Author: Jonathan Dodson

In the various Jesus flims produced over the years, it seems that images depicting the life of Christ tend to range from weak to whacko. Two notable exceptions would be Franco Zeffirelli‘s Jesus of Nazareth and Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Some films show him as weak and dejected during his trials, as if his entire mission on earth had failed. Others reveal a deranged, other-worldly messiah, one who would really rather be in heaven. Thanks to Dan Brown and James Cameron, we can add fornicator and father to the list of unbiblical portraits of Jesus.

In reading the closing chapters of the life of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew, I was recently struck by the juxtaposition of strength and weakness. When standing trial before the Jews, Jesus is anything but weak and dejected. When queried by the high priest concerning his claim to be the Christ, the Son of God, Jesus replies: “You have said it yourself; nevetheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” This demonstrates Jesus’ strength in several ways.

First, in front of the religious authorities and in the face of death, Jesus had the courage to claim to be the promised Jewish Messiah: “you have said it yourself.” Second, Jesus does not stop with his affirmation of the accusers’ statement, but chooses to elaborate on his identity as messiah, compounding reasons for his condemnation. Calling to mind images and prophecies from Daniel 7-9, Jesus deliberately aligns himself with YHWH by claiming the “right hand of power,” in co-regent rule with God to set right all wrongs and to deliver his people. This is no flimsy statement in the face of his accusers.

Consider the events just prior to the trial. Recall his arrest. When Peter takes his sword out to combat Jesus’ captors, Jesus flexes his muscles. We observe a confident and strong Christ, rebuking a weak and wild-eyed Peter: “do you think that I cannot appeal to my father, and he will at once put at my disposal 72,000 angels?” (26.53) Third, not only does Jesus establish his messianic kingship, he also lays claim to be the Judge of his judges, the Accuser of his accusers!

This display of courage, confidence, and strength is in the face of weakness. Peter pathetically draws the sword to make up for his weakness in prayer, just minutes prior to the arrest. The Jewish authorities resist a just trial, taking the cowardly path of paying false witnesses. Palms are paved with silver at Jesus ‘expense–he endures spitting, slapping, beating, taunting, whipping, and walking to his own death. As if this were not enough to reveal the self-sufficient strength of the messiah-king, hours after his arrest, Jesus is betrayed by a whimpering and weak Simon Peter, the one who had boldly promised to follow his teacher to the death. The weakness of those who followed Christ continued. In an act of ultimate cowardice and self-preservation, greedy Judas sells Jesus out with a kiss and then hangs himself. Cowards and weaklings, this was Jesus’ company, not because he too was weak, but because he was and is the epitome of strength.

What we see in the gospels is not frailty, but the strength of Jesus in a world of weakness, a strength that doesn’t polarize but magnetizes. He is a man to cling to for the faint-hearted, bipolar actions of his disciples–devotees one minute, defectors the next. He offers a strong salvation to his repentant enemies, shunning the disgrace of his death through the power of his resurrection. To those who confess their weakness, he offers his eternal, redeeming strength. To those who shun his strength in favor of thier thin-blooded compromise and injustice, he promises a display of strength that will bring about pride-crushing judgment that is divine and right.

Jesus is strong in his hour of greatest weakness, bloody and bruised on a cross, one with the Father. He looked to no one else for his strength to endure the abandonment and hostility of those he came to heal. He is strong, self-sufficient in the power and competence of his divine community of Father and Spirit. From such infinite resources, he offers a world of weaklings the greatest of strength. If you feel weak, don’t go it alone. Prayerfully proclaim it with cries for his strength. He will uphold you with his strong arm.

As the Academy Awards reminded us, political and social action against global warming is the new gospel for an old, tired creation. We can save humanity, even the whole world, if we align our political and personal compasses with the green. An inconvenient truth, one not abided by in the Gore house, proposes a solution to the current and pending plight of the global poor and rich. How should Christians respond to the global warming crisis?

Evangelicals are falling into two main camps on environmental issues.  See the New York Times article here. This has clearly come to a head in the divergent open letters put out by the National association of Evangelicals and Interfaith Stewardship Alliance. Signers (Chuck Colson, James Dobson) of the latter letter are taking a more conservative approach. They claim that scientific research clearly demonstrates that human pollution via CO2 and fossil fuels produces marginal damage to the environment, and that the  resources and taxation that required to perform political overhaul will outweigh the actual contribution to our ozone. They also pull in Wayne Grudem for biblical support.

The former, including leaders such as Rick Warren and Duane Liftin are advocating increased evangelical action for the environment through the Evangelical Climate Initiative.  This statement claims that evangelicals are under a moral and biblical imperative to act enviromentally for the sake of the poor and God’s creation, claiming that humans make a significant enough impact on the enviroment to call for reform.

Where do you land on Global Warming? Will you sign the former or the latter? How has this affected your lifestyle?

Any blogger worth his salt will second-guess his motives for blogging, not just once but weekly. I posted on my blogging reservations a long time ago, when I was with blogspot. There are so many pitfalls for both blogger and reader–frittering away time, inflating the ego through comments and hits, writing for the blogosphere buzz instead of for nobler reasons, feeling like one is in-the-know, settling for information in lieu of understanding, and on and on. For all the pitfalls, is it worth the time?

And what of email? Similar pitfalls but in snail time. We send emails in the hope that we will get one back, one that will “encourage us” [=praise us]. Replies shouldn’t be too long. The medium demands speed and brevity. It hardly replaces letter writing, though that has its own set of dangers.

In thier latest issue, n+1 authors present an entertaining and insightful critique of the “intellectual scene” as it pertains to the email/blog world. Commenting on email they write: “It fits our phase of capitalism, the collective attitude is casual, natural-seeming, off-hand; the discipline is constant and intense.” In other words, it takes time and energy to look cool, hip, and in need of no-one. From selecting just the right fade and wear on a pair of jeans, to aiming for the perfect tone, length, and lightness of an email, our age is an age of disciplined casual. In reality, we want recognition from others–praise, acceptance, full inboxes, and heavy-commented blog entries. Of course, there are many unrequited bloggers and emails out there because we want recognition, but we don’t want to recognize.

n+1 continues: “Western civilization has become a giant inbox; it will swell and groan but never be empty till it crashes.” What a sad existence! What a decivilizing existence. They point out the effects of our unchecked cybersociety: “ceasing to be able to be alone, and yet refusing solitude without entering into company.” In short, community is cut off and personhood stifled. More could be said, but I’d rather hear it from you (but you don’t have to comment!). Consider the decivilizing nature of our interactions with technology, technology that “liberates in emergency uses, and decivilizes in daily use.” Consider how and why you email and blog.

In his well-balanced way, Michael Quicke brings a much-needed center to the literature on leadership and preaching:

Leadership left to its own devices can lose spiritual footing in several ways. Separation from preaching increases the dangers of leadership degenerating into humanistic advice, becoming devoid of the Holy Spirit, empty of spiritual understanding, and predisposed to puffed up pride.

Without understanding leadership, preaching becomes wooly in its piety, naive in its application, and guilty on all accounts of thin-bloodedness…Preaching urgently needs to learn from leadership about critical issues such as change, conflict, the need for intentionality, and the understanding process.