In a recent presentation and interview with the Two Tasks Institute (a group concerned with something called “Cultural Apologetics”), Pastor Jon Tyson of Church of the City in New York presented a beautiful and captivating portrait of Jesus. He then fielded questions, the first of which asked how the church, which often distorts the picture of Jesus presented, can more fully live into the true Jesus story. Tyson’s answer has stuck with me. It went like this:
“I honestly think that one of the things we must do is reacquaint ourselves with the person of Jesus. It often amazes me how little actual time Christians spend in the Gospels.”
In offering this prescription and analysis, Tyson identifies a problem in evangelical piety that is also present in traditional theologies that are keenly interested in the saving work of Jesus on the cross but neglect to pay enough attention to the meaning of his earthly life. A theologian named Jürgen Moltmann has noted this dynamic in such foundational Christian statements as the early creeds, which speak of Jesus being born of the Virgin Mary and then jump to his suffering under Pontius Pilate without any reference to the time in between. Moltman offers the following lines as a corrective:
Baptized by John the Baptist,
filled with the Holy Spirit:
to preach the kingdom of God to the poor,
to heal the sick,
to receive those who have been cast out,
to revive Israel for the salvation of the nations, and
to have mercy upon all people.1
Note how the poor, the sick, and outcasts become central when we give weight to the example of Jesus’ earthly life. Note also how the key concept of mercy comes to the fore. When we allow Jesus’ life to inform our own lives, we are confronted with a deeply challenging example that eschews our religious pretensions and carries us to the margins of society. I would argue that these dynamics represent a huge hole in evangelical theology. If we are to live faithfully, Jesus must be the center, not just of our confidence before God but also of our relationships with our fellow humans. To put that differently, Jesus must be both Lord and Savior.
In the work of reconstructing evangelical faith, the life of Jesus must be central. This is so not just because making Jesus central serves as a helpful corrective to our faith and theology (though it certainly does that!). Rather, Jesus’ life must be central because all good theology understands him to be the paradigm of true humanity. In his life, Jesus shows us what we are meant to be and blazes a trail his people are meant to follow. To do this, we must, as Tyson said earlier, spend time in the Gospels with Jesus. We must behold the Lamb of God again and again until his life animates our imaginations and becomes the controlling framework for our own living.
In this newsletter, called Beautiful Jesus, I will be offering bi-weekly reflections on the life of Jesus from the Gospels. My hope is that these musings will be helpful to you in your own journey of discipleship. My hope is also that I personally will come to know Jesus more fully by engaging in this discipline of regular reflection on his life.
May he meet us and form us as we behold him together.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash.
I ran across this quote from Moltman and the more general insight about traditional theology under-emphasizing Jesus’ life in Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s Christ and Reconciliation (Eerdmans, 2013). See especially pages 81-107.