Friday 17 July 2009

Jesus, our brother and Lord or 'The danger of compartmentalising Jesus'

Doing some research on our adoption into God's family I read an article on the internet yesterday. The jist of it was 'We are comfortable to think of Jesus as our brother, but we don't like to think of him as our lord' I'd include a link but I just don't want to direct people there! Incidentally, for the biblical basis to Jesus being 'our brother' check out Hebrews 2:10-18.

The article drove me a bit mad for a few reasons but the first one was this. It started to compartmentalise Jesus.

Jesus is both our brother and our Lord... but the problem the author has is placing those two things together. He seems to see almost a contradiction. Jesus must either be our brother OR our Lord. It's true that Jesus is both and many, many other things to us (the bible calls him our high priest, our king, our saviour, our friend and a ton more stuff!) but that doesn't mean he's our brother one minute and he's our Lord the next, or that he has some dissociative identity disorder and is flicking between these many faces. He holds them all together in perfect harmony, neither lessening the other. In the same way we think of Jesus as the lion of Judah and the lamb of God, he holds power and might and humble, silent sacrifice TOGETHER.

If I could say one thing to the author of the article, it would be this: Jesus being your brother is integrally, inseparably part of him being your Lord.

I can see the heart behind the article was good and I actually know where it comes from, the motivation. There are some aspects of Jesus character which, separated from the others, suggest we shouldn't respect and have the awe for him we know we should. If Jesus is just my brother then I'm liable to treat him like just my brother and I'm a real pig to my brother sometimes, you can ask him!
Another is that sometimes people start to project onto Jesus things from their own lives which warp and change him into just what they want him to be and not who the bible tells us he is.

Jesus is our loving brother and friend and he brings us into union with our loving Father in heaven but do you know the bible also tells us that he is a mystery? Ephesians 3:4 mentions the 'mystery of Christ' but if you read around it, what does it say? It says that the mystery has been revealed to us. How has it been revealed? It has been revealed via 'the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.' How do we know what was revealed to the apostles and the prophets? Because they wrote it down and it forms the bible, the prophets in the Old Testament, the apostles in the New! Hallelujah!

Now Jesus is a mystery but the answer and solution to that mystery is right before us in the word of God, we can reveal more and more of that mystery when we read. This verse also tells us something else: You can't know Jesus fully through just the New Testament! That's a challenge to someone out there!

The Holy Spirit will bring light as we read the word and we will understand Jesus on a deeper and deeper level. Like a friend, like a brother... we have to get to know him! We can't just stop short at the bits we like, we must continue to strive deeper but, and here's the true blessing, the more we understand about his might and his power, the MORE we will love him as our brother! Every bit of Jesus' character compliments the others perfectly and enhances and deepens the others as well.

Finally, if ever you feel like your view of Jesus is off, just spend an hour looking at Jesus in the gospels. Jesus was still Lord as he walked about the Middle East as a man but does that mean that he puts himself above his brothers and followers? Not at all, he gets down he washes their feet! Think of it! We have a servant king who is worthy of our praise and our unabashed love! Never, ever, ever, EVER, try and pull Jesus into his constituent parts - because you'll just ruin him.
Get to know the mystery through his word by his Spirit because although you know you've got a brother, you don't yet know fully how wonderful that brother is!

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