Jesus Stretched Credulity

What Did Jesus Do?

Jesus Stretched Credulity

“What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

                                                                        Mark 4:41

I was watching a JAG rerun the other day—you remember JAG don’t you, the saga of  a team of Navy lawyers like no Navy lawyers to ever sail the seas—and there was a courtroom scene where an Iraqi Muslim general commented on how strange he found Christianity, particularly its God.  He just could not understand how God could be one god, yet three persons, it made no sense to him, it was beyond anything he could get his mind around.  It got me to thinking.  I mean, shouldn’t God be beyond our capacity to size up, categorize, describe, and understand completely?  Shouldn’t God, even when he goes to great lengths to reveal himself to us, remain something of a mystery we cannot solve?

I know, God has always had a hankering to hang with us.  From the late-afternoon strolls in the Garden that he took with Adam and Eve, to the burning bush and pillars of fire and of smoke in which “I AM” appeared to Moses, God made it evident that he enjoys being with people.  The most sublime evidence of this was of course when God put on our flesh and literally became Immanuel (“God with us”) in the person of Jesus Christ.  God as man, yes, but so much more.

The truth is that man-gods have been around, well, practically forever.  From emperors of China, to Pharaohs of Egypt, to the Caesar’s of Rome, the world has hardly ever lacked for someone claiming to be something more than a man.  But people have always had a pretty good handle on these man-gods, they have always understood what emperors and pharaohs and Caesars have been about because, well, man-gods are, in the end, nothing more than worldly.  In the end, men as a god in the person of earthly rulers  are nothing the world hasn’t seen many times.  But God as man, well, he’s something, someone, who stretches our credulity, our ability to believe, to a place beyond familiarity, beyond complete comprehension, beyond mortal ability to quantify, to fit into any kind of category that would make him somewhat manageable for us.  If God as man doesn’t leave us ultimately speechless, fearful, marveling, wondering, then we haven’t really encountered him. 

The apostles who witnessed Jesus calming a storm on Galilee with three little words, “Peace! Be still!” were utterly confounded.  This was a man like, well, like no man they’d ever seen or heard of.  This was no pharaoh or Caesar, the apostles knew what manner of men pharaohs and Caesars were.  But Jesus, he defied any and all attempts to fit him, to make complete sense of him.  Jesus was a manner of man like unto himself alone.  Actually, he is a manner of man like unto the Father and the Holy Spirit.  In other words, he is God. 

That this may be beyond the credulity of Muslims (And Buddhists, Hindus, and Jews, and all manner of unbelieving secular types), doesn’t surprise me, it has always stretched the credulity of Christians!  But this is as it should be.  As amazing as the Incarnation was, as beautiful and transforming was Immanuel-Jesus, God is beyond us even as he is with us.  I love God for all that he has done to make himself known to the world, to you, to me as Immanuel.  But I also respect and reverently fear him for being  “I Am,” so much more than I can know this side of eternity.  And I thank God every day for the gift of faith to believe in him beyond my incredulity.

Christ IS All!

Jim

Marion, NC

PS 37.4