Chronicles of Jesus: Part 2 Just Another Baby?

The stories told about Jesus’ life are just that, stories told about a person’s life.

Just like us, Jesus …
Had a family
Had to attend school
Had a social network
Had hobbies

And just like us,
He got frustrated
He made mistakes
He was tempted
He lost his cool

People, just like us, did their best to tell these stories and to put language behind his experiences. Some of them had personal knowledge of these things; some gave eyewitness accounts, while others just relayed the information, like in a game of phone tag. However it was received; the events of Jesus’ life reveal with certainty that he was a person just like any of us.

And just like us, Jesus was born.

The story we typically hear repeated goes something like this:
A couple thousand years ago, on the evening of December 25^th, Mary rides into Bethlehem on a donkey, ready to pop and needing to deliver her baby. Although it’s an emergency, all the innkeepers in town turn Joseph and her away. The couple eventually finds an animal stable to settle into and Mary gives birth to a boy that she names Jesus. Afterwards, three kings bring gifts and worship the newborn child.

The problem is, this story may be almost entirely wrong. In fact, the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two of Luke contain few of the details we include in our traditional ideas of what happened. Although the particulars of this tale may be vague, what we do know is Jesus began his life being labeled as the bastard son of a poor Judean girl, whose fiancé threatened to leave her when he found out that she was pregnant. It was only after a supernatural encounter that Joseph changed his mind and decided to stick around (Mt 1:20-21).

There’s also the controversy surrounding the Hebrew idea of the word “virgin”, which Mary is said to have been when she conceived her baby boy (Mt 1:18). In biblical times, the word carried several different meanings. Including, but not limited to the idea that if one were “born of a virgin” it simply meant that your mother had become pregnant the first time she had had intercourse.

With so many uncertainties surrounding the birth of Jesus, what conclusions, if any, can be drawn during the Advent season? Is our attention during this season focused on …

How Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem
How long they were in town before Mary gave birth
How and where Mary gave birth
How Mary became pregnant and whether or not she was a virgin

Or, is Advent about the fact that Jesus became a living human being out of a deep desire to know us and to love us?

What’s important to remember is that Jesus didn’t just become like one of us, he actually became one of us and was subjected to everything we experience in this life. Like us, he was pushed out of his mother’s womb, breathed his first breath, and became totally dependent on his parents (other human beings) to raise and nurture him. We know his story, because his story is our story.

Chronicles of Jesus: Part 1 Introduction

For thousands of years people have studied, worshiped, committed their lives, and even died for the sake of a man named Jesus. Who was this man? What was it about him that led people to leave their families, jobs, homes, and way of life behind to follow him? For centuries people have debated, denied, and searched for historical evidence to prove his existence.

The Canonical Gospels are a great resource of information on this Jewish man from Palestine, but typically when people ask for proof of Jesus’ existence they’re looking for sources outside of the Bible itself. Considering that Jesus life was spent in a largely confined and relatively unimportant part of the Roman world, there’s a surprising amount of information about him to be discovered in secular historical sources. In fact, when you piece together these non-Christian references, what appears is a reconstruction of the gospel story itself:

A man named Jesus was called the Christ (Josephus, Antiquities), he did “magic,” led Israel into new teachings, and was eventually hung on Passover for them (Babylonian Talmud) in Judea (Tacitus, Annals 15.44). Jesus claimed to be God and would return (Eliezar), which his followers believed, worshipping him as God (Pliny the Younger, Letters 10:96).

No attempt will be made here to prove the existence of Jesus; instead I’d like to take a closer look at this man’s life and see what it can teach us about ours. If Jesus really did exist, and I believe he did, what can be gained from the sources we have available to us to determine just who this man was? While much has been said regarding his divine nature, very little has been written about his humanity. This series of essays will explore the person of Jesus, as he would appear if we could see directly into his life.

Some of the things we will discover about this man will seem obvious, but they’re often forgotten, overlooked, and sometimes discarded in light of a focused attention on his divine nature. Things like . . .

