Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Strange Jesus

I went on another rant about the ubiquity of "Jesus Meek and Mild," including clergy who should know better.  I may still post it, but that is undecided.

In the meantime I wondered what the best treatment for this is.  I decided that opening the Gospels at random, and seeing what puzzling, utterly opaque thing Jesus was doing at that spot, would be useful for us all.  Here's mine, from John 10.
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’[Psalm 82]? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— 36 what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? 37 Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. 38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” 39 Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
I have been in enough Bible studies to attempt to unpack what is being said here, what it means, and how it is instructive. I said, "begin." But that does not in the least get us around the fact that this is all odd, very odd, not easily penetrated, and fitting neither the Jesus Defender of Freedom and Jesus Meek and Mild models which are so popular now.

8 comments:

Christopher B said...

It might not be fashionable to say this but you either get Him or you don't.

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

1 Corinthians 1:22-23 NIV

Christopher B said...

It might not be fashionable to say this but you either get Him or you don't.

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

1 Corinthians 1:22-23 NIV

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Yeah, yeah, but pick at random and tell us what it was.

james said...

Random chapter (out of 85) and random verse give Luke 18:7, in the middle of 1-8. Not very comfortable homiletics to compare an unrighteous judge to God...

Assistant Village Idiot said...

That's the spirit.

Earl Wajenberg said...

I am fond of an internet "meme" showing Jesus purifying the Temple, with the caption, "Remember, when people ask What Would Jesus Do? that the options include flipping tables and chasing people with a whip."

Texan99 said...

Matthew 15:26-27, when Jesus tells the Canaanite woman it's not right for him to heal her daughter because his mission is to Israel, and he shouldn't take food from the children and feed it to the dogs. He relents when she says even the dogs eat the crumbs from the table.

jaed said...

Christianity is... deeply, deeply weird. God - not just a God, but the God - as a human being, toenails and all? But still God? That is a seriously strange idea, and if we didn't live in a culture where that idea is a commonplace, and were hearing it for the first time from strangers, we'd readily recognize that. We'd be convinced they were touched in the head - not just that, we'd think there was something seriously wrong with them.

And there are more strange things, the Incarnation being only the one that happens to be seasonal.

Perhaps if you're not seriously confused, morally as well as conceptually, it's a sign that you're understanding things wrong.