We as Christians have an unusual fascination with the death of Jesus. I know that what Jesus did for us, on the cross, is an astounding act of love and sacrifice. Without this, none of us would have any hope, and yet Paul the Apostle declares that, "..if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins." (I Cor.15:17)
I wonder if our fascination with his death has something to do sychologically with our view of what it means to be a Christian?
For instance, the modern church, especially in America, can't seem to go on enough about the death of Jesus. It seems that all the television preachers can talk about is the fact that, "Jesus died on the cross for your sins".
When a Christian person is interviewed on television or stands to talk about Jesus, inevitably the only thing they can find to say is that, "Jesus loves you and he died on the cross for your sins".
At times it all starts to sound monotonous and cliche. I can almost hear the lost saying, "So what?"
The message we send most loudly to the world is the idea that Jesus died.
Even the most prominent media message in our lifetime, Mel Gibson's mega-evangelistic "Passion Of The Christ", which was dubbed "The Greatest Evangelical Message in Two Thousand Years", was all about the death of Jesus. The resurrection scene at the end was so vague and quick that most of us, even those of us who know the story, were left going, "Huh? What just happened?"
At Easter this overt focus on the death of Jesus is most noticeable. For me, when we spend those two weeks before and after Easter talking about the irrefutable fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, it almost seems strange. Like, "Oh yeah! He DID rise from the dead, didn't he?", as if this most historically provable event is something we need to be reminded of, but only once a year.
This has got me thinking. Why is it that we focus so much on the death of Jesus and very little on the resurrection of Jesus? I mean, why isn't the resurrection the main thing we talk about? Why don't we go around proclaiming that "Jesus is Risen!" and argue with people about the fact that there's no refuting the fact of Easter?
Here's my theory.
We, the Church, are the Body of Christ. We are the physical representation of Jesus in the world today, and I think we're more comfortable being the "Body at Rest" than the "Body in Motion".
As the Body of Jesus, we're more comfortable in the dark of the tomb, wrapped in our own shroud, meditating on this death of our Lord, with the stone rolled shut across the door.
We ignore that what we are called to do, as the living Body of Jesus, is to go out and proclaim, demonstrate and testify with our lives the awesome miracle that "Jesus is Alive!" and that we are living examples of this fact.
What I long for is the day when we are bold enough to declare, as one people, with one voice, that Jesus is Alive, and that our conduct in the world would bear witness to this fact.
Our inactivity, our apathy, our aversion to serve others and live out the compassion of Jesus, sadly proclaims that Jesus is dead.
It's when we live for Him, when we continue to love the way He did, when our lives are in sync with His, that we proclaim by our actions that, yes, indeed, Jesus is really alive!
Is Jesus really alive? Has He really come to live in your life? And how would anyone know this to be true if you never actually demonstrated the life and love and ministry of Jesus in your own life?
Do we, as individual followers of Jesus, feel safer within the quiet of the tomb? Or are we willing, even eager, to roll away the stone and begin to live the truth of the power of the Gospel?
If we, the Body of Jesus, do not act as a living Jesus would, within this world, loving those He loved, sharing with those He spent time with, continuing His ministry of transformation, then we do not demonstrate that Jesus is alive, we simply testify that He has died.
What we must do is to wake ourselves from our slumber, shake off the apathy, and begin to proclaim, with our own lives, that Jesus is truly alive.
"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing."- John 14:12
"Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."- 1 John 2:6
He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
*Keith Giles is a writer, teacher, pastor and missional church-planter in Southern California. He blogs online and publishes a free weekly e-newsletter called [subversive underground]. Visit him online at: http://www.keithgiles.com
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Hey Keith,
Thanks for the great reminder that if I spend too much time thinking about what Jesus did, or wondering WWJD, then I miss out on what He is doing in the moment -- where His life is breaking in.
