For whoever looks away

If Jesus had not died, we would not have had Christianity today. The world would not have been shaped by Jesus’ words as it is now. We wouldn’t have said “do not throw your pearls to pigs”. We wouldn’t have talked about the speck of sawdust in our brother’s eye (and even less about the plank in our own eye). Art – what would art have been like without Christian influences and images? What would poetry have been without the Bible? (Right now I wonder how poetry functions in Islam – whether it is OK to write Quran-based poems.)

If Jesus hadn’t lived, taught and died, we would still have had Judaism like we now know it. Or maybe it would have been more extreme. In Jesus’ days, it already had turned pretty extreme. The Pharisees had invented about a thousand extra laws that had to be kept most punctually. Jesus’ behaviour and words were quite upsetting to them. He turned their money tables, called them vipers’ brood.

If Jesus hadn’t condemned the Jews’ hypocrisy and taught that God wants “mercy, not sacrifice,” his followers wouldn’t have spread his revolutionary words all over the earth. We’d be stuck with a stale version of Judaism that no longer made sense to the world – we’d only have an isolated religious warring nation to look at, as a rare breed.

Instead, we are now stuck with Christianity – a religion that is very much not isolated; a bunch of wildly enthusiastic (sometimes less so) followers of this man Jesus Christ. They say they want to live like he did and obey his words. They claim they are free and truly alive through his death. Many foolish mistakes and cruelties have been committed in the name of Christianity, yet those can’t kill it off.

Fortunately not. We need Christianity. For the buildings. For the paintings. For the poems. For the proverbs. For the Easter Eggs.

And for the reckless ones. For those helping North Koreans over the border. For those sailing and saving on Mercy Ships. For those seeing lonely people. For all those who sacrifice. For all those people who have learned to look at the cross first, and then at themselves.

You may want to read this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/sep/12/religion.uk/print.

Ruled Rulers

Can we kill oysters to redeem their pearls? Can we slay mountains to grab the gold? Should we milk cows because we can? Should we open up all the secrets creation hides?

Maybe it’s like this. Not everything that’s beautiful is meant to be grabbed by us. Maybe some things are just meant to be gazed at. I think the l’art pour l’art movement was quite right: beauty is there for the sake of beauty. Not for your sake. Subjecting the earth does not have to mean using the earth for our sakes only. Some things are just not to be touched, since otherwise we’d do damage to nature. But we are allowed to marvel at their beauty; to reach out but not hold these holy things. We can look at a glimmering fish swimming in the brook; but we know we shouldn’t hold it, for we would only damage its tender scales.

We have become like little children who want to touch and hold and eat everything that glimmers or looks edible. We dig holes wherever we think we can find something we can use; we devour whatever can be eaten; we adorn ourselves with everything that might make us look prettier (and the earth more devastated).

I’m guessing this is not what God meant when he made us “a little lower than the heavenly beings” (Psalm 8:5). He crowned us “with glory and honour”, but we thought we’d add a little to that. We want to dress up, to be God’s apes. But this is not what God intended for us. This “grab ‘n go” attitude is plainly the phenotype of original sin. Egoism. I want to play God. I want to rule the world my way. We don’t merely subject it – we suppress it.

We Are So Ungrateful. “In putting everything under him [man], God left nothing that is not subject to him” (Hebrews 2:8b, italics added). Man, he made us kings straight away! Yet we thought a revolt would be more exciting. (It was, in a bad sense.) Which is why “at present we do not see everything subject to him” (2:8c). What an understatement. Paul is being all too kind to us here. God made us “ruler over the works of [his] hands” (Psalm 8:6), but instead we are being ruled.

Fortunately, we then get “Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels” as well (Hebrews:2:9a). Fortunately, he’s been doing quite well as a ruler: he is “now crowned with glory and honour” (2:9b). Unfortunately, he had to suffer death for that. So that, fortunately, “by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone,” (2:9c) and bring “many sons to glory” (2:10a). Do I need to add we don’t quite deserve such a royal treatment? Crowns for free.