His upbringing

His temptation

His miracles

His disregard of legal systems

His stories

His death

His resurrection

I am certain that as we explore the ins and outs of Jesus’ life, what we will see is that it’s these particular details about Jesus that make him very human and very much like any of us. My conviction is that we learn more about what it means to follow God from Jesus’ humanity than from his divinity.

The Way Things Are

When I think about the places I’ve been and where I come from,

what I’ve seen and the things I shouldn’t of,

I shiver at the idea that it all means something.

And sometimes I wish my eyes were blind to everything but beauty,

but that isn’t the kind of world we live in, is it?

I am an island lost at sea searching for God knows what;

Trudging through this life of muddy water wanting more,

but nothing seems to satisfy the thirst of my youth.

I guess I’ll keep looking for that which I already possess.

The thing, they said, “Wasn’t enough,”

in a life where I could have more.

This puzzle doesn’t even make sense,

so how in the hell am I suppose to piece it together.

For the sake of having a purpose,

I’ll keep walking this path of righteousness,

running from a past that haunts me.

This crutch is all I got,

I don’t have anything else to fall on.

And what does that say about me?

You know I worry far too much about that.

You see, only the mask of my charades,

and I even can fool myself sometimes.

But he sees right through me,

to the heart of my demise.

And that’s what I gather it will take

for things to be different.

So, in fear I fight against it.

Cause in some sick way

I like the way things are.

Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain

Watching the Wizard of Oz on CBS was an annual tradition in my home growing up. I can still quote many of the lines from the film and sing most of the songs word for word. What I didn’t realize, until recently, was all the parallels the films storyline has to the biblical event of the tearing of the veil in the temple.

The Bible describes the moment Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished!” and died that the thick curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom (Mt 27:51). What is troubling is that when the curtain was ripped in two, there was no magical deity sitting behind it. It was just a curtain; it was just a building. Which naturally should lead one to question what, if anything was really going on behind this veil once a year. Was the yearly priestly practice just another ploy for man-made systems to exploit God’s people?

Did God’s presence really dwell in a temple, isolated behind a curtain?

Scripture clearly states, in unmistakable terms, that God does not live in temples built by human hands (Acts 17:24). The curtain in the temple created a barrier between God’s presence and his people, and it separated those who had authority to go behind it from those who did not. When it was torn apart the power shifted away from the Religious authorities and was given to all people. The people no longer had to be threatened by the temple that hid the one and only big magic man in their midst. It’s like the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Toto reveals that the mighty wizard is really just a man behind the curtain. Likewise Jesus’ death is the ultimate anti-temple statement. The scam is exposed. There is nothing behind the curtain. Meaning, there’s no place where God is and isn’t. No more smoke and mirrors, God is found among us and we are the real temples where real communion with God can be experienced.

Some Thoughts on Pentecost

We are the Temple of the living God (1 Cor. 6:19). The reality of such an idea profoundly struck me this week. With the celebration of Pentecost only a few days away, our attention is once again drawn back to the outpouring of God’s Spirit on the early church. Before the construction of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem, God revealed his glory in the tent or tabernacle that Moses constructed. It was there that God would come, dwell, and meet with his people. “Let them make me a sanctuary,” the Lord spoke to Moses, “that I may dwell in their midst” (Ex. 25:8). It was there that “the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and [there that] the Lord would speak with Moses” (Ex. 33:9). It was there that “the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34). The tabernacle was where the people of Israel would draw near to hear from God, to worship God, and to stand in his presence (cf. Lev. 9:23; Num. 14:10).

Any reading of Acts or John, the two main places in the NT where the Spirit plays a large part, reveals that Pentecost is a time of great awakening to challenges facing God’s people both in the world and in their own life, and of the urgent need for the inspiration, strengthening and guiding of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is about God’s kingdom being established here on earth. It’s about heaven and earth coming together as they were always meant to be.

N.T. Wright says, “Pentecost is therefore to be seen as the moment when the personal presence of Jesus with the disciples is translated into the personal power of Jesus in the disciples; because Pentecost signals the mode and means by which the chief executive is putting his new authority into operation.”