I'd rather be looking for that.
whirled,
~ cob
Posted by Keith Seckel | Posted at 04/13/2006 4:13 PM
I've been introduced to the notion that 'Jesus dying for our sins' isn't about God having a perfect sacrifice to pay off the debt of humanity's sins. Jesus was killed because he disturbed the authority of his day. It wasn't about doing his father's will according to the script he had before he came down from heaven, but rather Jesus, refusing to betray his message of love, was being obedient to the will of God who is only Love. I think it unfortunate that people try so hard to cleverly analyze the bible to the point of forsaking their own intelligence. Jesus loosen people from there sins, not by his death but by his revealing a god who only has love, he trashed the Temple saying God does not want blood sacrifices. How did those who came to believe Jesus as the son of god ever get so turned around to say god demanded the perfect sacrifice to let us off the hook? when we talk about being risen it might be that 'Jesus enters the place of execution and proclaims in word, symbol and deed that God's saving deeds can bring hope and newlife where that utter and devastating evil has occurred. when you believe something and it is true then it can bring life where there is death.' as my 7 year old boy says, "Jesus got resurrected", i say, by Love. Christ is Risen indeed!
"If we, the Body of Jesus, do not act as a living Jesus would, within this world, loving those He loved, sharing with those He spent time with, continuing His ministry of transformation, then we do not demonstrate that Jesus is alive, we simply testify that He has died.
What we must do is to wake ourselves from our slumber, shake off the apathy, and begin to proclaim, with our own lives, that Jesus is truly alive."
what you wrote above is just absolutely beautiful and brilliant. i just told a friend this today, before i even read your article. thank you for confirming that i'm NOT crazy - that it is quite possible to be alive in Christ - that His ressurection is what makes it possible for us to truly live - i see a lot of "christians" that are SO dead, hiding behind lies, covered up in shame and guilt, that they are walking zombies, but they still go to church and still "read" their bible and think they're okay, while absolutely dying from the inside out. their marriages are falling apart, they're spending money on things that don't really matter, they're chasing after worldy dreams. they selfishly sit in their tomb every week and only roll the stone away to come out on sunday.... but when sunday is over (say at around 12:00), they crawl back in and the stone gets put back in place, only to be rolled away the next sunday. i know that because i was one of these people not too long ago..... BUT the minute i realized, as margy said, that Jesus' didn't just die to "pay off my debt," that He actually ressurection to give me LIFE - i started actively pursuing this LIFE.... and man, it is abundant, just like He promised. you're right, keith, people tend to stop at just the death..... he died for my sins, period... i'm in the club, i'm good to go.
i've been really honed in on this verse lately: "enter through the narrow gate. for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." i've always been taught that this verse is about heaven.... hm.... i think it has to do with the here and now - narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. the greek word life here means this: "life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God".... ahhhhh... that's the key, real and genuine.... we are having a hard time finding many people that want to do that - only a few find it. i want to find it. how about you??
While I totally agree with the concerns you raised in this article, I believe that we don't emphasize the death of Jesus enough...or perhaps the best word is, properly. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he determined not to know anything when he was with them except Christ crucified. Does that mean that he, too, was obsessed with death and not the resurrected life of Jesus?
My basic assumption is that you cannot have resurrection without crucifixion. In other words, we cannot possibly live the resurrection life that you are calling us to live in your article without first putting to death the things that prevent us from living that life: pride, self-centeredness, consumerism, damaged emotions etc.
What you say about television preachers is all to true and sad. I think that presenting the cross only as penal substitution for our sins does get tiring and cliched. What we as the Church need to proclaim is that the cross is also the means by which the human heart is transformed. It is the means by which we put to death our sinful nature...daily. It is the means by which we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God...daily.
The Good News isn't just that the penalty for my sins are forgiven but that the power of sin can be broken in my life when I come to the cross daily and that once that has been done, I can rise up in newness of life.
From the beginning of creation, a day was counted as evening and then morning. The cross seems to follow that pattern. A new life is counted as crucifixion and then resurrection. The cross first and then the empty tomb.
