Christianity

I think we missed the point. The point of what? Well, life, really. Christianity. Jesus.

I'm pretty sure we've managed to turn Christianity into the exact thing that Jesus turned on its head to found Christianity. Judaism in Jesus' day had very little, if any, focus on God, save for its founding principals. The religious leaders were more worried about keeping the religion alive by their own ideas and practices than anything else. They were buying in to the world, not to God.

The world was telling them, as it is telling us, that to succeed in this life a person must ultimately be liked and verified by the people around them. Donald Miller calls this a product of the fall; we search in vain for anything and everything that can give us a sense of worth or validity in this life, validation that was meant to come from God alone. In the garden of Eden, man and God were in perfect unity. Man looked to nothing except for God for validation and worth because he just knew that only God's opinion mattered. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God however, they became separated from God and all that came with that.

And I don't believe that we can really fully understand how that would have affected them. Envision in your mind as I try to paint a picture of how this might have looked:

The Trinity, uncreated and everlasting; living in perfect harmony with one another, serving each other and loving each other, unconditionally. They CANNOT, because of their nature, be any other way. Out of their goodness, they choose to share this life with a creation, to pour out this love and acceptance and glory into a creation, in order that it may feel as they do. A feeling, I have began to realize, that we really cannot even fathom.

Imagine what it must feel like to be unconditionally and unceasingly loved, glorified, accepted, approved and wanted. It's hard, isn't it? Try this; think back to the last time somebody loved you or glorified you or even just accepted something you said or did. Think how great that felt, to be approved by that person, if only for a few minutes. Now imagine how it would feel for that person to be constantly reminding you of that for five minutes straight. It would feel pretty good, wouldn't it?

Now think again how that might feel, as it did in the garden, to have that from God without ever ceasing? Constant, unwavering, unconditional approval and validation of worth from a perfect God. It was enough to make Adam and Eve comfortable and unashamed of their nakedness. It was enough to make Adam and Eve whole enough that God would be walking in the garden with them in the cool of the night. Keep in mind that if there was but a microscopic blemish in either of them, God could not be in their presence. It is in His nature. But this approval from God was enough to keep them from desiring anything but God. They needed nothing else.

But then Satan tricked them and in spite of having all they ever needed, they wanted more. Now in and of itself, that is a lie. There was no more that they could have, God already gave them everything. In reality, by choosing to disobey God, they chose less; much less.

Now continuing our image we are creating, try to see how this choice to disobey really affected Adam and Eve. Sure, we know that they were kicked out of the garden and mankind was plunged into the world of sin. But think how that would have felt. Genesis tells us that right after they disobey, they realize they are naked and are ashamed. The very second they step down from allowing God to be everything they need, they begin to seek affirmation from anything and everything that can give it to them, to fill the void that God alone once filled. They were worried what the other would think of them, so they covered their nakedness to gain affirmation. They hid from God when He came walking toward them, because they were afraid. The day before they had nothing to fear; God affirmed them and loved them because they were pure. But now that they had disobeyed, they no longer were able to receive that from God. God saw the blemish of disobedience in their lives and was not able to get through that barrier. So man had to start seeking affirmation from others that were just as broken. And I cannot pretend to imagine how horrible that must have felt.

The Trinity, as God has shown me lately, is completely relational. Every aspect of how they treat each other is founded in perfect and pure relationship. And man, when first created, was formed into this relationship. The Trinity's identity exists within itself and man's identity was to come from the Godhead alone. And it did. And that was the sole purpose of life; to share in that relationship with God. He pours out glory, love, affirmation and life into us and we, in turn, affirm Him. Not because He needed affirmation from us to continue existing, but because He chose to want a relationship with us.

But from the very beginning of man, we decided to use our free choice to choose something less. We chose something far beneath what God was offering to us and devoted our lives to obtaining this elusive thing, whatever it looks like in our lives, for the sole purpose of gaining back the affirmation that God offered us free in the first place. But it's an endless cycle, because only God CAN give us the affirmation we seek.

