually happened. Imagine all the possibilities, and see if it doesn’t come to life. One thing is for certain in my mind; Nicodemus didn’t wander up to Jesus in a garden under the stars and stand there open-mouthed in understanding that he was hearing the very words of the living God. These were real men, with emotions, passions, gestures, spit, and blood. Nicodemus wasn’t meeting Jesus to market bumper-stickers; he sought him out because he needed answers in his own life and thought Jesus might actually have a clue what he was talking about.
So, what if we saw all of Scripture in this way? What if we put sweat into the slave labor of the Hebrews in Egypt? What if inserted panic into the voices of the Israelites as they saw the Ark of God captured by Israel’s enemies? What if we took God at his word when he says, “I hate sin”? What if we felt the splinters on the cross Jesus bore for our sin? What if we really let our mind wander into the descriptions of the holiness of God we see throughout the Bible? What if we believed: We have a shallow image of Jesus?
For some reason as I was showering off throw-up in the shower (after the Foster Daughter we have for the weekend got sick in my arms tonight) I had a revelation: We have a shallow image of Jesus.
Now, perhaps this isn't a revelation to you, but it struck me. We tend to read the dialogues of Jesus in Scripture like they’re the script for the 35th annual Easter Pageant at your local community church… They’re stilted, simple, slow, and designed to be understood by an audience of 200 or 2000 people ranging in age from 7 to 70 who may or may not have a relationship with God.
Actor One stands partially facing the audience and talks over his shoulder to Actor Two. He enunciates clearly and projects his voice. He speaks slowly and emphasizes all the important words. Actor Two allows Actor One to finish his line and then takes a step (toward the audience not toward Actor One) and delivers his line. And so it goes, on and on, ad nausea. No passion, unless it’s necessary to the character. No interrupting. No interjections. Face the audience. Don’t turn you back downstage. Enter, speak, react, and leave.
Are you kidding me?! Is this really what we think Jesus talked like? Was he this supper clean guy with perfect hair, a great smile, and nothing better to do than soliloquize to star struck crowds (upstage and no talking please!) with a high and mighty glazed look in his eyes and sweeping arm gestures? Or was he the kind of guy an 11-month old might dare to throw up on while he was wrestling out real life spiritual stuff with the grubby band of guys and gals who followed him?
How much differently we would read Scripture if we allowed the scene to happen as it really might have happened. For example, John 3, where Nicodemus comes to visit Jesus at night. It’s not just a story to set up John 3:16 so we can write it on a poster board for the big game. It’s a gritty meeting between a religious leader whose dealing with issues that have pushed him way out of his comfort zone and a migrant street preacher who somehow seemed to have all the answers. How might we engage this passage if we understood that it’s supposed to feel more like a wrestling match than a poetry reading?
Nicodemus came to this seemingly crazy and potentially dangerous ‘Rabbi’ at night because his fellow religious officials intimidated him. After all, they could have ruined his career, his family, and his very life. Additionally, this Rabbi came out of nowhere and just shut down the temple of YHWH by driving folks out with a whip. Is Jesus planning a rebellion? Naturally, this sort of behavior makes the old boy nervous. Add to that the fact that Jesus is always surrounded by some really unsavory characters, any one of which might sell a guy like him out or mug him on his way home, and Nick’s not just nervous, he’s scared. He’s consumed by the need to meet with Jesus, but he’s still got his eye on the door in case someone who shouldn’t see him there walks in.
And then, there’s Jesus. The dude (Yeah, “dude”! Why not?)… The dude’s been on the road for weeks without a break. He’s hot. He’s dirty. He’s tired. Maybe he’s not even sure he’s cut out for this thing? I honestly don’t know. Sure, he’s God. But he also became one of us and was tempted as we are. Jesus “did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” Additionally, he’s just had a run in with all Nick’s friends where they completely missed what he was saying. So, let’s ditch the halo and the faraway glazed look and try again. Jesus didn’t have a halo and from what I can tell he never looked off into space when he talked to you, he got close looked straight in your eyes pierce both marrow and spirit.
What might it actually look like for these two guys to meet in this setting? Were they inside? Were there whispers in the background? Did they talk in hushed tones? Were they face to face? Could Jesus have sounded urgent when he said, “What! You’re out there teaching all these people and you don’t even get this simple thing?” Do you think it’s possible they leaned into each other and talked with their hands up in front of their faces just like urgent men might do today? Is it possible that Jesus practically interrupted Nicodemus between verses 4 and 5 or had a brewing passion in his voice in verses 20 and 21?
Take some time. Read the story as it might have actually happened. Imagine all the possibilities, and see if it doesn’t come to life. One thing is for certain in my mind; Nicodemus didn’t wander up to Jesus in a garden under the stars and stand there open-mouthed in understanding that he was hearing the very words of the living God. These were real men, with emotions, passions, gestures, spit, and blood. Nicodemus wasn’t meeting Jesus to market bumper-stickers; he sought him out because he needed answers in his own life and thought Jesus might actually have a clue what he was talking about.
So, what if we saw all of Scripture in this way? What if we put sweat into the slave labor of the Hebrews in Egypt? What if inserted panic into the voices of the Israelites as they saw the Ark of God captured by Israel’s enemies? What if we took God at his word when he says, “I hate sin”? What if we felt the splinters on the cross Jesus bore for our sin? What if we really let our mind wander into the descriptions of the holiness of God we see throughout the Bible? What if we believed: We have a shallow image of Jesus?
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