cup a joe

As I mentioned in my last post, I want to unpack some thoughts from the conversation that I had a few weeks back.  The first thing that struck me was the differences in Jesus.  My friend complained on how in the Vineyard, we keep talking (singing) about loving Jesus and intimacy with Jesus.  He claimed that guys don't want that, they want the warrior Jesus.  I found this both odd and indicative of who we have become in the church.

Genesis 1:26-27 talks about how God created us in his own image.  "Then God said, "Let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."  N.T. Wright has an interesting perspective to the creation story.  He looks at it as a temple narrative.   The earth is God's temple and the creation days are the courts around the temple.  In the center of most temples are an image of the god that the temple is worshiping.  This image is to represent that particular god.  We are placed in the center of this temple, as God's image bearers (I'm still taking time to process some of this, but this gives a lot more meaning to the parables of the talents.  For more on this, see N.T. Wright's book "How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospel".)  The key to this verse is that we were made into the image of God.  Now we all know the rest of the story.  By chapter 3 of Genesis, God's image bearers become corrupt and are thrown out of the garden.  At this point, something interesting seems to happen.  We no longer seem to be fully bearing the image of God.  We need to be changed to bear his image (to be reborn).  That seems to be a part of God's plan in the rest of the bible.  To put things back in place so to speak.  But for us, instead of being changed back into God's image, it seems that it is easier to change God into our image.  We not only do this to God, but we tend do this to his son as well.


When someone speaks the name of Jesus, sometimes you need to ask which Jesus they are speaking about.  There is a great film clip from "Talladega Nights" where Ricky Bobby is praying to "baby Jesus".  The others around the table start complaining that there are other Jesus - that he wasn't just a baby.  The best quote is when he friend describes Jesus in a tuxedo tee shirt because "I like to party, so I like my Jesus to party".  How many of us do the same thing - creating a Jesus in our image?

"Your OK with me"

There is one thing that I have observed through out the years.  Most of us are very insecure.  We want to believe that we are ok - we want to be accepted.  So we seek out people who are like us, who will accept us.  This is the primary reason for the existence of gangs.  They are a place of acceptance for those who are members of them.  We take that same mentality, and place it on Jesus.  We teach in the church that we are being "transformed into being more like Jesus".  On the outside, we say "amen" but on the inside, we are secretly praying that Jesus likes some of the things that we like so that we don't have to change too much.  We begin to justify things to ourselves and to others.  And in the process, Jesus slowly changes and begins to look more like us and less like the Jesus of the Gospels.

The good, the bad, and the son of God?

That is the first problem that I had with my friend's comment.  There is a picture of a warrior Jesus in scripture (Revelations) - but for the majority of the Gospels, there is a picture of a loving King.  A King who tells us to follow him.  A King who tells us to love our neighbors and our enemies.  A King who tells us that we shouldn't worry about judging others, that he will deal with it in his own time.  Focusing only on the warrior Jesus creates a Jesus that "wipes out thousands" (I have no idea where this Jesus is found in scripture - Revelations perhaps???) and justifies a gospel of judgement.  I have seen this gospel at work.  I have had it preached against me.  And I don't like it's fruit.

Giving new meaning to "Jesus Saves"

Now, I know that I need to be careful.  In pointing out the judgment, I can also be unjustly judging (oops, back to Genesis 3).  My heart is not as pure as I would like to believe it is.  But perhaps that is the thing that we all need to discover.  Our hearts are not as pure as we imagine.  Only Jesus can transform our hearts.  Only Jesus can restore that image that we were supposed to have.  But for us, we need to be aware that our default is to focus on the Jesus that looks like us.  We need to remember that we are the ones being transformed - not him.  That can be a scary place.  But it is only in that place that we can fully experience everything that Jesus has for us.  But are we really willing to go there?