I am reading Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters by N. T. Wright, a brilliant historian and Bible scholar. I have gleaned from Wright’s books before, as resource material for my second New Testament novel, His Kingdom Come. I bought his new book because of the intriguing title and I am not disappointed. I love how Wright details and illuminates the reality of God’s grand story. When you look at the facts and the way God has revealed Himself, and what He has done, is doing, and plans to do, well, it gives me clearer perspective and absolute conviction of why I believe what I do. I think that when truth translates deeply into one’s heart and mind, the magnificence of God revealed through history, true happiness is the outcome. Life has meaning then. It is like falling in love. I think that love and truth are so closely connected. It is amazing.
God has revealed Himself through history more than in any other way—more than even through the beauty of creation—actually, when you think about it, His hand throughout history is also part of His creation. Through Israel, and His prophets equipped with promises, He clearly created a people as His own and used real places and events to make Himself known. He set the stage for His incarnation and work of redemption—and the story isn’t over. His intent has always been to bless the entire world through Israel and yet it didn’t happen the way anyone expected. And, yes, He has fulfilled so much of what He said He would do, and the best is yet to come. Maybe quite soon.
Here’s a sample paragraph from Simply Jesus:
“…And the presence of Israel’s God would be the presence of Jesus himself, coming to Jerusalem as the embodiment of Israel’s returning God, the fulfillment of Isaiah 40 and 52. This, Jesus believed, is what it would look like when Israel’s God came back to Zion. It would not be the three men visiting Abraham, not the burning bush, not the pillar of cloud and fire, not Isaiah’s smoky, seraphim-surrounded vision, not Ezekiel’s whirling wheels, but a young man on a donkey, in tears, announcing God’s judgment on the city and Temple that stood on the cosmic fault lines, establishing his own still incomprehending followers as its surprising replacement, and then going off to take upon himself the full weight of evil, the concentrated calamity of the cosmos, so that its force would be annulled and the new world would be born.”
I told someone I met a couple of days ago, who doesn’t believe in the “grand story” of God and Christian beliefs, that it is harder to not believe than it is to believe. There is overwhelming proof it is all true. Sometimes what we most need is to let “realization” have its way in us. Then we can live in God’s love and presence. What we believe in is historical truth. But it’s very personal and real, too. When realization strikes our hearts it can be stunning. This awareness is powerful, creative, and it is ours for the taking. God is real, Jesus is close, and what we believe as Christians is true. Sometimes, in doubt, our minds tell us this is too good to be true. But it is true. We need to live like it’s true. Let the wonder sink in. Believe it. It’s the one thing Jesus wants of us and the reason He’s done everything. He came to set fireworks off in our hearts.
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I am planning my next blog to be an excerpt from Come and See, which I’ve been working on. It will be about the wedding in Cana and how Jesus surprised everybody with a good time. It’s quite telling that this was His first public miracle.