What Do We Do with Jesus?

As Christians we cannot do without Jesus. As a world, we cannot do without Jesus. That does not mean that we must say that Jesus is the “only” way. I do not believe that Jesus himself would have said that--and did not say that about himself as the writer of the Gospel of John would have him say. But the truth about God that is carried in the image of Jesus is critically important for our lives in this world and must take its rightful place alongside all of the other expressions of truth about God and not be claimed as exclusive of all others. Such a place is infinitely more powerful than any claim to exclusivity. Those who demand that we must continue to affirm Jesus as the “only way” are simply afraid that they will lose their personal standing in life, a sad statement of lack of faith in God.

Jesus was a real person who lived and taught and helped people and was finally crucified. What we believe about Jesus is a result of his followers seeking to understand what his life and death were really all about because he was truly, as Marcus Borg calls him, a “spirit person”. Jesus was evidently spiritually so powerful and so affected those he touched that they saw in him something that they believed in deeply and knew must continue.

All of the theological affirmations that we make about Jesus we should keep, but we must reinterpret them for today’s ears and minds. The affirmations cannot be taken literally, but must be taken metaphorically, for what we say about Jesus, we are actually saying about God. The phrase that has come to us in Christian theology that "Jesus is God" is an unfortunate statement for it is taken literally and causes great confusion for so many people. (We have much work to do here with our understanding of the Trinity.) To make such an affirmation can only helpfully mean that what Jesus said and who he was is truly a message from God and we must listen to him. The issue here is one both of evangelism (in terms of helping others to understand the truly Good news in the Gospel message) in this new age and of communicating meaningfully with those of other faiths.

After many years of thinking through and praying about how I understand what we say about Jesus I have come to this conclusion: When we talk about Jesus in “theological terms” (and not about the historical Jesus) we can simply replace the name Jesus with “God’s Love”. If there is anything that the crucifixion and resurrection are about it is God’s unconditional love for us. If there is anything that the incarnation is about is God’s Love for us and the very intimate relationship that we have with God if we accept it.

I have come to find it difficult to receive much spiritual meaning from so much of the traditional language in the hymns and liturgy about Jesus. I even find myself wanting to rewrite much of it. But then at the same time I do not want to do away with the truth to which those affirmations point. Our task in the future is to begin to reframe our affirmations and reinterpret them for our “new day” in this world

Of course, there is so much more that we must say about this issue. The reader can help by posing further questions and issues to be discussed.

©2002 R. Ben Marshall. All rights reserved.

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