Spirituality Column #787

December 14 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Life of the Party

By Bob Walters

“I am the way and the truth and the life.” – Jesus to the disciples, responding to Thomas at the Last Supper. John 14:6

At his birth, the one we celebrate at Christmas – the baby Jesus – brought into the world the promise of restored, revived, renewed, and hope-filled life for all humanity.

Of course, almost nobody at the time knew about it: about Jesus and salvation, I mean.  For the few who did, there was only the faintest understanding of who Jesus was in God’s kingdom and no comprehension at all of whom He would become in human history.  Jesus arrived with the cry of a baby, not the trumpet of a conqueror.

Those who knew Hebrew scripture hoped, someday, for a marauding but wise and holy Messiah warrior fixing the world’s ills and establishing Israel as the ascendant kingdom of the world.  What they got instead was a humble, helpless, entirely unknown peasant baby boy born among shepherds at the far ends of the Roman empire in a poor, rural, backwater peasant town who as a man would be killed as a Jewish heretic.

Oh … if the world truly had been paying attention to the gift Jesus presented.

Jesus was life itself; He restored to humanity – on offer to all through faith in Him as the Son of God – mankind’s originally created life made in the image of God Himself.

We lost that image in man’s Fall in the garden.  The First Adam’s disobedience led to us desiring to be gods without the authority of God.  So, we created idols and worshiped ourselves and the things we ourselves made and thought.

Despite all that was given to us in the Second Adam, Jesus, we still do that today.

In ancient scripture God promised Israel He would use its obscure nation – His chosen nation – to restore and return all humanity to His love, image, and relationship.

Jewish prophecy about this restorative Messiah Christ abounded, but the coming of Jesus wasn’t what anyone expected.  Perhaps it’s a minor misnomer to say the world wasn’t paying attention, because the resurrection and the ensuing growth of “The Way” which became the Christian church, and the name Jesus itself, have influenced all life and history ever since.  Yes, the world noticed Jesus, but continued to idolize itself.

Science and philosophy are tireless in their academic efforts to explain, define, and “own” all aspects of our existence: life, thought, sense of self, consciousness, and all manner of physical and rational propositions.  Humanity, for the most part, still hasn’t figured out what this “life” is, exactly, or where it came from or what it’s for. 

Over the weekend I read a review of a new book, Being You: A New Science of Consciousness.  It was in Friday’s Wall Street Journal under the headline, “Why We Have A Sense of Self.”  I had this immediate, simple answer: “We have a sense of self because God gave us one and wants us to use it to find him, love him, and love others.”

Then, I tensed up and read the review.  As expected, there was no mention of, nor faintest allusion to, God, faith, truth, life, Jesus, sacrifice, Spirit, hope, love – i.e., reality – from these supposedly “smart,” sentient, deep, praiseworthy people. Sigh.    

They laud impotent idols of knowledge and ignore life’s true answer: Jesus.

Christmas is a party, Jesus is life, and people never understand it without faith.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows life comes from God, new life comes from Jesus, and the knowledge of truth comes from the Holy Spirit. Duh. It’s in the Bible.