Monday, September 25, 2017
567 - He's So Unusual
Spirituality
Column No. 567
September
26, 2017
Common
Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
He’s So Unusual
By Bob Walters
I’ve said this before: My favorite definition of “news” is
“what’s not supposed to happen.”
If you can find
an honest newspaper, newspost (internet) or newscast –increasingly difficult, I
know – you’ll notice a “usual” mix of what happened (ball game scores, for
example), what might happen (the weather, legislative agendas, business and
jobs forecasts) and then what wasn’t supposed to happen but did (murders,
disasters, Cubs win the World Series, Trump elected, etc.), i.e., the
“unusual.”
Just
because something unexpected happened doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad or
good, it just goes to prove that “surprise” is a highly effective and intense
emotion, attention getter, and conversation generator. “What’s not supposed to happen” – but does –
gets us talking. Our conversation is
directed to how it will affect “me” (us, loved ones, neighbors) both physically
(suffering or joy) and morally (evil or good).
Now, please
realize I’m about to talk about Jesus and the Good News, the best but most
unusual news of all, not sports or politics; but I also am well aware that
almost everybody reading this is, right now – because of the parenthetical,
one-word mentions above – still thinking about either the Champion Cubs or
President Trump.
Which proves my point: startling
developments catch and hold our attention.
In all
human experience what was, is, and will remain more startling than Jesus?
Nothing. He is the most famous person in all
history, but how do we even know about Him? There is virtually no historical
record of Jesus. He was born, lived and
died – the savior of mankind died as a
criminal – in the furthest, least regarded nether-region of the dominant civilization
of His time, the Roman Empire.
Then He came back to life and ascended
to heaven: that’s unusual; that’s news.
Jesus
uniquely and with all authority said we are strong in our weakness, rich in our
poverty, and to love our enemies. He
expressed royal heavenly kingship by being a suffering earthly servant. He said
that He will be known by – and that we will be saved by – faith not evidence. He said we are forgiven of our badness by His
goodness once for all; that we are forgiven
of our sins to prove the eternal loving righteousness of God.
Unusual? That
doesn’t even make sense. Again, that’s
the point.
The same
folks stuck on the Cubs/Trump mentions above may be going into mild
hyperventilation about my “sparse evidence” suggestion regarding Jesus. Wait
wait wait! one might sputter (or a preacher might preach), there is all kinds of evidence for Jesus! Yes, there is. There is the Bible, the Church, the truth in
my heart, and the fellowship of all believers that endures today. There’s historian Josephus, some Roman records,
the Dead Sea Scrolls, papyrus …how much proof do you need?
Well …
more. The “intellectual” world insists
on non-faith evidence. The ancient Greek
philosophers said only the seen and repeatable is real. The Enlightenment told us God and the whole
Christ thing is a reflection of humanity rather than the other way around. Science denies we were created in God’s image,
that the truest, most reliable evidence for Christ resides in our hearts, and
that faith is the largest reality there is.
Jesus is
real, is truth, is love, and is repeatable in our hearts.
That’s so unusual.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) says “hearts” but means “my soul’s brain.”
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