Scriptorium Daily
Understanding people from a different point of view can be difficult.
The first time I read the Koran or an atheist book, there was a strong temptation simply to scoff, attack, and stick with my comfortable point of view. That would have been too bad since looking at the world from their perspective, which is what a good reader should do, helped me appreciate the strengths of their position, helped me find weaknesses in my ideas, and gave me the pleasure of considering perspectives alien to my own.
What is more fun than that?
A few things are more fun, such as Disneyland with my family at Christmas, but not many. A good thing isn’t just entertaining, of course, it is good for the soul. Looking at another point of view deeply can avoid misunderstandings, help make new friends, and increase tolerance. While tolerance isn’t always good—getting along with Mr. Stalin is not necessary to live the examined life—tolerance in daily American life is usually good.
Lately I have read a few people disturbed to discover that I confess that: “Jesus is Lord.” What do Christians mean when they say “Jesus is Lord”? Are they forming militias to get ready for a theocracy governed by Biblical law?
This kind of worry is an example of the rule that knowing just a little bit about a group can be lead to big misunderstandings, but learning a bit more can be helpful. Of course, you may still not like the results, but at least you will know what you are opposing.
Why do I say Jesus is Lord? Why not just think for myself? In fact, thinking for myself is what made me bow the knee to King Jesus.
Taking the Delphic demand to know myself seriously made me realize how small and unimportant I was! At the same time, it taught me that my desires were for something greater than self. My longings were bigger than I was! My heart was filled with love and that love (to borrow from the Symposium) was for something or someone.
What could best fill my heart’s longing? What or who was this known (because I loved it) unknown beloved?
Most people never solve this problem. They live hapless lives lurching from one thing to another. This is not the way to happiness! Others find an ideology that seems to work, but too often this ideology is impersonal and destructive. Christian ideas without a personal God could be that way!
My intellectual journey was long (and continues!) and this is not the place to describe it. Instead, this is my testimony to a few things I discovered and experienced on the way that caused me to say in wonder (and surprise!): Jesus is Lord!
First, my search led me to a person. Why? It is better to submit to a person than to an ideology. An ideology is static and can hurt people. Jesus is a person and so has compassion on our weakness. His rule can cope with changing times in a way that a mere “world view” cannot.
My search led me, as it has every traditional Christian, to God. God would not be knowable for humans, He is so great and “other,” but He revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. God became one of us.
When I met Jesus Christ, in a deeply personal experience, certain things followed. The Jesus I met was smarter than I was, He was more powerful, and He knew the best way to live because He knows the past and the future. It was senseless not to listen to him.
It goes deeper. Jesus made everything. He has the creator’s rights over His creatures. When we say Jesus is Lord, we are recognizing reality. We discovered this reality using our best experience and our best reason. We are trying to find out what He wishes of His creations. Following His design plan for our lives simply makes sense!
Of course, if God were an arbitrary or cruel creator, then rebellion against Him might be justified. Instead, like an ideal father (so often dreamed of but so rarely found!), His rule is just and elevates us. We are slaves to our passions, but in becoming His children, we are set free from this bondage.
Jesus’ goal for us is freedom in His service. He calls us his brothers and sisters and elevates us (as much as humans can be elevated) to become like He is. On earth, this power is not given to any man, because apparently no man could handle it. Absolute power appears to corrupt absolutely. There is, however, one great exception in all of history.
The Son of God emptied Himself of power and became fully human. This God-Man had both divine and human natures. He had great power, but He came to serve us and to fully grasp our humanity. He came to serve. When He took on Himself every bit of human suffering, then He was exalted.
Jesus is Lord, by nature but also by suffering. He earned the power by service to humanity that He had by nature.
God became human so that humans could become like God. Of course, we can never become God, the divine essence is not for us, but we can become fit for His companionship. That is a great thing!
No living Christian is there yet. Death is the final passage on a long journey before we can see as we ought to see, hear as we ought to hear, or do as we ought to do. When Christians cry out “Jesus is Lord” it is an act of love . . . crying out for something better than they have yet experienced.
I have experienced enough of the liberty and joy of His rule to want more. My ignorance, folly, and prejudice that hold me back from the intellectual, emotional, and physical wholeness of spiritual union with Jesus is frustrating.
That is why we often seem so emphatic in our declaration! Nobody needs to fear this declaration, since if Jesus is Lord, then I am not. No consistent Christian could ever confuse his own will for God’s will. We know we are sinners. Only on a few issues where experience, reason, revelation, and history unite do we have the courage to speak boldly. The protection of human life is one of those areas.