Throughout the whole old testament, we see God patiently trying to bring humanity back into relationship with Himself. In fact we often don't see this at all; instead we see a God giving us a list of rules and steps and do's and do-not's. We see Him killing people that are not seemingly good enough for Him, and blessing those who kiss up to Him. We see Him leading Israel by a leash, punishing them when they do something wrong.

But in reality He is just longing for relationship with them again, longing to smash the barriers that are keeping us from our ultimate purpose; to share a mutually affirming relationship with God. The rules and steps are there to try to overcome the barrier, though we keep screwing up because we're looking elsewhere to be loved and it pulls us down. Because He is just, God must kill those who are so lost that they will never come to Him and will take others down with them. And because He longs for us He blesses those who earnestly long for Him.

God stocks the Old Testament full of poetry expressing His longings for us to return to Him from our adulterating ways; to be united as a bridegroom to His bride. And He also includes the writings of those who are longing for Him in the same way, longing to leave our inherent adultery and come back to Him... and the frustrations that come with this journey. It's like He was trying to get some sort of point across, preparing us for the time when it will actually become possible to cross that barrier and be re-united with Him, gaining everything we need in this life directly from Him, no longer needing to look to other broken people for the fulfillment He offers.

And then Jesus enters the scene. Well, enters the scene as a human. He's been there all along in the Trinity. I think that is something we often overlook too, by the way. I do, anyway. I think “Oh, well Jesus is God's son and He sent Him to be sacrificed for us, so God can be in communion with us again.” But John, describing Jesus, says “The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing, not one thing, came into being without him.”
Jesus was with God in the Trinity before we were created. He was one of the three who were perfectly living in community with the other two. He was there when we were created and in fact it was through Him that we were created. He was and is God and we lost relationship with Him as well, not just the Father. It was God Himself that came to this earth, not just some angelic son of His. And what did He do when He came? Well, He lived. Then died. Then rose from the dead. Sounds simple enough. But let's try to understand what He actually did.
Well, first of all He left the physical presence of the Trinity. He shared in this perfect community for eternity, before time began. I can't even put to words how hard it must have been to leave this to come live as a human for 33 years. Now sure, 33 years is hardly an atom compared to eternity. But to leave the presence of the Trinity, even for that amount of time, must have been something that left Him feeling horribly empty. No wonder He would frequently go off into the desert alone to spend time with them and be re-filled. So why did He do it, if it was so horrible?
Because He wanted to share that with us. Remember, the reason He created us in the first place? He gave up the perfect community of the Trinity that we, humans, might have a second shot at sharing it with them, unhindered, once again. He lived with humans, the very humans that rejected Him right after He created them, so that they would have a second chance to accept Him. He came, lived a life free of sin, died because we still rejected Him, then rose from the dead to go back to be with the Father in the Trinity. But it worked.

Finally, we could once again enter unhindered into a relationship with God, if we would so choose. Finally, we no longer had to try to get back to God on our own strength. The rules and laws from the Old Testament, Jesus fulfills them through His strength if we allow Him to, making us unblemished once again before God.

Christianity, from this understanding, is essentially nothing more than choosing to pursue the relationship that God offered us from the very beginning. But this time, our choice to choose something less than what He offers will only affect ourselves; everybody on earth has the choice to choose to enter into perfect community with the Trinity now.

And yet, after all this, we still choose to ignore God.

We decide that we're better off trying to find affirmation in others than in God. We focus our whole lives on collecting stuff and putting others down and pushing our own agendas so we can feel accepted by others, but it's a false and fleeting acceptance. They only accept us because it will make others like them and when we're no longer of use we get pushed away. Empty, once again.

We treat Christianity like this as well, but instead of looking to God for the affirmation we look to others within Christianity and to the institution of church and ultimately away from God. We read books that tell us we are good Christians, hop churches until we find a pastor or priest that tells us what we want to hear, surround ourselves with people that build us up so we feel good. We read the bible and make lists of things that are relatively easy to accomplish, lists that we say will get us to heaven and make us Christians.

