more strange and more true
so it's been a long while hey? i doubt anyone bothers to check in anymore, but if perchance you have, welcome to a little ramble round what I've been thinking about Jesus recently...
...here's the thing, the more i consider Jesus and how he appeared on earth, the more strange he seems to be - recently in church we've been watching a DVD which re-enacts Matthew's gospel, using only the words of the NIV translation... and while, by restricting itself to these words, it makes an awkward script (since the disciples' side of Jesus' teaching dialogues aren't recorded very often in the gospels), it certainly brings home to me to how utterly abrasive Jesus is, and must have been in 1st century Israel, if he wasn't God, then his sanity must inevitably be questioned! It's no wonder they ended up either being part of crucifying him, or worshipping him - there's no real alternative to those options...
... and, here he is being worshipped 2000 years later, and I find myself in tears in front of the Good Friday congregation trying to pray the words of the Good Friday collect:
...here's the thing, the more i consider Jesus and how he appeared on earth, the more strange he seems to be - recently in church we've been watching a DVD which re-enacts Matthew's gospel, using only the words of the NIV translation... and while, by restricting itself to these words, it makes an awkward script (since the disciples' side of Jesus' teaching dialogues aren't recorded very often in the gospels), it certainly brings home to me to how utterly abrasive Jesus is, and must have been in 1st century Israel, if he wasn't God, then his sanity must inevitably be questioned! It's no wonder they ended up either being part of crucifying him, or worshipping him - there's no real alternative to those options...
... and, here he is being worshipped 2000 years later, and I find myself in tears in front of the Good Friday congregation trying to pray the words of the Good Friday collect:
Almighty Father,more strange and more true with every passing year...
look with mercy on this your family
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed
and given up into the hands of sinners
and to suffer death upon the cross;
who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.