The Humiliation of our Father

Since everyone else is offering their opinion on the recent controversy I might as well follow suit. I must first start by saying the lack of a united affront to the depiction of Christ as a sort of Casanova should not surprise anyone who reads this letter. The denigration of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is not something that we should see as new or frankly should it be some sort of revelation to the saved or the lost for that matter. Christ is mocked every day by our own sinful nature; so the applying of sexual promiscuity on the person of Christ by those who do not recognize him as Lord should not astonish you. However whether or not it is shocking is the problem. If Ron Howard made a movie alluding to the pedophiliac nature of Mohammed-which according to the Quran occurred-your local theater would soon be a large parking lot. If Tom Hanks starred as a gun-toting Ghandi spraying down the Thin Red Line it would never leave the studio. Why is this? The reason of course is that the studio execs know the boundaries of the envelope and which sides they can push. Other than the organized Roman Catholic Church and its licensed organizations (i.e. Opus Dei) they know the majority Christian organizations-denominational or not-will not be openly opposed to a movie that questions the divinity of Christ and the purity of his humanity. Why? Unfortunately with the infiltration of High Criticism and other modern conventions into the contemporary church we have spent our collective theological breath trying to assimilate science and theology into a hermeneutical union. This marriage of the wisdom of man and the wisdom of God has lessoned the need for the place of miracles and the nature of faith itself in the communal Christian reality. Why do we need to trust the miracles of the work of God if we can have a scientific explanation for it? The problem of reliance of man found wisdom to ratify your faith is that if you have your faith bound upon the word of man than what need do you have on the faith of Christ? As Calvin says, “Paul makes faith the inseparable attendant of doctrine.” We cannot have belief without faith. Faith is belief in the things unseen. As Paul says in Ephesians 4:20-21, “You have not so much learned Christ; if it be that you have heard him speak, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus and the truth is Jesus.” And in 2 Corinthians 5:7 he says it simply in this manner, “Walk by Faith not by Sight”.

Now what does this entire monologue have to do with this movie? It is simple. The church will not stand up for Christ. We have developed a type of Christianity in the West that has had a complete spinaldectomy. Whatever happened to the strength of Christianity? Our Christology is weak. Our Biblical learnedness is weak. Our Prayer life is weak. Our families are weak. I could go on but you get the point.

In my weeknight Bibly Study we have recently began studying the Book of Hosea. We have read over and over and over again what happened to the Israelites when they gave up on the Almighty Father and decided to drive their own path; anyone who professes a God who is not wrathful and at the same time benevolent has not and needs to read Hosea. I often am asked, “Why if the Israelites knew the consequences of disobedience did they continue to do it?” I then counter with, “Why do we?” We who arrogantly look back at the Israelites and mock their stupidity need to remove the proverbial plank from our eye. Our conceited modern mind has decided that we don’t need Christ. We can do it on our own. We often explain that with our modern understandings we can better comprehend the meanings of scripture. This is rubbish. A gospel of man can never replace the Gospel of Christ. It really is that simple. As long as we make ourselves idols and leave God for times when we need him we will continue to falter and stumble. We need a strong Christ who wields his sword and protects us with his cloak. We do not need a Christ who is “reasonable and wise” alone but a warrior king who does protect us not only from the bowels of Hell but more importantly protects us from our own foolishness.