How Cool Is Your Jesus?
01/02/08 02:17 Filed in: Deep Thought
I remember struggling through Secondary school
(middle school to high-school age) in Dublin as a
Christian. I wasn’t (or at least didn’t feel) uncool
in school. I was on the basketball team, had some
solid friends and got decent enough grades but I was
well aware that much of what I felt Christianity
required of me was simply adding negative brownie
points onto any chance of me attaining more
popularity. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to be a
Christian, even wanted my friends to be Christians
but my understanding of what it meant to be a
Christian at that point in my life meant that I
couldn’t drink, couldn’t listen to certain music, go
to certain places, make out with girls, etc. – much
of which was associated with coolness in my school.
Then I remember feeling emancipated by a speaker who told me that Christians could be cool. In fact, he argued, Christians should be the coolest people around because Jesus was attractive to the people he met. A few of my Christian friends and I began to take this to heart. We started to convince ourselves that we could be cool with our friends and cool with God at the same time. So we pushed the previous boundaries a lot comforting any guilt with the idea that we might “win someone to Jesus” with our Jesus-like coolness.
In fact I thought our Jesus was so cool I convinced a friend of mine that we could have a club in the school (much cooler than the Christian Union club might I add) where we’d provide free food if people wanted to come and talk about God. We had our first meeting right after a huge evolution/creation debate so there was a lot of fodder to discuss.
We were really cool Christians in those days. Or at least that’s what I thought.
It’s only been as of late that I’ve seen what was so wrong with my school-boy thinking. I remember watching an episode of King of the Hill on the telly. For those not in the know, King of the Hill is an adult cartoon comedy centered around the Hill family who live in Arlington, Texas. Much of the humor is aimed at southern culture and the stereotyped characters that culture breeds. I love it. My wife loves it. We laugh a lot when we watch it.
But I digress… The episode that first got me thinking about this cool Christian idea involved the Hills’ son Bobby. Bobby was really getting into his youth group at church which had a new cool and hip youth pastor in tote. Now this youth pastor was an over-the-top stereotype, with piercings, cool hair-doo, and speaking all the right lingo. Bobby wanted to be just like him and really began living just for youth group. But his Dad, Hank, in a moment of genius pulled Bobby aside and told him he couldn’t go to youth group any more. Indeed, his worry was that cool comes and goes. If Bobby simply fell in love with this brand of Jesus, he’d be inclined to let it go as soon as its popularity faded. OK, not the deepest thought in the world but what do you expect from a cartoon. More to the point, however, this got me thinking about that coolness and Christianity weren’t as compatible as I’d previously thought.
Most Christians I know really like the film The Matrix. I like the film too. Just bought it actually. Conversations with my Christian friends on the film, however, almost always address Neo, the central character, as a Christ figure, saving the world and opening up our eyes to the way things really are. I remember chatting with my professor in college, E.J. Park about how I’d been sold on a cool God. E.J. began musing on the film The Matrix,
“I really like Neo as a savior. For starters, he’s reluctant and I can relate to someone who doubts himself. There’s a part of me that likes someone who’s cocky too but after a while I want nothing more than to see that high-and-mighty person taste the sweet humiliation of defeat. Take Joseph in the Bible for instance, I can resonate with his brothers when Joseph goes around telling them that one day they’ll all bow down before him. That would tick me off.
“But Jesus is even worse than Joseph. He claims that the whole universe (past and present) will bow down before him. I imagine these self-proclamations must have got under the skin of some people: I am the bread. I am the living water. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the Son of Man. I am the Son of God. Enough! We get the point! I’d take a self-doubting reluctant hero like Neo any day. I’d tell this guy that he’s more important than he could ever imagine. I can’t offer anything to the self-proclaimed Messiah.
“Second, Neo kicks butt. What’s better than the reluctant hero who can kung fu the crap out of the enemy? Neo is the perfect messianic combo package. He’s not afraid to pack some serious guns too. I’d gladly follow Neo to the center of the earth and the end of the Matrix, especially if I got to sport some of his cool shades.
“(Sigh.) But Jesus. Not only does he claim to be the one but then he refuses to kick butt. I mean how can a messiah expect anyone to follow him when he insists on suffering and dying? When Neo dies it’s because he gave it his all but didn’t realize the extent of his power. He comes back to life to kick more butt. When Jesus dies he’s fully aware of his butt-kicking powers and does nothing. He understands his power but refuses to use it.”*
You have to know E.J. to know that he was being facetious. In no way did he think Jesus was not worth following or someone who couldn’t grab his heart. He was simply pointing out how deep our desire is to make Christ in our image. Neo is actually the antithesis of Christ. E.J. went on to point out that Christ was actually killed because he was not more Neo-like.
You see God doesn’t want to redeem us to the world. He isn’t trying to have a bunch of followers who are cool. God has redeemed the world, he’s re-defined the world, allowing us to re-imagine the world, seeing it as it truly is. So it’s not that he wants us to be uncool either. He wants us to realize that in Him, these social systems have come to an end and we shouldn’t live our lives by them. He has very little time for being cool or right because these are both defined by the old social system where we compare ourselves to one another.
In God’s new social system we are all defined in terms of Christ. God speaks into our lives and transforms them, redefines them. This is why Paul can say, “there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11). Or check out what Jesus says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). WOW! Hate your family and your life? But such a statement makes total sense when we realize that God wants us to define ourselves in terms of Him, not in terms of the old social system.
