I appreciate the reminder of Mark Galli's book Jesus Mean and Wild to recall whole portrait of Jesus portrayed in Scripture's narrative. Although Isaiah's imagery of a lamb before the slaughter [53:7] is an accurate reflection of Jesus common portrayl of nonviolent surrender to his enemies, we often forget the Christ who turned over tables, whipped salesmen, and called hypocrites names. I have to admit that I am drawn to this Jesus more than to the meek and mild one. There is something right about aggressive anger in the face of injustice. I wish that evil in the world angered me more and that I could say with Theodore Roosevelt that if I had to choose between righteousness and peace I'd choose peace. Of course this statement need not be applied to the political sphere at this point. As a mere personal observation I often prefer the peaceful status quo than the distaste of hot emotions that have the potential to effect needed change.
November 2007 Archives
"Woe to the Person who smoothly, flirtatiously, commandingly, convincingly preaches some soft sweet something which is supposed to be Christianity! Woe to the person who makes miracles reasonable. Woe to the person who betrays and breaks the mystery of faith, distorts it into public wisdom, because he takes away the possibility of offense!...Oh the time wasted in this enormous work if making Christianity so reasonable, and in trying to make it so relevant!"
Soren Kierkegaard in "The Offense"
As a person who has embraced faith in Christ without dismissing the demands of my reason, I both struggle to affirm this sentiment while at the same time my heart is sympathetically pulled towards its embrace. My affirmation of the historical existence, credibility and events of the life of Jesus as recorded in the biblical narrative serve to satisfy the minds demand for proof, though it is only with my heart that I can begin to grasp the significance of what the death and resurrection of God might mean for humanity. Does justifiable faith fulfill the demands of reason before opening the heart to embrace a meaning that must transcend reason; or must the open heart absorb meaning before reason has the capacity to respond to what is beyond itself? I wonder what ways that faith would change if this "enormous work" of advocating for the reasonableness of our faith was abandoned, what labor would replace it and would it be any less reasonable?
How wonderful to be able to ask these big open-ended questions without being obligated to respond. I love the freedom of blogs!
