Jesus In Our Image

Every now and then I see a truck here in town that is hard to miss. Truthfully, I cringe every time I see it. The back of the vehicle is covered in large, bold red letters that read:

“JESUS IS COMING BACK AND HE IS ANGRY!”

I often wonder about the owner of that truck.

I wonder about his story. I wonder about his experience in church. I also wonder how on earth he could read the gospels and come to that conclusion.

I mean, we are talking about Jesus, right? The Son of God. The suffering servant. The one who had every right to unleash holy hell on a humanity bent on rebellion, sin and violence through seemingly every generation. And yet, the one who instead chose to take the worst of humanity on himself in the greatest act in cosmic history of undeserved mercy and self-sacrificial love. We are talking about that Jesus, right?

How then could one conclude that same Jesus would in a stunning turn of events come back 2,000 years later as one who is first and foremost angry?

Well…I have a hypothesis.

In my experience, people who believe in “angry Jesus” are often some of the most combative, graceless, angry people I’ve known. If it’s not their anger, it’s that of their spiritual mentor.

The same can be said for other characteristics often attributed to Jesus. (And this, by the way, has been true throughout human history.) Racist people of faith often propagate a racist Jesus. Militaristic people of faith often believe in and preach a militant Jesus. People who are generally soft on sin often paint a picture of a Jesus who doesn’t take sin very seriously.

All of this leads me to believe for many, the Jesus they subscribe to tells us more about them than it does Jesus himself.

As a result, there are a lot of misrepresentations of Jesus out there. I’m sure you’ve seen a number of them along the way.

Here are a some common ones I’ve seen over the years:

Hippie Jesus

Hippie Jesus is very chill, is always giving out free hugs, and likes to spend his free time wandering around the countryside talking about how he wishes everyone would just love each other. He’s also real pumped about legalized marijuana.

MMA Jesus 

MMA Jesus is a man’s man. He’s full of testosterone, works with his hands, knows how to handle power tools and has a short temper. You better not make him angry or he will pile drive you into eternal oblivion.

American Jesus 

American Jesus loves to sport the stars and stripes, buys American made, carries a gun and is pro war as long as its in the name of freedom. Though he claims to love all he really loves our country the most.

Heartthrob Jesus 

Think of heartthrob Jesus like a young Middle Eastern Zac Effron. He enjoys long prayer walks on the Mediterranean beach, romantic worship ballads sung in his general direction and demands not so much your worship as much as your crush.

Progressive Jesus 

Progressive Jesus works hard to keep his waste footprint at zero. He’s an activist, passionate about earth care, and spends his free time volunteering for Green Peace.

Other-worldly Jesus 

Other-worldly Jesus doesn’t walk from place to place as much as he floats. Wherever he goes a thick heavenly haze follows with him. This Jesus is easy to worship but hard to relate with, follow or imitate, thus making him a very safe and popular Jesus these days.

Of course, I am exaggerating a bit, but not nearly as much as I wish I was. I’d be willing to bet you’ve run into alternate versions of Jesus being peddled as well, haven’t you?

When we run into depictions of Jesus like the ones above we can be sure we are learning far more about the messenger than The King.

Unfortunately, this is often what happens when we allow others to define Jesus for us. Jesus often gets fundamentally reinterpreted.

Voltaire once remarked that “God created man in his image and man returned the favor.” Sometimes Jesus gets reinterpreted to look like us – to validate our cause, to be on our team, to back what we already want to think or believe. Other times Jesus gets redefined simply to make him more manageable.

But the real Jesus will not be tamed or managed.

And believe it or not, it seems that emerging generations actually long for the real thing.

There’s no guarantee they will choose to follow, of course, but they want to be able to make an informed decision. They want to hear what the real Jesus was about - what he actually said, who he contended for, who he confronted, the hard things he said, the questions for which there are no easy answers…all of it.

The last thing they want, it seems, is what many of us have grown up with - a polished version of Jesus whose rough edges have been sanded out and whose core message sounds eerily similar to the beliefs and narrative of our preferred cultural or theological tribe.

This is scary to those unwilling to change.

But to those willing to be undone by The King, this is very good news.

Questions for Reflection:

Does the Jesus you know typically agree with your assumptions and beliefs, or do you find him continually challenging you in new and uncomfortable ways?

Does the Jesus you know generally look like you, talk like you, and care about the things you already care about?

Are there people in your life who regularly challenge your conception of Jesus?

Does the Jesus you know seem cool with the areas in your life in which you’ve settled, or is He ever pressing you deeper into yourself, into Himself and into living into the kingdom?