Jesus and Context
Jun 30th, 2008 by John
CONTEXT MATTERS
Have you ever been bored silly listening once again to the flight attendant rattling off the routine “…in case of loss of air cabin pressure, an oxygen mask blah, blah, blah…”?
How can a life-saving device be considered so boring? Next time you’re on a jet, look intently and with great interest at the flight attendant as the message is given. You will make a lasting friend because everyone else is ignoring the sound counsel as they put on their Walkman headphones or read a newspaper or fall asleep. Act interested and the attendants almost go into cardiac arrest.
Yet the question remains: how can a life-saving device be considered so boring? One word: context. I suspect that should the cabin pressure actually drop at 30,000 feet and those little yellow masks make their real debut, they will instantly become objects of supreme interest. Context, my friend.
I’ve been musing about how the USAmerican suburban life renders the life-saving gospel of the kingdom of God almost as boring as a flight attendant’s speech when we’re safely taxiing along to the runway. USAmerican comfort and materialism serve to blind many of us to the exigencies and emergencies assumed by the gospel of the kingdom. Our numbing context filters out what makes kingdom survivability possible. For us, almost every New Testament imperative to “Watch out!” and “Be alert!” and “Stay rivited to Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2) comes across as bland as “…pull the mask toward you and place the strap around your head… .” We read our morning snippet from My Utmost for His Highest. We yawn and then read the paper or watch TV or play another round of golf. All is well…in the context.
What makes My Utmost for His Highest an enduring devotional classic? Context, my friend. Oswald Chambers wrote during a time of war. He served as chaplain to Australian and New Zealand troops in Zeitoun, Egypt. He wasn’t writing in and from the comfortable suburbs.
Would we have Henri J. M. Nouwen’s profound book The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming if he had stayed as a Harvard professor and had never lived with the poor in the barrios of Bolivia and Peru or had never served the multiply-impaired at L’Arche? Context, my friend.
JESUS AND CONTEXT
I have been paying attention lately to the Gospel of Mark. It’s a dangerous thing to do. If (and it’s a big if) we are deeply attentive to context, then the life of Jesus is radically reframed for most of us. Why?
We have been conditioned to view Jesus as the idyllic good shepherd who wanders the Galilean green hillsides and rests by still waters. Why, what a beautiful suburb Jesus lived in. Jesus, the One who makes friends (except for that dastardly Judas), and shows such sweet, sweet compassion toward men, women and, of course, the little children. Jesus, the One who teaches such lovely, heavenly moralisms on how we can live the really good life. In most pictures in our churches Jesus looks like the Breck girl with his long, flowing hair and sweet face. Isn’t it such a shame that gentle, beautiful Jesus was so misunderstood and mistreated? Shame, shame. We have no clue about interpreting Mark 13 other than in some fantasizing, dispensational “end times” way. Why? Because what Jesus is describing fits no context we know. We know, however, Jesus just had to die for our sins so that, if we believe in him, we can go to heaven when we die. So nice, so clean, so tame.
Ask people in blood-splatted Belfast if that’s the way they see Jesus’ life. Or those who survived apartheid South Africa. Or those who survived Hitler and Stalin. Read the diaries of the Christian martyrs who, fleeing the Roman persecutions, lived in deep caves, dying for Jesus rather than voicing allegiance to the State. Go anywhere besides USAmerican suburbs and you’ll experience a different context. Your comfort-filters will slip and suddenly Jesus and the Gospels explode with meaning. Things get messy fast. Mark 13 becomes survival instructions. You can’t escape the sight and smell of massive amounts of blood in the dust.
Jesus, from his earliest days of public ministry, was a marked man. Marked for death (Mark 3:6. See also 11:18; 12:12; 14:1-2). Had there been “wanted” posters in those days, Jesus’ picture would have been on every corner lamp post. Jesus lived urgently. Get that? Urgently, not frantically. He was a man quickly on the move to accomplish his aims. He didn’t kick back after a rough day and watch American Idol. He didn’t fuel up his SUV and drive to Disney World with his friends. He lived alertly. He kept watch. Sometimes, when the plot thickened, he slipped the trap set for him.
Take a look at the disciples’ finger nails…if you can find them. They were chewed to the quick as they followed the man whom the government described as demon-possessed, illegitimate, insane, deceiving, traitor and a Galilean nobody.
Please, Christian leaders, make sure you discover and define your “discipleship principles” in that context or you will miss the Jesus Way completely and lead people astray. “Follow me and duck for cover when needed” is an appropriate paraphrase of Jesus’ call to discipleship.
OUR DANGEROUS COMFORT CONTEXT
We USAmerican believers have been emasculated by popular, suburban theology. We don’t know how to live the improper life. The kind of life Jesus lived in Galilee and Judea and for which he died. We don’t know how to live as outlaws. We older ones will sell the upcoming generation down the river in order to preserve the tidy faith and comfortable life we’ve always known. How sad is that? Very, very sad.
If sometime soon, we lose cabin pressure in the jumbo jet of USAmerican Christian piety, many people I think will die for lack of Life.
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Thanks, John, for not being afraid to challenge the deep comfort zone we mostly live in.