Once again, we have lost our focus... on life, Christianity and ultimately Jesus. Instead of sharing Jesus with those who don't know Him, we tell them that if they believe what we say they will become like us and we will affirm them. If you're Canadian or American you're a Christian, and we affirm you for that. If you say you believe the points on this tract, we will consider you a Christian and give you the acceptance you seek. If you are immersed in water, eat bread and wine and seem really spiritual when you worship, we will accept you and call you one of us.
And all the while Jesus is standing in the background, saying that if we love Him, He will accept us. If we accept that all we will ever need is Him, we will be fulfilled. If we enter into the relationship that He is calling us back to all throughout the bible, we will never long for affirmation from others again, we will have all we need from God. He did this on earth and people followed. Though it was the people whom nobody else would love or accept that began to follow Him. Those that others accepted were too lost in the lie to notice what Jesus was offering... they thought they already had it.

And we do this today, still. If only I had that car, or that shirt, or those shoes. I would be accepted, life would have meaning. If that girl would marry me, or if I do enough drugs they will accept me... if I seem to be cool enough, life will be fulfilling.

Jesus is weeping because those who don't know Him are believing the lie and living in pain instead of coming to Him and living with joy. But nobody will tell them that they can. Instead, we (by we I mean Christians) believe the lie as well and feed it, turning people away from Jesus. We tell ourselves that our efforts are pure, that our motives are focused on love.

I think we've missed the point. I think we're missing the point. And I think we're missing Jesus. And I know that we'll continue to miss the point unless we somehow find Jesus again in this world, in the real way that He has offered Himself to us.

Think back to all the people you've ever come into contact with. Now of those people, how many have you honestly introduced to Jesus? Not to Christianity, not to lists or rules or their sin. But to Jesus? Now to compare, how many have you turned away from Jesus? Either by letting them down by trying to use Christianity to affirm them yourself, or by putting them down so others will affirm you... or by using them to affirm yourself or even by trying to persuade them to follow the steps to become a Christian, subconsciously offering affirmation from yourself and others in the church.

And I ask myself, because the answer is an overwhelming landslide in the wrong direction, why? Well, I personally think it's because we've forgotten how to love. And more importantly, how to be loved. I'm pretty sure at the beginning, Adam and Eve didn't have much problem with these things. There was nothing to not get; God loved them with everything He had and was, and they loved Him back to the same capacity. But after the fall, things changed. God still loved man with everything... but man was no longer able to receive it unhindered. This lack of receiving love therefore affected their capacity to love, which spiraled downwards until Jesus came to earth. He came to teach us how to love and more importantly how to once again be loved.
He didn't expect His disciples to get it all at once. He was incredibly patient. But He loved them. And eventually they learned this, though it took them years. Throughout Jesus' life in the gospels, we see a picture of Jesus loving everyone unconditionally, while His disciples were still arguing three years later about who was the greatest among them. Still looking for affirmation in others. But slowly, towards the end of the gospels and into the rest of the new testament, we see them finally start to get it. Jesus loved them, and it was enough. They learned how to be loved.

Once this happened, it didn't take much to learn to love others. The kingdom of God was thriving because it was based on introducing others to the love the believers shared with God. But we've somehow forgotten this over the years.

Mark 12:29-31 “Jesus said, "The first in importance is, "Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: "Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these."

We've stopped loving God with all of our passion and prayer and intelligence and energy. We say we love God, but we don't even know what love means anymore. We cannot love ourselves until we know that God loves us. And we cannot love others until we love ourselves. There is no other commandment that ranks with these, Jesus says. But we don't even know how to do these anymore.

So what's the answer? What steps do we have to follow to get this back? Well, there aren't any. At least no set list, anyway. That's the wonderful thing about Christianity that we've lost over the past hundred years, or more. It's about a personal relationship with Jesus. He can show us exactly how to re-learn love and how to receive His love. We just have to ask Him, meaning it when we ask it.

Jesus longs to bring us back to Himself, believe me; He will jump at the opportunity if we allow Him to. There is however one thing I know for sure and Shawn McDonald says it simply but powerfully: It's time to confess that I need a little more Jesus inside of me... and Don't you see, if you do not learn love, then you will be completely nothing. You could be absolutely amazing here on earth... but you would be nothing.

Learn love. Ask Jesus to teach you. Then do whatever it takes to get a little more of Him inside of you... and show others the Jesus that you have fallen in love with.