In these vitriolic political times, when I see so much negative energy coming from two sides out-screaming and out-name calling their demands that the other side see the world through their eyes, I've been reflecting on the Christian story.
I find myself NOT reflecting on the Christian truth we Christians most often migrate to - that God came to earth to die on a cross to save us all. No, instead, I've found myself wondering why God would have bothered coming to this crazy world at all. I mean, if you read your bible, you'll discover the world wasn't void of political screaming and name calling when God came to hang out with us. And, I've come to believe, my God is a God of options; it's not like coming to live with us was his way of throwing his hands in the air and conceding there is just no other way. I have to go live with this mess I created. No, it seems to me, God left the ultimate comforts of home to jump right smack dab in the middle of the greatest collection of burdens this world can assemble. And it seems to me he did it for a reason - a reason rooted in desire more than desperation. A desire for what, though? That's what I've been wondering. There is a story in the 3rd chapter of Matthew in the bible. It's early in Jesus' ministry. He goes to John and asks John to baptize him. John responds like a lot of us probably would. Uhm, wait a minute - you're God - shouldn't this baptizing thing be going down the other way around. Like - you baptize me? Jesus says, no, this is exactly the way it's supposed to go down. So John baptizes Jesus. And when Jesus comes up out of the water the clouds open up and there's suddenly a loud booming voice from heaven. It's the voice of God and it says, this is my son, and man do I love him. What did Jesus do in that baptism that made God such a loud and proud dad? I don't think it was Jesus being willing to be baptized by a mere human. I think it was because of how much Jesus desired to experience being a human. I think God built his model of life on the foundation of love. And I think God made a desire to see life through someone else's life - the desire to experience and feel and walk in the steps of another human - he made that the main interstate for love. In that moment of baptism, Jesus wasn't saying I want you to baptize me John, he was saying I want to see and feel what it's like to be you, John. L. Ann Jervis says, "to take an empathetic stance towards another means that I am able to transcend myself and my own experience in order to enter into the experience of another. Those who have received such empathy from another will know that there is nothing more healing or more validating than this." Jesus was taking one of the first of many steps he would take to transcend being God to enter into the experience of being me and you. He didn't do it because he had to - he did it because he knew that was the best road to take to demonstrate love. He did it because he didn't ever want us to have any doubts about the best road we could take to loving one another. I get why Jesus died on a cross. I'm beginning to think it's even more important to consider why he ever came at all.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
February 2025
CategoriesAll Faith Fatherhood Life Mental Health Perserverance Running |