Tues 28 April – The Jesus I thought I knew

DAILY BYTE

These two Emmaus disciples could have been perfectly described by today’s focus reading – as being tired, worn out and burned out on religion. They were despondent, confused and afraid. In many ways they are a powerful and very real picture of two ordinary people trying to make their way through a difficult time in life.
As they walked along they tried to make sense of the events of the last few days – Jesus’ crucifixion and now the strange rumours of his resurrection. As they walked they were joined by a stranger who enters into conversation with them, and as he does so, we begin to uncover further layers to their despondency. They were devastated because Jesus didn’t turn out to be who they had expected. They had hoped Jesus would redeem Israel, and by that they meant that Jesus would drive out the Roman oppressors and return Israel to sovereign nationhood.
This is the Jesus they thought they knew - what they had been hoping for in a God and Messiah. But after the death of Jesus, and now hearing reports of a resurrection, it seems their expectations of God were further muddied and confused. So really, they were tired, worn out and burned out on religion.

Interestingly enough, the name Emmaus can mean ‘obscure’ or ‘nowhere,’ and it really seems as though these two despondent and disillusioned disciples were on a journey to nowhere. This leads us to the first important truth in this story I would like to emphasise; which is that it really, really matters what we believe and what we base our lives upon, because trusting in all the wrong things can take us on a journey to nowhere!
People often say that it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere. Well, as Brian Mclaren says, people are well intentioned when they say that but they can’t really mean it, at least not literally.
Is it ok for a crazed cult leader to sincerely believe his sincere followers should join him in sincerely drinking poisoned Kool-Aid so that they can end up in heaven sooner rather than later? It is really ok for sincere religious fundamentalists to control the lives of millions through sincere intimidation, censorship, legislation and threats of violence? Was it really ok for Christians to sincerely take up arms in Crusades for Jerusalem property rights and end up killing tens of thousands?

Brian Mclaren ends up by concluding, and I couldn’t agree more, that it sometimes seems that having bad faith is more dangerous than having no faith at all. People often discard faith totally, not because they’ve discarded God as much as they have discarded other people’s unhealthy versions of God!

A university chaplain once reminisced that he would have several students a year visit him in his office who were struggling through a faith crisis. They would say to him that they didn’t believe in God anymore, but he would always respond, “Well, tell me about that God, because I probably don’t believe in him either.”

Bad faith takes on a journey nowhere. We see that in these two on their way to Emmaus. They were burnt out, not on God, but on their version of God and there’s a big difference that I hope you can now see. They had hoped in a military Messiah but as the mysterious stranger said: “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe.”
God’s Kingdom enters earth not through violence, power or coercion but through love, grace and forgiveness. They were somewhat selfishly expecting God to save Israel, but they needed to understand that God wanted to use Israel to save the WHOLE world.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, help me to understand that sometimes my understanding of you is inadequate. Help me to humbly open myself up to knowing as much of you as I possibly can. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE
Matthew 11. 28-30 MSG

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."