Jesus the Not-King

I was sent the above video by a wonderful brother in the Lord. This is not a bashing. But I want to give another perspective, one of caution. Here is something to consider:

The Bible says that the man Jesus was ebed Yahweh, the lowly servant. He was rejected by Israel. He was seen as a sinner, a madman, as one possessed by devils. His life was short and mortal—he was seen as someone who died a pathetic failure and a young man, accursed by God, hung from a tree. He was a weak body from earth, one of a people conquered again and again and again. He was a servant of servants. He washed feet. Tell Foghorn Leghorn on the video that’s the Jesus I do not know—that is the Jesus I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW. I prefer the idol called “Jesus” pretty and spectacular, the one Israel wanted, the one who “IS NOT.” The one “who DID NOT come.”

Yes, his limitless love is beyond measure. He took on our weakness. He was authentically HUMAN. His humanity is perfected. He is the weakness and foolishness of God. He is Mercy. This is the Jesus I do not know.

Jesus was neither a spectacle nor a celebrity—outside of Christian circles for almost two generations after his ministry he was less known than John the Dunker and other Jewish charismatics. He was not a sideshow freak. His ministry suffered a PR disaster sometime before his execution at the hands of Gentiles.

He was the son of Mary whose pregnancy was questioned by others. He was counted among sinners. Civilization rand its institutions reject him perennially. Irreducibly unique, he was historical, educated, belonging to ONE culture at ONE point in history. Jesus is no idea. He did not think like a Greek. He is not an abstract proposition. He does not save us if we do not LET him. This is the Jesus I DO NOT KNOW.

He was weak also. He was tempted and tried. Sinless, he was MORE HUMAN, not less. He does sympathize and he does save—what is salvation? (Salvation is REVEALED in Jesus, not as the distribution of merits or the paying off of a debt, but JESUS IN PERSON, and therefore, to be ‘saved’ is to be birthed into the Trinitarian Communion.) YES, he strengthens and sustains—yet he is not a genie. He guards and guides—yet Jesus is NOT magic. He heals—he INCLUDES THE EXCLUDED and NOT INTO A FREAKING “CLIQUE,” MIAMI. This is the Jesus I DO NOT KNOW.

What is knowledge? What is wisdom? What is deliverance? What is shalom? What is righteousness? What is the holy? The glory of God is the human being fully alive—St. Irenæus of Lyon. This is the Jesus that I DO NOT KNOW.

His life is IN YOU in an IRREDUCIBLY UNIQUE way—there is only one humanity. See this in faith: His goodness is in you. His mercy is in you. His unchanging love CHANGES you if you allow him to. His Word and Grace is in you if you have ears and a heart OPEN. God became human to make humans God. I’m glad that words fail me, that I cannot describe the Reality of Jesus, otherwise he would be only “this” or “that” or some other “thing.” Incomprehensible and you can become NO to him; you can resist him and collapse centripetally on yourself.

So rarely we think of what it means to be human—Jesus. So rarely do we see him in our employees and employers, in the swirl of the day’s work. Many live beyond thirty brief years but never live. How many of us go through life asleep? How many of us do not “what it means to be human” with the question of Jesus?

The High Priest was not a Pharisee—that’s highly doubtful. The Pharisees might have had greater problems with the communities composing the canonical gospels than with Jesus himself. But yes, self-righteous religious people and fundamentalists who think they KNOW everything HATE the real Jesus who cannot be fitted into a little box and categorized. Jesus BREAKS our expectations. Including Mel Gibson’s idolatry, my idolatry, and yours. As for Pilate and Herod, one shouldn’t confuse the first stage of Gospel formation with stages two and three. The Gospels are not biographies.

Jesus transformed death. God died. The Resurrection is no mere antidote, no corrective for the suffering and death—Jesus is forever the Slain Lamb. His Love endures forever! Death and resurrection are one mysterion, complementary and essential. “JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN!” Amen, the CRUCIFIED IS RISEN INDEED. In the man Jesus we discover death at the heart of the Divine Economy, not merely the consequence of Genesis 3, for it is the birth of perfection and completeness, and moves us to the world without end.

Salvation and redemption are NOT escape from the body but in this material universe, redeemed and transformed as pliable and transparent to God. The evolution of the universe leads not to disaster or absurdity, “Big Crunch” or “Big Chill,” but has found its climax in the resurrection! Silesius asks, “the human abyss cries out the abyss that is God—‘which is deeper?’” Jesus Christ, God and Man is the answer. The human abyss is as deep as God is full and is filled in death’s transformation! We will know SATISFACTION!

That’s the man Jesus I DO NOT KNOW. The yada erotic “knowing” like Adam knew his wife and the Song of Solomon is all about. The knowing of the mystics that is so much better than the prattle of fundamentalists. The knowing that is more TASTING and less touching. But God is working in me and you. Open us, O Lord, that we may TRULY know you and ourselves.

Thank you for the video. I fear that out of context, and with a Christology from above taken to extremes, one’s may mistake Jesus for Superman. Consider the video below seriously and pay attention to both songs: