let's start with the fact that i've been in church all my life and that on occasion i put some effort towards attempts at becoming a follower of jesus. given these things, i always hear that i'm supposed to be "like christ". christians like this idea. we love to tell each other that we are supposed to become like jesus. i mean, (and i'm cringing already) who could forget that whole wwjd (originally: what would jesus do) thing. we wore it. as a slogan. our lives were to be directed with the thought that what he would do...we were to do.
jesus said that we were not made for the law, but that the law was made for us. summing up quickly and with a complete lack of thoroughness, we see that he, on occasion, ignored the letter of the law in order to follow the spirit that brought the law into being. it is merely the skeleton in the body of right living. or, better yet, it is the skin. stealing from peter rollins for a second here, justice is the force behind our secular laws. the laws are not justice but are the best interpretation of it we can devise. they are the aftermath of justice and if we follow them then we can achieve the effects of justice. but, the point is not the laws, it is to embrace and understand justice.
where are we going? i think we exist trying to follow the law most of the time. we exist trying to achieve the results without understanding the spirit/heart that brings them about. we act like christ without having a heart like his...but, that is obvious and you've seen it already. i've got more. like cs lewis said, if we follow the ray of light that is love and goodness in the world back to it's sun (source), we find god.
it's like that old rumor explaining why train tracks are the width they are: a man sought to find out why the tracks of the railway were specifically 4 feet 8.5 inches. he found that us tracks match british tracks. so he inquired and found that british tracks were built at the width of tramways, which were build with the tools used to make wagons and therefore maintained the same width. on he searched. wagons were built at the width of pre-existing ruts in the roadways. these tracks were created by roman chariots, which were just wide enough to allow for two horses between them. and there you have it.
asking the "why", in this case leads to an understanding that there was nothing important about the width. asking why, in the case of our laws, leads us to the discovery that it was never about the law. if we follow the law back to it's source we find justice. which is in fact important.
so, lets ask why on our main topic. why do we act like jesus? do we really think that we will become him...because, sometimes we ask that of one another. we try to be him, thinking that the idea is just to do whatever he does. i think that this misses the point though. i think we were created to be ourselves. we are instructed to act like him because that is the best description of ourselves that we have. we are created in the image of god. we are created to spill out love everywhere we go. we are created to passionately pursue the things that bring us joy. we were created to live deeply in community with one another and with god. the things that he did, the ways that he loved, those are the things that we would be if we were our true selves. the being like him will only truly, beyond the surface, come out of being ourselves. not just putting on the skin of jesus, but becoming the body of who we are.
i know i completely skipped the idea that what good we do, is him in us...but that's for another time...and i like to think that i can keep both sides of that contradiction around.
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Monday, March 09, 2009
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