(This was posted first to Facebook, but I thought I would put it here too.)
Driving to work, my mind was rolling over a few things but this one had to be written down.
What is this Christianity thing for anyway?
Jesus taught love, forgiveness, peace, humility. There is nobody in the world that doubts that these are virtues that all of humanity benefits from invariably. There is no doubt that individually, we would all be better off if more people took the teachings of Jesus seriously.
Historically speaking, there is no question that what he taught, at the time he taught it, in the culture he taught it, was radical. It was unheard of. Love without question, putting others before yourself, leading by serving others, laying down your life (not just dying) for others. People just didn’t live this way.
People still don’t live this way. But I digress.
Now, we benefit from his ideas being taught and spread throughout the world. There are 2 billion people who claim to follow Jesus, and missionaries have gone to just about every corner of the world at one point or another. The truths that he taught have now been disseminated so widely and watered down that people now think that you can believe in these truths without believing in the one who taught them.
But can you? I question that. What Jesus taught was inextricably tied to who he was. If you reject who he was you are only accepting a watered-down, conditional version of what he taught. It’s a love IF you are loved in return. It’s a humility that is conditioned on not being treated unfairly. It’s a peace until someone wrongs you. It’s a forgiveness that only comes after you have been mollified.
Jesus claimed to be God. Jesus said that he came to pay the price for everything we have done wrong ever. Jesus did this to model the love that he calls us to. Jesus, being in very nature God, took the form of a servant, and then died the most shameful death possible at that time. He modelled the ultimate humility, the ultimate sacrifice. He modelled the ultimate love, taking upon himself the punishment for the entire world. This was only possible because of his divine nature. We cannot comprehend the full scope of his pain as he was separated from the Father. That pain we will only know when at the end of our life, we have chosen not to love him and accept his sacrifice. At that time, death will lead to eternal separation from the omnipresent God who has always been near to us, though we choose so often to pretend he is not there.
He taught and modelled a no-limits form of virtue that can only be approached through himself. Through turning to him and loving him back, for all that he did and is doing and will do. Through acknowledging we are responsible for what we’ve done wrong and that we sincerely wish to turn away from those things forever. It is in that moment that his peace, and love, and humility and forgiveness become doable, beyond the limitations of our anger and pride. It is then that he gives us a new heart, and begins to cleanse us from the darkness that we know stains more that we’d care to admit.
That’s what’s so hard, I think. Admitting there is someone greater, more important than ourselves. Unseating ourselves from the throne of our lives. It isn’t about proof, it isn’t about evidence. It’s about real humility that is impossible to achieve without acknowledging God. It is a humility that is not forced – it is a humility that is voluntary, which makes it the most beautiful, treasured thing in the world.
Tags: forgiveness, humility, love, peace, virtues
