A few days back a young man was shot and critically injured while his girlfriend also suffered slight wounds. For the last few days we have seen great in-depth reporting by one of our tabloids, who, by my estimation for three days running have shown this young lady in various stages of undress. Clearly this is an important part of the case and gives vital clues to the whereabouts of the perpetrator. Shallow is a word that comes to mind.
It seems to me that many people today disregard the Christian faith because they see it as too shallow, simplistic and even riddled with superstitious nonsense. This thinking does not surprise me – indeed there is a part of me that agrees – but it is conditioned by the shallowness of thought today, both within and outside the church. Working from this shallow basis we then have the temerity to suggest that in the time of Jesus people were much simpler and less sophisticated than we are today and therefore were much more easily swayed by fear and / or superstition. What a load of self righteous clap trap!
Jesus was one smart guy! We have created him in our own image so that he is nowadays just some kind of religious icon that we pull out from time to time when considered useful. The Jesus that the Bible speaks of is someone of great ability and intellect. We are told that even as a young boy he was one who was much admired and who ‘increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.’ This was not some holy guru divorced from life and offering occasional religious platitudes! Here was a man who was surely one of the cleverest of his time.
People didn’t choose to follow Jesus because if they didn’t they were all going to hell! They didn’t devote their lives to him – many to the point of death – because his message was something that they simply HAD to believe. Dallas Willard puts it like this:
The life and words that Jesus brought into the world came in the form of information and reality. He and his early associates overwhelmed the ancient world because they brought into it a stream of life at its deepest, along with the best information possible on the most important matters.
The sights and sounds of this man Jesus were so startling and deep in their impact that people chose to follow because they would have been fools not to. They didn’t describe Jesus as the ‘Prince of Life’, or the ‘Lord of glory’ for a good headline, or for fun and special effect. Jesus was and is the most significant person ever born and the lives of those he touched reflected this.
So for those who are looking for DEEPER truth, stop letting us (Christians or the church) get in the way; go ahead and dig as deep as you like and my bet is that you will not be disappointed. Or can I say, stop using us as your excuse for not digging deeper. You are quite right, the church really is full of hypocrites; but jump right on in because there is always room for more.
Gordon Ramsay, Bikie broads, Desperate Housewives, Swine Flu, Footballers dreary dramas, PM Kev desperately trying to sound like a ‘dinki di’ Aussie, Nathan – red hot go – Rees, economic meltdown, the corporate ladder / rat race or Jesus?
Let me think about that for a moment.
Cheers - John
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