We have creeds and ethical systems that sum our knowledge, but they are short and modest compared to the long codes and rules of any modern state. Caesar is much more sure of himself in our age than any follower of the Christ!
Meanwhile, this side of Paradise, how do Christians know what Jesus wants them to do?
First, Christians pray. Prayer is our heart reaching out to God because His heart first reached out to ours and made such communication possible. It is communion with God. We try to hear what Jesus is saying to us.
If you don’t pray, there is no real way to describe what communion with God is like. As this site often demonstrates, I am no saint and often mistake my own ideas for His! Over the years, experience has taught me (some) modesty about knowing God’s will. I want it. I want to know it, but know that it is a great and mighty thing not easily grasped.
Before heaven it is enough for me to know His will for my own small affairs and to do the best I can to work out my relationship with God humbly.
Usually, for me, prayer consists of being open to God’s voice and will. On an average day, this is all I experience. I continue to work out what He has shown me to that point in my life, though even in that I sense His help and power. For me, this is a deep sense of His presence and power.
Sometimes during prayer, there is an impression in my mind of an idea or an emotion that will rise up inside of me. Less often, I hear His voice in my mind encouraging or rebuking me or urging me to do something I should do. This voice is like no other in my experience. I cannot prove to a skeptic that it is God’s voice, but over time this voice has proven itself to me.
When I mediate daily, I first acknowledge reality. There is a physical and spiritual dimension to reality and God is in charge of it. I ask God to make those two things work together perfectly in the world. I ask for help with my physical and spiritual needs and then I ask for the needs of those around me. When I ask for God’s rule on the earth, I am not asking for power for self, but for justice for every human being.
Second, Christians read the Bible. My personal relationship with Jesus is the most important thing, but it could be that I am deceiving myself. The Bible shows me the real Jesus so I don’t miss Him for the Jesus of my imagination. There is nothing unique in that danger, it is a problem in all relationships between people.
People sometimes cannot get through to us because of the clutter of our own mental and emotional life. Nobody who has ever tried to be in love will fail to recognize that danger! We think we love the beloved, but we are really in love with our image of him or her!
The Bible is God’s written exposition of His nature.
The Bible doesn’t change, though over the years as I have studied it, I have learned to know it better. It might seem funny to some people to find wisdom about a relationship in an ancient book, but if the Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to humankind, then it makes sense.
Words allow me to step back from my experience of Him, which can be quite overwhelming, and think about it. Thinking about a relationship is a great way to avoid misunderstandings and to deepen the experience. Also, it is easy to confuse what I wish Jesus Christ was saying with what He is saying. The Bible is a static expression of what He is like so that I don’t fool myself and mess up our conversations.
I keep my wife Hope’s cards and letters to me over the years and reread them for just this reason. She is a wise woman and I want to love her and not just the woman I imagine she is. Reading her words carefully is one way of making sure I am hearing her, and not just what I wish to hear when she talks to me.
Finally, Christians try to follow Jesus in the context of history and what other (better!) Christians have said about Him. Those of us who love Jesus are a family . . . a big family, fractious and sometimes unattractive. Over time, however, we have learned a thing or two about God and about the Bible. We have made most mistakes that can be made and fooled ourselves most ways that people can be fooled. Reading the fathers and mothers in the faith is a great way to avoid making the same mistakes!
Does this always work?
No.
Christians still make mistakes and misunderstand what they are told by Jesus. After all, my wife and I are much more alike than I am like God and I still misunderstand her!
Christians beg your indulgence for our failures and pray (or should pray!) for humility.
Sometimes Christians are hypocrites and say “Jesus is Lord” but really believe “I am Lord.” We use religion instead of letting the loving Christ use us. We want love, but we sometimes settle for personal indulgence.
What do I do when I fail?
There is a real person who keeps calling me back to my basic relationship with Him. I did not want to be a Christian at one point in my life, but reality (my best reason and experience) would not budge. Jesus is alive and He loves me. He is there and He is not silent.
If you don’t know Him, then it is hard to describe the internal sense of His presence. It is constant and not so different than the sense of my wife’s presence in the room with me now.
When I say, “Jesus is Lord” this is a bit of what I mean. Jesus Christ is real, present, speaking, and worthy of my obedience.
This Christmas when you stand in wonder listening to the Biblical language used by Handel in his glorious Hallelujah Chorus, you will briefly understand what Christians feel daily. King of Kings! Lord of Lords!
