The Jesus I Know

One of the gracious people who have decided to follow my blog made a comment that, for her part, she leaves politics out of her blog. I believe this was simply a comment reflecting her own preferences and was not related to my style or lack of style in any way.

But it did raise for me some interesting questions. I do not think of myself as "political" but I do have a lot of comments that seem "political".

I am a Christian/theologian/preacher. But what is a Christian? The word means many things to many people. If one says they are a Christian--if they are to be understood and seek to understand in return--they are obligated to be a bit more specific about what the word means.

The New Testament contains at least three versions of Jesus. The earliest is the work of Paul. He sees Jesus as the first Adam in an act of New Creation. Jesus is the cosmic reconciliation of creation and the creator. He is the one who overcomes the last enemy--death--and promises a relationship with God in Jesus for the believing community.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke present Jesus as the one proclaiming the Kingdom of God. This is a political term with political meaning because Jesus is proclaiming a Kingdom other than the Roman Kingdom which occupies Jesus' time and place. Throughout these three gospels Jesus advocates for justice and peace with acts of healing and liberation. The Kingdom of God, whose roots reach back to the prophetic activity of the Old Testament, is oriented toward the wholeness of human persons as children of God, which includes liberation from physical and political oppression.

John is the existential Jesus. John's Jesus never doubts his purpose or his union with the Father. John's Jesus is the eternal logos (word) made flesh who draws people to himself. For John, to know Jesus is to believe in him. To believe in him is to believe in the Father. To do so leads to eternal life. In John there is very little talk of Kingdoms and very few acts of political liberation. In John---it is the existential choice.

So what Jesus do I know? Well, all of them. Each of them has formed and shaped me but the Jesus portrayed by the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke seems the most enduring to me. I lean on that Jesus, the Jesus who preaches good news to the poor and release to the captives and the acceptable year of the Lord. So when I say I am a Christian--that is more the Christian that I am. The other Jesus' remain complimentary. Like the Trinity---the same but separate.

So if I write from a Christian perspective as outlined above, no doubt the observations will, in the end, sound "political".