God With Us: Storyteller
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GOD WITH US AS THE TRUE STORY
The Designer of constellations and the Giver of all life, when he became one of us to take away the sins of the world, told story after story to provoke awakening. What we may think of as annoyingly cryptic stories, Jesus brought as revelatory gifts. He was helping us question unreality so we could finally accept reality as it's always been.
He was helping us question unreality so we could finally accept reality as it's always been.
Jesus lived the only true story there ever was. It is easy to interpret him as a radical leader or wise man, to see him as either crazy or inimitable. But, what if he was the first human being to actually walk in the light, to live as if the love of God really was the sinew holding everything together?
Jesus didn't usurp Caesar's empire or slay Satan in the street (at least not how we imagine these going down) because he knew the root problem. He knew that for us to live human lives, we need the veil removed, to be shown how untrue our perceptions are. The only way to undermine our illusions is to completely absorb and replace them.
The only way to undermine our illusions is to completely absorb and replace them.
This is the wonder of the Incarnation! In Jesus, we have gracious disillusionment. We may be mortified by the brazen and unapologetic freedom he demonstrates, but he is inviting us out of our fear of a god who doesn't exist.
GOD IS ACTUALLY WITH US AND LIKE US
Jesus is the walking, eating, sleeping, story-telling revelation of what God is really like. As it says in John 1:9-10, Jesus was in the world that had come into being through him. He did something no one imagined - he became the very thing he created and made himself in his own image!
This is called a mystery because it far exceeds our comprehension and explanation. This is called Good News because God has joined instead of abandoned us. This is called truth because it's not a myth or metaphor. "What it is to be human is forever bound up in what it is for one particular human to be God" (Kenneth Tanner). That is a sentence worth rereading.
"What it is to be human is forever bound up in what it is for one particular human to be God" (Kenneth Tanner).
What if, instead of mastering the Incarnation of God or dismissing it as too transcendent, we revel in the story's details? Who we are as human beings is "forever bound up in" the story and stories of Jesus Christ, in the life and words of the Word of God. Our faith is bolstered by mining for the implications of the Incarnation, not applications.
Our faith is bolstered by mining for the implications of the Incarnation, not applications.
That is where we may finally see following God doesn't mean forsaking what it means to be human. God would not have come so embarrassingly close to us if he expected us to make ourselves like him. He knew he would not be contaminated; rather, we would be sanctified (i.e., made holy by him who is holy).
THE TALES OF GOD WITH US
I love Rachel Held Evans' point about God With Us, the marvelous storyteller. That Jesus told far more stories than he preached sermons (at least as we understand sermons) really puts a fresh perspective on the New Testament. It also challenges which problem(s) we think he came to solve.
So much of what Jesus said in his stories led to notoriety instead of popularity. He didn't tell easily distributed stories backing certain agendas or promoting particular groups of people. He proclaimed stories that caused everyone — religious and irreligious, rich and poor, male and female, young and old — to lean in and scratch their heads. Those who listen honestly ask the hopeful question, "can this be true?"
Something too good to be true was hidden within Jesus' absurd stories. The God revealed in these stories would not pass as a good businessman, a just judge, a responsible shepherd, or a reasonable patriarch. Simply put, most of what Jesus said about God does not fit into the categories required for the survival of corporations, institutions, religions, or tribes.
…most of what Jesus said about God does not fit into the categories required for the survival of corporations, institutions, religions, or tribes.
WHAT JESUS DIDN'T SAY
If Jesus had primarily offered polemics, prosecutions, admonishments, or strategies for getting life right, he would not have spoken in parables or willingly accepted our condemnation on the cross. He knew that we needed disillusionment instead of instruction, truth-telling instead of motivation, resurrection instead of reformation.
If Jesus had primarily offered polemics, prosecutions, admonishments, or strategies for getting life right, he would not have spoken in parables or willingly accepted our condemnation on the cross.
Jesus didn't show up as God incarnate to tell us how to get our act together or provide superior algorithms for holy living. The stories he told and the story he lived provoked confusion and curiosity instead of certainty or moral high ground.
In his own body, he brought God to us. He forever became God With Us. And he graciously goes out to find us, gently carrying us home on his shoulders so that we can enjoy living in him forever.
In the arresting words of C. Baxter Kruger,
"The good news of Jesus Christ is not that at last we have an accurate religious manual to follow and a master leader to show us the way. And it is not that we finally have perfect information about God to learn. The gospel is about Jesus himself. He knows the Father. And the gospel is about the stunning fact that the Father's Son has established a real relationship with us in our darkness. And in this relationship, he is sharing with us - with the world - his own mind and knowing, his own communion with his Father, forever. What a gracious, merciful brother. He bears our sneers, suffers our hostility, and returns for them his own knowledge of the Father's heart" (Across All Worlds).
If nothing else, take a few minutes this holiday season to wonder about who you think God is. Take up the freedom you have to ask the questions, "Do I trust who Jesus reveals God to be or who I assume him to be?" "What is it about God that Jesus so badly wants all of us to see?"
"What is it about God that Jesus so badly wants all of us to see?"
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