Why Jesus? (Holy frick I just said "Jesus"...stick with me). Above everyone and all those ideas about finding fulfillment in "God"? Why Christ? Well, that's a long answer. I've answered that one a lot. Here's the short version: Because he's the only one who claimed to be God, and suffered just like you and just like me. Oh, and then he rose from the dead.
Caesar claimed to be God, and so did Alexander the Great. Those guys claimed things even Muhammad and Joseph Smith were too afraid to claim. But all those guys are dead. They're buried somewhere. Dead. Rotting. And Caesar had a damn good life. So did Alexander. I see no evidence in the life of Christ that said he had anything good. It was bad for thirty years for that guy. From birth into poverty to the death of a criminal. But his mind and his eyes were on something else. Caesar looked to the mirror, Alexander looked to the land he conquered. Jesus looked at you. He looked at me. And in being completely God and completely man, he saw that you and I are broken because he was broken. We're dirty. Mean. Nasty. Since he was God, and he created you and me, he wanted to save this wrecked creation. Not that he messed it up - it's pretty obvious you and I screwed with it huh?
So he came. He taught good principles for life. And he lived in a way that modeled those things. Perfectly. So we could look to him when we were stumbling. But then he died. God died? Jesus died. But the story doesn't end there. He's the only man in the history of the universe to do this: he beat death. Death had him for three days. He fought it, and rose - physically - from the dead.
People doubted, of course. I mean, even people who saw it doubted. They couldn't believe it. But that didn't seem to phase Jesus. He said that he would be with us until the end of the age, and when we need him, we can call out to him. This goes way beyond Caesar. I wouldn't believe Jesus if he just died. God's don't die. But I believe Jesus because he said he would die, and said he would rise. And he did both, and in so doing, gives me reason to look up, gives me reason to live, and gives me reason to think that whatever I accomplish is nowhere near anything he ever did, is doing, or will do. That's why I live, work, laugh, breathe, rest, wake, and strive for him. Not because anything I can do, but what he did, is doing, and will do.
That's why I just can't write about theology right now, or scripture, or doctrine. I guess I just had to write about Jesus. He's better than all that, and writing about this helps me laugh at the fact that I'm in pain, and things aren't necessarily going my way. But the ultimate realization that things are going His way. Always. That makes me feel good. I am not in control. I am not in control. We are not in control.
Things are going His way. And anyways, who the flip cares if things are going my way...except for me?
Oh that's right.
No one.
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2 comments:
I gotta disagree on one point. Now, Biblically and Theologically speaking, what I know could fill a cup (not a real cup, mind you, but a small cup, like the ones they give to children), so I got a bunch of nothing to back this up, but I got what I believe.
The second I believe I'm not in control is the second I've given up. If I'm not in control of my life, there's no point in going to school, no point to work, because that philosophy says that whatever happens is "meant to be" and takes away all personal responsibility, which at the end of the day is all we've got. Of course it feels good to say "I'm not in control," because then you shift the responsibility away from yourself.
Does God know what will happen? You bet, but you're the one who decides it.
Does God present us with certain opportunities? I'll settle for inspires in us and in others, but end of the day it's up to us.
Tried calling tonight. Do call me back tomorrow (Tuesday); I know I'm behind on e-mails and your present (I swear to God it'll be mailed this week), I'm really sorry about that, but I hope we can talk soon (I'm on a bit of an insomnia streak that's really doing me in tonight, but I should be awake 'til midnight EST tomorrow).
I tried as hard as I could to avoid the doctrine of God and Time but it appears as though I drove straight into it. I think you're right, but perhaps we've simply stated it differently (you being the clearer of the two).
The Bible teaches what you say, God knows what will happen, we are the ones that choose it. I'm pretty sure it's called God's "foreordination." He knows all states of affairs (past, present, future) due to the fact that he has decreed all such states of affairs. So yes, we choose; we're not robots...maybe I sound like one, i dunno.
I will say, however, that we choose these things by the grace AND guide of the Father.
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