According to Paul, God has established a new temple in us (1Cor. 3:16-17). In other words, we are the new dwelling place for God’s Spirit. Think about the implications that God’s constant abiding presence in us should have on how we conduct our everyday life. Pentecost is about the presence of God with his people; about the implementation of Jesus’ healing and whole life salvation for all; and it signals the final day when heaven and earth shall be one. It isn’t just that the Spirit is the ‘down payment’ of what is to come for us as his people; the Spirit is the advance sign of what God is going to do for the whole earth, the entire created order. God continues to pour out his Spirit on us so that we can both be and accomplish his new creation in our self and in the world.

Compartmentalizing Faith and Ministry

Our lives are very compartmentalized. We act a certain way at our job, then another way with our friends, and yet an entirely different way with relatives, and so forth. Our values, attitudes, beliefs, and language often change depending on the specific environment and/or situation. We wouldn’t exactly speak about the same topics to our grandparents as we do with our spouse.

Unfortunately, we do the same with our faith. However, our faith isn’t some compartment that can be reserved for times when it is convenient for us. It should be the very foundation on which every part of our life stands. Meaning, you should let your faith bleed through every single area of your life. If we place our “spiritual life” in a “faith” compartment in our minds, isolated away from other behavior or activity, then it automatically means we have other compartments that are not bound by that faith.

My fear is that we have also compartmentalized our ministry by manipulating God and forcing him into a box. In so doing, we’re fooled into believing that we have some kind of control over what happens in our churches and can conveniently open or close that box whenever God is needed or wanted. What would happen in our churches if we released God on our people and trusted that the Spirit of God knows exactly what it’s doing as it moves uncontrollable among us? Do we have enough faith to let go and surrender our lives and ministries to God?

My prayer is that we would smash the hell out of the boxes we have created, giving God full control and trusting him with every single aspect of our lives.

Free to Stop Lying

In the movie Flight, Denzel Washington plays William “Whip” Whitaker, the captain of the fictional Southern Airlines. On the job he is charming, confident and utterly in control. But we soon learn that this persona is merely a mask hiding a proud, fractured, damaged psyche, and a man who is suffering from alcohol abuse. Intoxicated, but in control (which seems like a contradiction in terms – but, so is Whip’s life), is the shape Captain Whitaker is in one rainy morning, when he pulls his jet up high above the clouds on a routine 56-minute trip from Orlando to Atlanta. When the plane he is flying experiences mechanical failures, Whitaker is forced to crash-land in a South Georgia field, saving 96 of the 102 passengers on board.

At a hearing, to investigate the crash, the lead NTSB investigator, reveals that the cause of the plane's malfunction was a damaged jackscrew in the elevator assembly, and commends Whip on his valor and ability to land the plane under such conditions. Just when it appears that she will be letting Whip escape culpability, she raises suspicion around two empty alcohol containers found in the trash on the plane; which Whip knows were his. The investigator goes on to point out that only the flight crew had access to the alcohol, and only two of the flight crewmembers failed the toxicology testing following the crash (Captain Whitaker and a deceased female stewardess). In an intense scene that follows, Whip, tearfully, admits not only that he was flying intoxicated but also that he is intoxicated at the hearing.

Thirteen months later, an imprisoned Whip, serving a minimum five-year sentence, tells a support group of fellow inmates that he’s glad to be sober and does not regret doing the right thing. "That was it,” he says. “I was finished. I was done. It was as if I had reached my lifelong limit of lies. I could not tell one more lie." Despite incarceration, Whip concludes, "For the first time in my life, I'm free."

But, what is it that Whip feels “free” from? It’s not his alcoholism, for that is merely a byproduct of an inner struggle (i.e. a gnawing emptiness inside that he hides through appearing to have it all together). The freedom he speaks of is his being able to stare intently into the mirror of self-criticism, and to accept his fallen condition. He has to admit what’s really going on in his life to experience freedom from it. Captain Whitaker’s path to healing and transformation comes only when he painfully looks into the face of his wounds, and gives language to them.

Flight insists that we also look unblinkingly into that shadowy void of our darkest recesses. It challenges us to stop hiding the truth of who we really are in a façade of self pageantry, to come clean, to step out into the open, were lies, masks, and other pretenses do not exist. When we finally come to a place where we’re able to do that, we will experience what it really means to truly be free.