Rob,
It is a challenge for me, too, to think about and write these things. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
many people are thinking about this kind of thing these days, i think. as some are financially challenged with the latest round of rising prices. some are being challenged with not going out of the country on vacation, some by driving less, some by not eating out as much, some by not being able to afford to drive to work, and this makes its way to those that can afford even less than this and even middle class families can not afford health care, or those that can not afford housing and food.
that challenges comfort zones all over the place and many wonder about how much they have, and how much they will have to live without in the coming years.
the context in suburbia is changing…also in the country and city.
one must not forget the darkness that some people live with in the suburbs…the hidden evil that children and adults live with inside these closed up houses where no one sees it.
not all suffering and evil comes in the form of blood and dust that is far away in a different context. the suffering is also hidden, done in secret, not talked about, neglect, abuse, starvation…it happens in the suburbs. a change of context can be found anywhere…if one is looking. yes, we use many things to hide our eyes and heart from the truth. everyone hides their eyes from some kind of truth to some extent…it may be in a place of dust and blood or it maybe next door…or even in our own house or heart and mind.
nancy,
You’re right on target. I did not imply that no evil lurks in the suburbs because as a pastor in suburbia I know it does. My point is to stress the turbulent context of Jesus’ life and ministry.
Thanks so much for commenting!
and thank you for responding. along these same lines…
here is a good article that was mentioned on “in the clearing” today.
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1140917/1/index.htm
it is a must read.
by the way…i often miss the point
and thanks for putting up with me.
What a great insight - and a great word from which to extrapolate it: CONTEXT.
I invested 10 years with an international Christian relief and development organization traveling to impoverished areas in the world. As I did, I discovered a great paradox; In the midst of extreme need, I often discovered people of extreme faith. A faith that I coveted. I also discovered that these areas were some of the most fertile ground for sowing seed of the Kingdom. I guess there wasn’t much competition for the reality of a loving God. Perhaps that’s why Jesus spent so much time in His own ministry with the disenfranchised and marginalized.
In reading some of G. Campbell Morgan’s writings, I was impressed with his deeper thoughts on the meaning of God (Elohim) in ancient cultural context. The thought that stuck with me is that in any religious culture, although abstract, ‘god’ is the one ultimately called upon or sacrificed to. I contemplate this often. Who do we in the USA ‘call upon’ when we are physically afflicted? When we are emotionally drained? When we are financially threatened? When we are lonely? When we are threatened or frightened? In the midst of all the gods we call upon (doctors, psychiatrists, dollars, drugs, recreational activities, politicians, etc.) we might casually inquire of our God, but seldom is Elohim the first that we call upon, and in many cases even the last … except for possibly in the extreme threatened/frightened catagory. (I remember after 9-11 our churches across the nation were full.)
How incredibly patient God is with us.
Ken,
Thanks so much for sharing here. A little more pointedly, you raise the question of contemporary idolatry. Praise God for his patience!
Wonderful thoughts on this subject brother. I really feel that many take Jesus or fit Jesus to the context that they want to come across. It is dangerous. Your challenge for us is wonderful. Again wonderful post.
Preacherman,
I agree that it is dangerous to get Jesus wrong…if we do, we’ll get almost everything else wrong, too.
Thanks for the encouraging words. God bless you!
Your reflection is so true. Thank you for sharing it. I have always been grateful for my parents for making us aware of the situations in other parts of the world and the need for a strong faith even though things seem easy. And that true faith means taking risks and putting oneself at times in situations that seem dangerous or crazy. (My parents moved us to the inner city of a large US city when my dad became a pastor of a church there, eventhough others critized him for that choice telling him he was putting his family at risk. His response was he had to live in the community his parishners lived in if he was going to be able to relate to their struggles. And I still have friends for that neighborhood eventhough I haven’t lived there in 25+ years.)
Even with this though, it was a real experience to see/hear about my husband’s faith and the situations he experienced. His father is a first generation Christian in Africa and founded the church is their village. He really raised his children counter to the traditional culture and my husband and his siblings were definately “outside” of a lot of the social activities. His father had to take all is family and leave the country for a period of time as well, because there was persecution of church leaders and his father was in great danger because he was so outspoken.
All that to say that it is so true that even when there is a real effort made, it is really hard here in the USAmerican mainstream context to stay really alert and to keep our faith at such a level. Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try even harder to do so.
Rosita,
Thank you very much for sharing part of your story. I love the variety and integrity of the “body of Christ.” I agree that “it is really hard here in the USAmerican mainstream context to stay really alert and to keep our faith at such a level. Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try even harder to do so.” God bless you!
How sad is that? my heart breaks - love the term ‘improper life’, thankyou for this post, Shalom.
Mark R,
Thanks for traveling up from “down under” and commenting. I appreciate your encouragement. God bless you.
John
just letting you know I have grabbed the last parargraph and linked here.
John,
As a church planting missionary in urban South America, I have found that it is easy to fall into the surburban theological passivity. We just go about our “job” but the urgency needed to train new leaders, mobilize others to reach out to their own, and to live the “improper life” disappears. Thanks for the wake up call. I, too, want to make sure I don’t sell the next generation a toothless, passive, and non-demanding version of Christianity to the leaders in Perú. Thanks for the encouragement.
Craig
Mark R #15,
Thanks, mate. I like the graphic of the JUMBO jet
Craig #16,
We all have a tendency to drift. Keep immersed in the Gospels and in love with Jesus. I pray God’s blessing on your kingdom endeavors in Peru.
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