Birth: The Visited Planet (Ch. 2)

in chapter two of The Jesus I Never Knew, yancey looks at the christmas story...it is a different look at the story...an intriguing look...

here are a few thoughts and quotes...

he talks again about images...images of Jesus...the images that we see at christmas time...

"Inside, the cards stress sunny words like love, goodwill, cheer, happiness, and warmth. It is a fine thing, I suppose, that we honor a sacred holiday with such homey sentiments. And yet when I turn to the gospel accounts of the first Christmas, I hear a very different tone and sense mainly disruption at work."

"If Jesus came to reveal God to us, then what do I learn about God from that first Christmas?

The word associations that come to mind as I ponder that question take me by surprise. Humble, approachable, underdog, courageous - these hardly seem appropriate words to apply to deity."

yancey then goes on to talk about each of these four descriptors...

humble...

"That God is little, that is the truth which Jesus taught man. The God who roared, who could order armies and empires about like pawns on a chessboard, this God emerged in Palestine as a baby who could not speak or eat solid food or control his bladder, who depended on a teenager for shelter, food, and love."

approachable...

"What can be less scary than a newborn with his limbs wrapped tight against his body? In Jesus, God found a way of relating to human beings that did not involve fear."

underdog...

"Growing up, Jesus' sensibilities were affected most deeply by the poor, the powerless, the oppressed - in short, the underdogs."

courageous...

"It took courage to risk descent to a planet known for its clumsy violence, among a race known for rejecting its prophets. What more foolhardy thing could God have done?"

The Jesus I Never Knew

first, i appologize...i don't know that there is really anyone out there still reading this or checking it, but if there is, i appologize because it has been nearly forever since i last wrote. and i guess maybe, even if there is no one reading this, i still need to appologize to myself, because there is something implicitly good that comes for me in writing here...something good in my head and my spirit...a processing if you will...

so...that said...i started back into reading The Jesus I Never Knew...i am reading it partially for myself, as is always the case when i read or study...but also seeking to put together teaching thoughts...and as i read, i am also going to write...write here, in this place...

so...here is a thought from chapter one...

what is your image of Jesus? i mean, what does he look like, but also, how does he act, what type of person is he, to you personally. how do you interact with him, if you see yourself interacting with him at all. what are his tendencies and typical emotions? is he emotional at all?

and these things that you think...the images that you have of Jesus...where do they come from? what has shaped them? do they come from scripture? from your thoughts? from pieces of the life around you? how has the culture around you developed these thoughts? mislead you in these thoughts?

is our image of Jesus tamed? trimmed around the edges? do we have even a shadow of an understanding of just how world changing Jesus was...and is?

here is an absolutely amazing quote by Walter Wink, "If Jesus had never lived, we would never have been able to invent him."...ponder that for a little while...