Jesus Christ: The Action Figure
Several months ago I was shopping online for some books on a website that deals primarily in religious goods. I was amazed at how many Bibles were available for purchase. Not just the sheer volume of Bibles, or the number of different translations. What I discovered for was massive amount of “thematic” bibles.
There were designer Bibles that featured the latest colors, designs, and patterns. They had Bibles for every branch of the military, Bibles for children learning to read, Bibles with pictures, large Bibles, pocket sized Bibles, and Bibles just for men and only for women. The best Bible I saw however, was one that came with a Jesus action figure.
I realize that Jesus walked the earth fully God and fully man, and know that he lived as no other human being ever did or ever will - but Jesus the action hero? I pictured Chuck Norris playing Jesus as he roundhouse kicked over tables and merchants in the Temple.
The product description of the Bible-and-Jesus-Action-Figure-Kit said, “ … now children can have hours of hands on fun reenacting the Bible stories, or make up their own adventure.” Make up their own adventure? Really?
As crazy as this sounds, I think that this "make up your own Jesus adventure" is bought by many of us. While we may not have an action figure, we still like to have a God we can control. We want God that takes part in the adventure that we create.
We fail to see that control is an illusion. None of us are really in control of anything. The sooner we come to grips with our powerlessness the better off we will be. This should not scare us, but give us great hope.
In the moment we embrace our powerlessness; we can, at last, fall headlong into the love of God. The strongest force in this world that no one will ever overcome. We resist this in the strangest of ways, for God's love is precisely what we often try to control.
We believe that we have to make God love us, approve of us, and want him to know that we are good and believe the right things. But God's love cannot be swayed like that. His love is always pressing in on us - no matter what. There is nothing we can do to make God love us any more, and there is nothing we can do to make him love us any less.
God is love and love comes from God. We can't control God and his love even though we try like mad. This attempt to control is what some call sin.
Sin is the attempt to not only to control, and manipulate the love of God, but also to find love apart from God himself. It is our attempt to make up our own adventure with Jesus. All the while, the best we can get is a small, plastic God who is nothing more than an action figure.
May you discover the freedom of your own powerlessness, and see that you will never control the wild and free love of God. May you hang on for a real adventure in which you have no control. And in that moment of powerlessness may you find freedom, and true power that is found in the love of God.