Perspective: How Strange Thou Art

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How Strange Thou Art

Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.  But to those who are called - both Jews and Greeks - Christ is God's power and God's wisdom.  This is because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:22-25 (CEB)

You were as I

Tempted and tried

Human

The Word became flesh

Bore my sin and death

Now You're risen

From "Lead Me to the Cross" by Brooke Fraser

I grew up immersed in the Christian faith.  I've been going to church on Sunday mornings ever since I was in utero, and I attended Christian schools exclusively until I graduated from high school.  Even now, I read my Bible almost daily and spend a lot of time pondering the mysteries of the faith.  That said, the tenants of the Christian religion are so familiar to me that I seldom think about how strange they really are.

Tripp Fuller, who thinks we need to "keep it weird" when it comes to our Christology¹, writes,
Jesus was a homeless, itinerant, first-century rabbi who talked about the end of the world, taught in parables even his disciples couldn't follow, and ended up dying on a Roman cross as a failed political resistor.  That is the Jesus we call the Christ, the Son of the living God, the First Born of all creation, the Image of the invisible God, the eternal Logos, and all of the other christological titles packed into the New Testament.²

Christians believe that Christ, who is somehow one with God, divested Himself of the power and glory that comes with godhood to take on frail human flesh.  He came into the world to minister to His own creations as a man named Jesus of Nazareth who lived in Roman-occupied first-century Palestine.  His relatively brief ministry put Him on a collision course with both religious leaders and political leaders, and He was hanged on a cross like a criminal.  We believe that this man, once thought to be forsaken by God because of the way He died, was actually resurrected by God and that this resurrection somehow changes everything.³

Don't get me started about how most Christians believe that God is somehow both three and one at the same time.  This doctrine is so difficult to explain that most people who attempt to explain it end up saying something considered heresy.

St. Paul writes in one of his letters that Christians "preach Christ crucified," a message that is both a "scandal to Jews" and "foolishness" to others.  The Jewish people of Jesus' day had been waiting for a Messiah who would set things right by defeating the Romans, restoring Israel to it's former glory, and ushering in an age of peace.  Many believed that Jesus would be this Messiah but lost all hope when He was executed by the Romans.  Strangely, Christians believe that Jesus, through His death and resurrection, really did set things right.  Jewish existentialist philosopher Martin Buber once observed, "To the Jew, the Christian is the incomprehensibly daring [person] who affirms in an unredeemed world that its redemption has been accomplished."

Greeks and Romans believed in deities who were all-powerful and all-knowing.  Jesus, whom Christians call the Son of God, hanged helplessly on a cross and was seemingly foolish enough to get Himself into that situation.  Even so, Christians proclaim that Jesus Christ is "the Word made flesh."⁴  The Greek term translated as word is logos, from which we derive the word logic.⁵  Some would say that this title equates Jesus with the very wisdom of God.⁶

We Christians see victory where the world sees defeat, and we see wisdom where the world sees foolishness.  We indeed believe some strange things.

This unlikely Son of God and Savior of humanity kept some strange company - not the good, upstanding, religious folk one would expect.  Jesus sat down for dinner with crooked tax collectors and allowed prostitutes to wash His feet.  Jesus chose some unlikely followers who included fishermen, tax collectors, and members of a political party some might classify as a terrorist organization.  They weren't exactly the best of the best: the fact that they even had such jobs indicates that they weren't already following a rabbi, meaning that they had already failed to make the cut.⁷  St. Paul, who became a follower of Christ later on, considered himself chief among sinners because he once terrorized Christians, yet somehow he became one of the most influential early Christians.

In Who Is This Man?, John Ortberg notes that the early Christians had a reputation among the Romans for their strangeness.  They were believed to be atheists because they didn't believe in the Roman pantheon of gods.  They were suspected of incest because they called each other "sister" or "brother."  They were accused of cannibalism because they referred to the bread and wine they shared in remembrance of their Savior as His body and blood.⁸

Christians believe some weird stuff.  We believe that God is somehow revealed in the strange and wonderful man Jesus Christ, meaning that we believe in a strange and wonderful God who turns everything on its head.  We live in an ever dissatisfied world, yet we proclaim that grace is enough.  When many believe that turnabout is fair play, we believe we are called to love those who hate us and to pray for those who would do us harm.  We find victory in defeat, strength in weakness, wisdom in foolishness, life in death, and light in darkness, all because we believe in the power of resurrection and redemption.  When we have no reason to boast, we boast in our strange God.

You can't make this stuff up.


Notes:

1. Tripp Fuller.  The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Jesus: Lord, Liar, Lunatic or Awesome?  2015, Fortress Press.  p. 7
2. Fuller, p. 5
3. Philippians 2:5-11
4. John 1:1-18
5. Wiktionary: Logic
6. Compare John 1:1-4 with Proverbs 8:27-31.
7. Rob Bell.  Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith.  2005, Zondervan.  p. 131
8. John Ortberg.  Who Is This Man?  2012, Zondervan.  p. 130

The image featured in this perspective was created by Wikimedia user Carlaude and is used under the under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic license.  Neither the licensor nor the original photographer is in any way affiliated with this blog.