I wish I’d realized that I didn’t need to impress my peers, I just needed to love them. And while this might not always be the most popular thing to do I wish I’d realized that it always wins. It wins because this is how God has re-defined the world and it’s exciting because I now don’t have to live my life impressing others, I get to live seeing the world as God has saved it.
Matt
* Check out EJ Park's article on the Matrix.
Then I remember feeling emancipated by a speaker who told me that Christians could be cool. In fact, he argued, Christians should be the coolest people around because Jesus was attractive to the people he met. A few of my Christian friends and I began to take this to heart. We started to convince ourselves that we could be cool with our friends and cool with God at the same time. So we pushed the previous boundaries a lot comforting any guilt with the idea that we might “win someone to Jesus” with our Jesus-like coolness.
In fact I thought our Jesus was so cool I convinced a friend of mine that we could have a club in the school (much cooler than the Christian Union club might I add) where we’d provide free food if people wanted to come and talk about God. We had our first meeting right after a huge evolution/creation debate so there was a lot of fodder to discuss.
We were really cool Christians in those days. Or at least that’s what I thought.
It’s only been as of late that I’ve seen what was so wrong with my school-boy thinking. I remember watching an episode of King of the Hill on the telly. For those not in the know, King of the Hill is an adult cartoon comedy centered around the Hill family who live in Arlington, Texas. Much of the humor is aimed at southern culture and the stereotyped characters that culture breeds. I love it. My wife loves it. We laugh a lot when we watch it.
But I digress… The episode that first got me thinking about this cool Christian idea involved the Hills’ son Bobby. Bobby was really getting into his youth group at church which had a new cool and hip youth pastor in tote. Now this youth pastor was an over-the-top stereotype, with piercings, cool hair-doo, and speaking all the right lingo. Bobby wanted to be just like him and really began living just for youth group. But his Dad, Hank, in a moment of genius pulled Bobby aside and told him he couldn’t go to youth group any more. Indeed, his worry was that cool comes and goes. If Bobby simply fell in love with this brand of Jesus, he’d be inclined to let it go as soon as its popularity faded. OK, not the deepest thought in the world but what do you expect from a cartoon. More to the point, however, this got me thinking about that coolness and Christianity weren’t as compatible as I’d previously thought.
Most Christians I know really like the film The Matrix. I like the film too. Just bought it actually. Conversations with my Christian friends on the film, however, almost always address Neo, the central character, as a Christ figure, saving the world and opening up our eyes to the way things really are. I remember chatting with my professor in college, E.J. Park about how I’d been sold on a cool God. E.J. began musing on the film The Matrix,
“I really like Neo as a savior. For starters, he’s reluctant and I can relate to someone who doubts himself. There’s a part of me that likes someone who’s cocky too but after a while I want nothing more than to see that high-and-mighty person taste the sweet humiliation of defeat. Take Joseph in the Bible for instance, I can resonate with his brothers when Joseph goes around telling them that one day they’ll all bow down before him. That would tick me off.
“But Jesus is even worse than Joseph. He claims that the whole universe (past and present) will bow down before him. I imagine these self-proclamations must have got under the skin of some people: I am the bread. I am the living water. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. I am the Son of Man. I am the Son of God. Enough! We get the point! I’d take a self-doubting reluctant hero like Neo any day. I’d tell this guy that he’s more important than he could ever imagine. I can’t offer anything to the self-proclaimed Messiah.
“Second, Neo kicks butt. What’s better than the reluctant hero who can kung fu the crap out of the enemy? Neo is the perfect messianic combo package. He’s not afraid to pack some serious guns too. I’d gladly follow Neo to the center of the earth and the end of the Matrix, especially if I got to sport some of his cool shades.
“(Sigh.) But Jesus. Not only does he claim to be the one but then he refuses to kick butt. I mean how can a messiah expect anyone to follow him when he insists on suffering and dying? When Neo dies it’s because he gave it his all but didn’t realize the extent of his power. He comes back to life to kick more butt. When Jesus dies he’s fully aware of his butt-kicking powers and does nothing. He understands his power but refuses to use it.”*
You have to know E.J. to know that he was being facetious. In no way did he think Jesus was not worth following or someone who couldn’t grab his heart. He was simply pointing out how deep our desire is to make Christ in our image. Neo is actually the antithesis of Christ. E.J. went on to point out that Christ was actually killed because he was not more Neo-like.
You see God doesn’t want to redeem us to the world. He isn’t trying to have a bunch of followers who are cool. God has redeemed the world, he’s re-defined the world, allowing us to re-imagine the world, seeing it as it truly is. So it’s not that he wants us to be uncool either. He wants us to realize that in Him, these social systems have come to an end and we shouldn’t live our lives by them. He has very little time for being cool or right because these are both defined by the old social system where we compare ourselves to one another.
In God’s new social system we are all defined in terms of Christ. God speaks into our lives and transforms them, redefines them. This is why Paul can say, “there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Col. 3:11). Or check out what Jesus says: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). WOW! Hate your family and your life? But such a statement makes total sense when we realize that God wants us to define ourselves in terms of Him, not in terms of the old social system.
I wish I’d realized that I didn’t need to impress my peers, I just needed to love them. And while this might not always be the most popular thing to do I wish I’d realized that it always wins. It wins because this is how God has re-defined the world and it’s exciting because I now don’t have to live my life impressing others, I get to live seeing the world as God has saved it.
Matt
* Check out EJ Park's article on the Matrix.
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