Today, a thought in support of this question: it hinges entirely upon the claim of resurrection (which all of Christianity hinges upon); namely, the resurrection of the teacher from Nazareth nearly 1980 years ago. I suppose, for those who wrestle with the truth of Christianity, that this is the most important detail for you to grapple with. Historians are basically unanimous that there was a man named Jesus who was, like thousands of others, executed by way of Roman crucifixion in the neighborhood of 30 AD. The movement that began shortly thereafter which involved, essentially, the worship and imitation of Jesus, was predicated on the claim that he came back to life. This was enough to convince a handful (though a minority) of Jews that Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah, and enough to convince an at first small, but then growing, group of non-Jews that the Jewish God was the true God and that the man Jesus was the Human Incarnation of that God.
So, either the resurrection happened and Jesus is someone to us today, or it didn't, and the claims of Christians are empty, divisive, and cruel (for the non-Christian world is repelled by the exclusivity of Christian salvation paired with the Judeo-Christian claims of God's omniscience).
Either the followers of Jesus stole his body and subsequently endured vicious deaths to protect their revolutionary deception (which won them no riches, no political power, no broad-scale respect), or Jesus came back to life.
Another option is a grand hallucination to the tune of hundreds of people. In their grief, Jesus' followers yearned so badly for his resurrection that they unanimously and synchronistically hallucinated his presence among them. Of course, the accounts tell of Jesus appearing to different groups at different times. So, either the physical life re-entered Jesus' body, or a whole community hallucinated that it did, and believed it so firmly that they were willing to be alienated, persecuted, jailed, and executed to support what they saw.
If the resurrection did not happen, the answer to my big question can be little more than "Jesus is a crazy or diabolical Jew who developed a following about 2000 years ago and was then executed." Perhaps this answer could go so far as to say "some of his teachings (but not all) are ethically respectable and have had good influence in history, and in my life."
It strikes me: that last answer is, in my estimation, the way most Christians actually live their lives. We (I must group myself in this, based on my normal way of living) live like Jesus is a character in a book that we have decided will be the source of our moral code, albeit one of the more significant characters (along with guys like Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, and Paul). That way of living will lead ultimately to a loss or death of faith, and rightfully so. If the resurrection didn't happen, Christianity is little more than a divisive and outdated religion that has intoxicated people's minds for centuries.
If it did.... then Jesus is still actively someone today. So, who is he to you today?
Jesus is (and I do mean is) the living Christ who is at work in His people. I think it impossible to suppose that the primitive Christians could have been galvanized as they were without the living presence of Christ and His Spirit in them.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we often live our lives out as if he were no fully present with us at every moment. I think it's primarily because we've not availed ourselves to the possibility of His constant influence in our seemingly mundane activities, i.e., work, school, chores, homework, etc. If we approached these things with the willingness to allow Jesus to work with us to do these activities, however small, "as He Himself would do them" we would see some amazing things happen.
In point of fact, I spent a considerable amount of time this semester allowing the Lord to enable me to learn Spanish. The result has been quite supernatural. I have tried 3 consecutive semesters in the same section with awful results. This semester, the studying is quicker and more fruitfull, the comprehension is easy, and the study is mysteriuously enjoyable. The reason is that I allowed Jesus to rule over this part of my life. It has made me desperately want Him to bring His Kingdom into every area of my life: familial, relational, spiritual, vocational. I pray for that day that all of this will be more natural than breathing.
Congrats on the fiancé. I'm very happy for you.
Check out George Ladd's book The Gospel of the Kingdom if you haven't. It was sort of the progenitor of the "Now and Not Yet" talk in the late 50s. I have been devouring it and other stuff from the same time period.