Reflecting on Luke 9:7-9
"And Herod was perplexed... and tried to see him." (Luke 9:7,9)The more I read the Jesus stories, the more perplexed I get. Not about Jesus per se, but about what I hear from others about Jesus. The Catholic Jesus, the Calvinist Jesus, the Baptist Jesus? The pacifist Jesus, the anarchist Jesus, the sweet little baby Jesus? The white Jesus, the Jewish Jesus, the black Jesus, the feminist Jesus? Everyone claims to have the right Jesus. And each one has something real and true to say about Jesus. Yet none of them fully reveal or reflect the Jesus in the Jesus stories. Jesus cannot be tamed and put into a theological cage. We can learn something from all of these views. But none of them is the whole Jesus, the true or authentic Jesus. Herod thought he had contained God’s revelation by ending John’s life. But God cannot be contained or stopped (as Pilate would discover too). All of the different reports about Jesus perplexed him. And this drove him to want to meet the actual Jesus, to see Him for himself. This is what I relate to in this little story. Hearing about Jesus, yet being perplexed about what I hear. Herod was intrigued by Jesus, but not impressed.
“When Herod saw Jesus, he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform a sign of some sort. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day Herod and Pilate became friends — before this they had been enemies.” (Luke 23:8-12)
In this scene, Jesus is under attack from all sides.
Ridiculed and mocked, portrayed as a heretic and a fake king.
This still happens in different yet similar ways.
Jesus is dressed up in all kinds of theological robes.
People unite and divide around these different versions of Jesus.
People mock the other versions, yet do not see how their own dishonour Him.
I grew up with the white, western European Protestant Jesus.
This is as limited and flawed as a Marxist, Feminist, or any other Jesus.
There are truths and untruths mixed together to make up any idea about Jesus.
This motivates me to want to know Jesus better and more.
It also cautions me not to reduce Jesus to my own ideas about Jesus.
My own vision of Jesus is as limited and flawed as any other.
Jesus is greater and deeper and more wonderful than we can know.
I find this very comforting – His love is greater than I can know!
There is always more to learn and experience.
I cannot contain it, yet it can fill and overflow in me.
This is my prayer and desire, echoing the prayer of Paul:
“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)
But this also convicts me and reminds me not to put Jesus into a box.
I no longer believe with certainty the white, western, Protestant Jesus.
I see things of value in it, but I also sense excesses and limits.
I listen with interest to other portrayals of Jesus.
I sense some truth in them, and I sense some limits as well.
I also need to evaluate and discern my own limited perspectives.
I do not want to mock Jesus by dressing Him up in my own theology.
I am compelled and called by Jesus.
Like Herod, I want to see Jesus.
But unlike Herod, I do not want to contain, limit or mock Jesus.
I want to be made into His image, not make Him in my image.
Like Paul, I reject all the garbage of my own views.
I want to know Jesus, and I have a long way to go to know Him.
“I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:10-14)
Do you want to see Jesus, to know Jesus better than you do? Are you willing to be changed by Jesus, to have your views changed?
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I am reminded of how much greater You are than our puny and petty theologies. I am reminded that the version of Jesus I grew up with is incomplete and limited. And I am compelled again to seek You and know You as much as I am able, that I may be changed by You, to become more like You!