nails…

With the passing of the seasons the ladies in the church seem to have the itch to clean house. These women sort and discover old treasures.  Books, tapes, and DVD’s are starting to collect dust in their homes and need to be discarded. It seems that these new and interesting items find their way to our church library. I love our church’s library. It’s small, dark, and has some real gems in it. I scan through all the books from time to time that people have read and studied. I stare in wonder and awe at how someone could part with such an old classic. Church libraries have a certain feel to them. It seems to be almost a presence. 

Like God is waiting to be found.

One item that found its way from the library selves to my hands was a DVD on the gospel of John. I love watching Jesus films. They are absolutely terrible.  The worst pieces of crap ever. Most Christian producers haven’t realized what good film-making is. Anyway, I put “The Gospel of John” into my PS2 and started watching.  I stared at the man that was playing Christ.  What a role, Christ.  He did an alright job but I could not get over the concept of Christ.  What an outstanding concept. What a role to play, a true challenge.  A unheard of task.

I have stumbled across a lot of Jesus films in my time. To tell you the truth the more I read my bible, the more I start to understand Jesus.  I wonder how I would have been toward Him.  I wondered how i would have acted at the concept.  What if I lived when He walked?  Would Ii like Him?

I think back to what it must have been like to walk in those days. Jesus was a radical, different from the norm;  a rebel. He made people upset, stirred the waters, spoke a God language to the humans. He even did things that people absolutely despised. I want to say with all my heart that I would have believed in Him if I lived back then.  Who am I kidding? The more I watched the film, the more I realized that I would have been one of the first ones to drive that nail into His hands. I might have even been proud of it.

Scary concept.

What am I getting at? Doesn’t it strike you that we can believe so strongly in something that happened over two thousand years ago? How easy it is to get stuck in our Christian mold. We get upset when someone comes along who is different, a rebel, a new teacher. We strike out against people and speak harshly against them because they go against the way in which we have always done things.

We always do things the same way.
It had to have been hard to understanding Christ. It had to have been even harder to understand Christ if you couldn’t see or speak in His time.  How easy is it to open a book written in another language and say “I can’t read this, I don’t read this language” It must be even harder to read the same book and say, “I don’t even believe that book exists.”

You can learn the language. You just have to start with the belief that it can be learned.  A God like language isn’t easily obtained.  It starts with admitting the book is there, in front of your face.  It’s another thing to just forget about truth, about reality. 

you drove the nail too.

-Jordan

~ by jordanandrhett on August 10, 2006.