Don't get me wrong...I resonate with what you wrote, "Our inactivity, our apathy, our aversion to serve others and live out the compassion of Jesus, sadly proclaims that Jesus is dead."
Could it be that the reason the Church has been unable to live as "Body in Motion" is due to the fact that we have yet to apply the cross to our daily lives? Maybe before the Body can get into motion, it needs to die to the things that keep it at rest? And for that to happen, it's the cross that needs to be applied.
Posted by Mark Juane | Posted at 03/27/2008 5:03 AM
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Thanks for the great reminder that if I spend too much time thinking about what Jesus did, or wondering WWJD, then I miss out on what He is doing in the moment -- where His life is breaking in.
I'd rather be looking for that.
whirled,
~ cob
What we must do is to wake ourselves from our slumber, shake off the apathy, and begin to proclaim, with our own lives, that Jesus is truly alive."
what you wrote above is just absolutely beautiful and brilliant. i just told a friend this today, before i even read your article. thank you for confirming that i'm NOT crazy - that it is quite possible to be alive in Christ - that His ressurection is what makes it possible for us to truly live - i see a lot of "christians" that are SO dead, hiding behind lies, covered up in shame and guilt, that they are walking zombies, but they still go to church and still "read" their bible and think they're okay, while absolutely dying from the inside out. their marriages are falling apart, they're spending money on things that don't really matter, they're chasing after worldy dreams. they selfishly sit in their tomb every week and only roll the stone away to come out on sunday.... but when sunday is over (say at around 12:00), they crawl back in and the stone gets put back in place, only to be rolled away the next sunday. i know that because i was one of these people not too long ago..... BUT the minute i realized, as margy said, that Jesus' didn't just die to "pay off my debt," that He actually ressurection to give me LIFE - i started actively pursuing this LIFE.... and man, it is abundant, just like He promised. you're right, keith, people tend to stop at just the death..... he died for my sins, period... i'm in the club, i'm good to go.
i've been really honed in on this verse lately: "enter through the narrow gate. for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." i've always been taught that this verse is about heaven.... hm.... i think it has to do with the here and now - narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. the greek word life here means this: "life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God".... ahhhhh... that's the key, real and genuine.... we are having a hard time finding many people that want to do that - only a few find it. i want to find it. how about you??
While I totally agree with the concerns you raised in this article, I believe that we don't emphasize the death of Jesus enough...or perhaps the best word is, properly. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he determined not to know anything when he was with them except Christ crucified. Does that mean that he, too, was obsessed with death and not the resurrected life of Jesus?
My basic assumption is that you cannot have resurrection without crucifixion. In other words, we cannot possibly live the resurrection life that you are calling us to live in your article without first putting to death the things that prevent us from living that life: pride, self-centeredness, consumerism, damaged emotions etc.
What you say about television preachers is all to true and sad. I think that presenting the cross only as penal substitution for our sins does get tiring and cliched. What we as the Church need to proclaim is that the cross is also the means by which the human heart is transformed. It is the means by which we put to death our sinful nature...daily. It is the means by which we consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God...daily.
The Good News isn't just that the penalty for my sins are forgiven but that the power of sin can be broken in my life when I come to the cross daily and that once that has been done, I can rise up in newness of life.
From the beginning of creation, a day was counted as evening and then morning. The cross seems to follow that pattern. A new life is counted as crucifixion and then resurrection. The cross first and then the empty tomb.
Don't get me wrong...I resonate with what you wrote, "Our inactivity, our apathy, our aversion to serve others and live out the compassion of Jesus, sadly proclaims that Jesus is dead."
Could it be that the reason the Church has been unable to live as "Body in Motion" is due to the fact that we have yet to apply the cross to our daily lives? Maybe before the Body can get into motion, it needs to die to the things that keep it at rest? And for that to happen, it's the cross that needs to be applied.