Christ, the Center
Posted: Wednesday, August 05, 2009
by Jean Purcell
OpineBooks.com
I forget when I first heard the phrase, "the relevance of Jesus." I remember a disturbed feeling. Recently "the relevance of Jesus" phrase jumped out at me from an Internet announcement for a theology conference.
When adjectives don't fit what or who is described, and when much depends upon accuracy, you recognize a disconnect. When description misses the mark, it flops. The phrase "the relevance of Jesus" is a misfit.
To speak of "the relevance of Jesus" is perhaps motivated by a desire to suggest or propose an important connection between Jesus and today's world and everyday life now. I get that desire, to point to Jesus. But it is not helpful to latch onto weak or misleading terms.
"The relevance of Jesus" gained use as another effort to make Jesus appear up-to-date to unbelievers or those wavering about faith, including, I think, a large number of clerics of the church. But such efforts require complete, accurate, and strong, vital words. To advertise "the relevance of Jesus" makes no more sense than to speak of "the relevance of the sun" or "the relevance of your heartbeat."
Relevance refers only to what is significant, important, useful, or timely. Those relevant words fall far short when speaking of necessary or holy matters, of grand and glorious mysteries.
So what about "the relevance of the gospel"? The same objection applies. Yes, weakly speaking, the gospel is significant, important, useful, and timely. But the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ, is far more than important. To call Jesus or the gospel "relevant" is to underrate the Cross and the tomb as "relevant"; and this is not so. They are part of a great and marvelous plan of God, a plan more than light-years beyond and above relevance. God's plan is gloriously essential. The Son is God Incarnate; "God with us" is the Center of Life.
"Jesus lives!" This is the ecstatic truth preached by the early church and on, down through the ages. It is essential truth, regardless of changing elements of life's fashions and inventions. The early church taught about what will last when all the elements disappear, all fashion and invention and human plans dissolve into meaninglessness, in and of themselves. What remains is the Essential Life and what He brings to the souls of men, women, and children who abide in Him by faith.
Every generation needs these essential teachings. Generations should not be misled to believe that these are only relevant things; they are essential, necessary things, the teachings of truth. Like the early church, we who love the Lord are to look with expectation and anticipation, hourly and daily, for the return of Christ our Lord. We cannot understand or comprehend this mystery, but we believe the Word of Christ. We trust God. Until then, we seek earnestly to walk with God through Christ. We do this because, as George MacDonald wrote, Christ is the Center. By Him, all things hold together. By Him, we do not fall apart.
Since the Resurrection, the church through individuals and as a body has sought to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ according to the times in which they lived. Every believer in Jesus lives in a historical frame of a brief human span and the eternal timeless Reality of God.
Yes, we are living in a different historical time from the earthly time of Jesus, the apostles, up to the last generation of the church. Historical eras include multiple cultural and developmental changes. There are times and times. Means of living change regarding food, habits, perspectives, traditions, modes of travel, and so forth.
Yet, Christians now live within the same spiritual time as Jesus, the apostles, and all believers since the days when Jesus walked the dusty countryside, crossed waters, retreated and taught on solitary mountaintops and noisy streets, and prayed in gardens. Jesus is the living Son of the unchangeable and unchanging God.
Expressions of relevance fade with time. Whether we type words of grace into a computer's memory or etch them into stone, it makes no difference ultimately. Those are only two relevant means of different times, ways to communicate what is far more than relevant. They communicate about what is essential. Humans seek with mind, heart and soul, and use various means to communicate their search in different generations, for the One who is Essential in and beyond time.
The eternal and unchanging Truth is the same today as it was at the Beginning. The Omnipotent God of the universe and of this world remains immovable, faithful, and true through all time and beyond time. His power has never changed and never will, in kind or degree. It is infinite. His love is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Jesus yesterday, today, and tomorrow, the Essential Center of the world will one day return in His Resurrected and glorified body. He will then, at God's decree, fulfill God's plans for a kingdom of heaven on earth. I know this sounds preposterous to many. It boggles my mind. Yet, just as a Child born of a Virgin, although prophesied, amazed many, it will come to pass. It is essential to seek Him who is the Essence of life. "God, are You real?" That's a start. God answers. That is an essential theme of the gospel!
The Center of All Things
In the past, God spoke
Through the prophets.
He spoke at many times
And in different ways.
But, in these last days God has spoken to us.
He has spoken to us by His Son.
He appointed His Son to be the Heir of all things.
Through the Son, God made the universe.
The Son is the radiance of God's glory
and the exact representation of His being,
Sustaining all things by His powerful word.
(Hebrews 1: 1-3a- Paraphrase of New International Version of the Bible)
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