Dallas Willard in his book ‘The great Omission’ describes Jesus as the; ‘most intelligent person that ever lived’ I think for most Christians this statement would come as a complete shock. We have reduced him to a single facet saviour, completely and totally one dimensional, like a spiritual superman, only to be called on when the going gets tuff, or our worlds are falling apart, like the man with the starter pistol at the beginning of the race, a little like the suit that is reserved for ‘Sunday best’ only to be taken out on very special occasions, and then put back where it belongs in the wardrobe complete with mothballs where ‘moth and rust do not corrupt’
A little like a man with a kettle drum, in Beethoven’s fifth symphony, waiting for his moment of glory, for him his moment is over in a few seconds, the conductor than says ‘don’t call me I’ll call you’ his services are now not needed until the next symphony.
This Jesus is like a tramcar running on single track, its whole life reduced to the backward and forward motion only. Stands to reason that if you have someone who is the most intelligent person in the world, you would want to include him in everything, such as that difficult maths equation, or that complex IT problem that can’t be fixed, or that medical problem that has resisted all solutions. Seems to me that this sort of person would be a really great friend to have, unfortunately we have created a completely different Jesus, do you remember some of the opening lines in those woeful hymns; “standing somewhere in the shadows you’ll find Jesus” I think the reason he was standing in the shadows was that we were to embarrassed to bring him out into the light, afraid that he might become the laughing stock.
Its hard to do this when you have a mechanical Jesus, this is the only conclusion for a literal super spiritual, superman Jesus, whose only role was to come and save a lost world and then like a goodie-two-shoes go back to heaven and get on with the real issues of running the universe, he becomes pretty much useless for anything else. The huge chunks missing in the New Testament have had a tendency to lend itself to this, if unchecked they create a stilted saviour, his words and actions don’t seem to be synchronised with real life, a little like inquiring about the health of ones husband or wife moments after death, there is a lot to be said for timing and a literal Jesus knows nothing about timing, you just wind him up like a play thing and let him do his John 3:16 impersonation, it’s a great party trick, but that’s all.
This literal detached Jesus at worst shows autistic tendencies and at best is a budding borderline asbergers.
The gospels were never intended to paint a literal picture of Jesus, it is not some sort of biographical account; if they were they have failed miserable. Mark, John and Luke say the same thing; these things are written that you might believe, and in believing you might have life
My advise to anyone is to let this Jesus out of your box, and let him do what he does best, well! he is the son of God and son of man, think about this for to long and you might find yourself questioning you own version.
He is the tin man in the wizard of Oz looking for a brain. Some of the most infamous psychopaths in history had brilliant minds, but like the Lion in the wizard of Oz had no heart.
To say that someone is brilliant or highly intelligent, but has no heart, my advice is to treat this person with caution; to say that someone has a heart to match is to venture into the divine.
Lets look at one example of deep empathy and shear brilliance; what would you do if confronted with the brilliant keepers of the law, they stand before you with a women caught in the very act itself. Men could sit in conference over this and still not come up with a better solution, one that shows glimpses of pure brilliance and one that shows compassion on a scale never seen before; “ he that is without sin cast the first stone”
None of this would be out of the ordinary with a god, but we need to remind ourselves again and again ‘lest we forget’ that this Jesus was first and foremost a human being just like you and me, his humanity wasn’t just ‘strapped on’ for show, to disagree with this is to suggest that he was an impostor, (a little like the wolf in little red riding hood) masquerading as a human being.
To overlook his humanity is to miss any real opportunity of connecting with him, I can’t connect or identify with ‘superstars’ and Jesus Christ was no ‘superstar’
To suggest otherwise is to give respect (respect based on size not relevance) and treat with caution as one would with an elephant let loose in a world of ants.
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