Monday, October 18, 2010

Monday's Meditation: Someone Easier than Jesus?

Followers of Jesus are called to look like their master. The amazing--perhaps incredible--testimony of scripture is that we should be conformed to his image. For many believers this seems too high, too difficult, just plain impossible to imagine.

If we are overwhelmed by the call to imitate the Lord himself, perhaps we could find a more accessible role model?  Could we choose another mentor, perhaps a pastor, a friend, or an older brother? The book of James had a remarkable suggestion: consider Elijah.  “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.  Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” (James 5: 16–18)  James, the brother of Jesus, surely must have struggled with the disparity between his actions and those of Jesus, yet he closes his letter with a suggestion that would seem still unattainable by most believers today.  Who is greater, Jesus, or Elijah?  Of course, we know the answer.  So shouldn’t Elijah’s life of faith and practice be more attainable than that of Jesus? 

“Elijah was a man just like us.”  How many of us believe that?  True, he was subject to uncertainty, perhaps even bouts with depression.  While this similarity might resonate with us, he also miraculously multiplied food, called down fire from heaven, and raised the dead.  Elijah’s life story involves a supernatural prayer life capable of changing weather patterns.  Elijah was a man like us?  If James seriously attempted to lower the bar by suggesting a mere human as a mentor, we are still left standing and staring at the height of the bar.

It’s a mediation worthy of the week ahead.  May I suggest these questions: how are we to understand, interpret or adapt his life to our experience?  What would be the response of our family or friends if we maintained that we were just like Elijah? If transformation into Christlikeness seems impossible, does Elijah’s life seem any more attainable?

Thursday’s post will return to Elijah. But in the meantime perhaps your comments can stimulate the discussion. I’m curious to read your thoughts--see you Thursday.

7 comments:

  1. Very interesting questions to ponder. It seems to me that while I might get caught up on *how* Elijah's faith manifested itself in his life (and I might feel those are impossible acts to emulate), maybe I should be more focused on the attitude or posture Elijah took in his life. Perhaps that is something I can strive for, even if it ends up looking like something quite different.

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  2. This helps me. I keep thinking of Jesus having the deity trump card that makes me take God's Spirit a little less seriously. I mean, I have the same Spirit, but for reals... I'm no Jesus. Looking at Elijah also prepares me to learn more from Jesus since there are so many parallels in their ministries. In a sense, Elijah was a shadow of Jesus, and so he's a great person to use by way of building up our ability to imitate Jesus.

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  3. Kristin: "even if it ends up looking like something quite different." I think you can be sure it will. Our individual backgrounds (ethnicity, gender, time, and nationality) provide a guarantee that genuine faith differs from person to person. And a good thing! Otherwise we would be forced to conclude that God is after a dreary sameness in all of us. May I caution you not to dismiss the "how" too quickly, because attitude and actions are more closely linked than we might think. I'll be coming back to Elijah as a role model on Thursday.

    Ed: In my experience nearly *every* Evangelical believes Jesus played the "deity trump card" every time he moved in power. Fortunately Acts 10:37-38, Philippians 2, and John 14 encourage us to reconsider the possibilities of a *human* life lived fully yielded to the Father.

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  4. Ray, the thing that struck me most, from the first few lines of this and after, is the concept that most always, no matter whom or what is our master, we "all have to serve someone" like you have stated before, and we always end up being a reflection of the thing or person that indeed has mastery over us. I think Elijah seems like a pretty decent master compared to what most of us choose these days.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ray, the thing that struck me most, from the first few lines of this and after, is the concept that most always, no matter whom or what is our master, we "all have to serve someone" like you have stated before, and we always end up being a reflection of the thing or person that indeed has mastery over us. I think Elijah seems like a pretty decent master compared to what most of us choose these days.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kristin: "even if it ends up looking like something quite different." I think you can be sure it will. Our individual backgrounds (ethnicity, gender, time, and nationality) provide a guarantee that genuine faith differs from person to person. And a good thing! Otherwise we would be forced to conclude that God is after a dreary sameness in all of us. May I caution you not to dismiss the "how" too quickly, because attitude and actions are more closely linked than we might think. I'll be coming back to Elijah as a role model on Thursday.

    Ed: In my experience nearly *every* Evangelical believes Jesus played the "deity trump card" every time he moved in power. Fortunately Acts 10:37-38, Philippians 2, and John 14 encourage us to reconsider the possibilities of a *human* life lived fully yielded to the Father.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This helps me. I keep thinking of Jesus having the deity trump card that makes me take God's Spirit a little less seriously. I mean, I have the same Spirit, but for reals... I'm no Jesus. Looking at Elijah also prepares me to learn more from Jesus since there are so many parallels in their ministries. In a sense, Elijah was a shadow of Jesus, and so he's a great person to use by way of building up our ability to imitate Jesus.

    ReplyDelete