By Bill Leonard
“He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lake side, He came to those … who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: ‘Follow thou me!’ and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.” (Albert Schweitzer, Quest of the Historical Jesus.)
“Since the Reformation, Protestant churches have generally interpreted Jesus through the Apostle Paul. Today, many postmodern Christians are learning to interpret Paul thorough Jesus.” (Tony Campolo, New Baptist Covenant convocation, 2012, paraphrased)
“Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen. Nobody knows but Jesus.” (African-American spiritual)
These days, it appears that many postmoderns inside and perhaps outside the church are discovering or rediscovering, visiting or revisiting, Jesus, what he says and what he means.
Why? Perhaps because Jesus is so fascinating, his words and actions so timeless, that he captivates every generation.
Perhaps in an increasingly “none-centered” culture, where a rapidly growing number of persons claim no discernable religious identity, Jesus is “as One unknown.”
Perhaps because Christ’s body, the church, is compelled to retell the Jesus story in ways that might captivate those for whom the Galilean remains “without a name.”
Efforts to articulate Jesus anew are evident across the theological spectrum.
Liberal scholar Marcus Borg published Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, with the assertion that: “Believing in Jesus does not mean believing doctrines about him. Rather, it means to give one’s heart, one’s self at its deepest level, to … the living Lord.”
In A New Kind of Christianity, emerging-church theologian Brian McLaren declares: “The one I believe to be the real Jesus — the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Jesus of Acts, the letters, and Revelation too (wisely interpreted) — cannot be understood and must not be trimmed to fit within the Greco-Roman framing story; he can only be crucified upon its violent right angles.” McLaren confesses that “in the midst of persecution and martyrdom that poor unarmed Galilean riding on the donkey, hailed by the poor and hopeful, is the one to trust.”
In The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering who Jesus Was and Is, evangelical scholar N. T. Wright suggests that, “Many Christians have been, frankly, sloppy in their thinking and talking about Jesus, and hence, sadly, in their praying and in their practice of discipleship.” Wright insists that, “We cannot assume that by saying the word Jesus, still less the word Christ, we are automatically in touch with the real Jesus who talked in first-century Palestine.”
Wright will participate in the “Simply Jesus Gathering” scheduled Nov. 7-9 in Denver with its invitation to: “Anyone … who wants to understand more about Jesus of Nazareth … for any reason. Atheists, believers, agnostics, truth seekers, church goers, non-church goers, pastors, non-pastors, church planters, anti-church planters, contemplatives, activists … anyone who wants to take the person and precepts of Jesus seriously.” The gathering’s Facebook page asserts: “Jesus may be a bit different than we think. Let’s (re)discover Jesus together.”
Bring it on. The haunting figure of Jesus demands reexamination in every era but especially in times and contexts characterized by institutional detachment, postmodern pluralism and spiritual inquisitiveness.
As a Christian (and Baptist) conversionist I believe that an encounter with Jesus is essential for the journey of faith, the foundation of Christian experience. Yet much contemporary conversionism has often turned Jesus into a salvific vaccination rather than the continuing focus of inward growth and outward engagement.
Recent explorations of Jesus and his Way send us back to the shores of Galilee as he proclaimed: “The time has come; the Kingdom of God is upon you; repent, and believe the gospel.”
Mark’s gospel says that “walking by the shore” Jesus “saw Simon and his brother Andrew on the lake at work with a casting net,” and called them to “Come with me,” and “fish” for persons. “And at once they left their nets and followed him.” He then found James and John who were “overhauling their nets,” called them, and “they went off to follow him.” (Mark 1:14-19)
In our current spiritual-but-not-religious and believer-but-not-belonger culture, perhaps call precedes conversion, an appeal that initiates process not transaction, an entry-level spiritual commitment bounded by risk.
On the lake shore Jesus gets our attention with ideas and actions toward a new way of looking at the world. On the lake shore we join him in recognizing that the Kingdom of God is here already.
In God and Empire, John Dominic Crossan writes that Jesus’ claim of “an already present Kingdom” demanded evidence, “and the only such that Jesus could have offered is this: it is not that we are waiting for God, but that God is waiting for us. The present Kingdom is a collaborative eschaton between the human and divine worlds.”
If the “nones” won’t collaborate with the church, perhaps they will with Jesus. And perhaps we church folks will hear that call again, (re)discovering in the inevitable “toils, conflict and suffering,” that “ineffable mystery” of who he is. Bring it on.