If Jesus Wrote a Book, Would It Have Been A Best Seller?

Hey Michael - I thought you didn't believe that the woman caught in adultery thing really happened? Or do you believe that John didn't write it? I can't remember, I know you made a comment on it, though. I gotta say, it doesn't matter to me who wrote it or where it came from - the Holy Spirit allowed it to enter into the "canon" so I accept it as real and important for my understanding of the character and nature of God. I've never cared who edited/wrote the Pentateuch, how many Isaiahs there really were... I mean, who cares? The Bible is what we have - it is God's self-revelation (through the minds, hearts and hands of very fallible men, no less). There isn't any other way to really know the character and nature of God.

But I digress... Jesus wrote in the sand. Wouldn't you like to know what he wrote? I would. If somehow we could get it, and revealed it to the world, THAT would be a best seller.

If Jesus wrote a book, while he was alive, few people would have cared. It would have "gone too far" for most people. That whole scene in the Gospel of John where Jesus says, "You must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood..." and people realize that, no, he's not talking about cannibalism, he's talking about becoming like Jesus - he's talking about really taking him into yourself - fully, like HIS blood is pumping through your veins, like HIS flesh is your strength - to WORSHIP him by becoming fully like him. THAT'S WAY too much for the world to handle.

And the sad truth is, that's way too much for "the church" to handle.

And way too many days that's way too much for me to handle.

But there's grace.

I'm re-reading (and leading a youth Bible study) on Brian McLaren's book The Secret Message of Jesus. Great stuff - probably be a best-seller. But he only really asks the questions - JESUS provides the answers. And some of the answers are really hard to do.

A part of me hates that guy in Lancaster who killed those little girls. I have two little girls. They both go to small Christain schools... I want to hate him. I want to be glad that he's dead - and I want to damn him to hell...

But I can't. I hate what he did. And in some ways it frightens me. But hating the man is not my place - and condemning someone for their sin is...well, isn't that in some ways "blaspheming the Holy Spirit"? I mean, what would you call trying to rip judgement from God's control - something God alone has a right to do? Okay, I'd call it stupid. But then, sometimes I am stupid. I try to open-field tackle God sometimes to "get what I want." Stupid...

But Jesus calls us to that higher place. Forgiveness. Openness. Vulnerability.

And then there's grace...

Jesus, I'd buy your book. I really would. Maybe not til after I get the next Pratchett book. But I'd buy it, I promise...

I need grace...