The Bible and the Human Journey
I feel like the Bible is a massive picture of what it looks like to be on the human journey.
When God called Israel, he called them to be a fountain of life to all of the world. Right? They were to be a blessing to the nations, that was the command that God gave to Abraham.
BUT.
As time went on ... were they? Not really. As Israel got settled and got bigger and they got kings and leaders and went to war against various nations and were enslaved ... didn't the idea of being "a Chosen people" go to their heads?
We see this in the group of Pharisees that Jesus constantly went up against, right? - This desire to elevate the chosen ones and outcast the other.
(SIDE NOTE: it's important not to demonize Judaism and Jewish people by looking at them through the lens of the Pharisees talked about in the Gospels. The reality is that those Pharisees were a very SMALL group of Pharisees and don't really reflect the mindset or character traits of the larger group of Pharisees.)
And then Jesus took us full circle and showed us what it means to be chosen by God to be a blessing to the world, to be a person who welcomes and makes space for everyone.
This is what happens to us as humans, isn’t it?
As children we welcome everyone. We may struggle to share and whatnot, but we welcome everyone to the table - we want everyone to be our friend. I see this in my daughter, Jordan. She can literally make friends with anyone ...
At the park.
In line at the grocery store.
At the Starbucks drive thru window.
... We were all like that at some point in our story.
BUT.
Then we went to to school and had some time out in the world and we began to realize that everyone is not our friend, and that there is an in group and out group. An us and a them. There are people who are like us and people who are different than us and it's easier to get along with and rally around those who are most like us and cast out those who are different than us.
BUT.
Then as we grow older we sometimes begin to realize that sides don't always work and we discover a need for harmony and connection. We realize (many do, anyways) that things seemed to work better when we were kids. It was much easier to want to be friends with the random person in line at the grocery store than to analyze everything that appeared to be wrong with them. It felt much better to help our neighbor than to shun them, it worked much better to celebrate our difference than to demonize those who are different than us.
When Jesus told the disciples in Mark 9 that he would be killed, they were in shock. They didn't know what to say. For many reasons, I'm sure, but the biggest reason, I think, is because they weren't expecting a Messiah who would be killed by his enemies. They weren't expecting a Messiah who would erase all the lines that humanity had drawn so that all of humanity could be one big family at the banquet table.
They were expecting a Messiah who would fortify the lines they had drawn.
Who would defeat their enemies.
Who would destroy the other.
Who would solidify their place in the world.
Who would put them back on top of their enemies.
But in Jesus God was doing something new. Something radical. He was going back in time, showing what he had intended all along. He was widening the gate, he was lengthening the table. He was taking us back to the original call that God had given to Israel - to be a blessing to the Nations, to everyone ... everywhere. In Jesus God was showing the world how to be like the children we once were.
Someone who made friends with everyone.
Someone who celebrated differences.
Someone who didn't draw lines.
Someone who didn't need an enemy in order to find their own worth.
In Jesus, God was taking us full-circle. And so Israel is a picture of us all, I think - they had forgotten who they were, they had forgotten their call to be a blessing to all the world. It had become about them and their long-awaited victory. But in Jesus God sent out a reminder that the world works better when the lines are erased, the table is lengthened, and our neighbor is our friend ... not our enemy.
Where do you find yourself in the story these days? On my worst days I'm holding a Sharpie marker and drawing black lines all over the place, and on my better days I'm putting the cap on the Sharpie and doing my best to paint over the damage I've done.
How about you?
Peace.
Glenn