Christology

This week’s post is going to be a bit different for a couple reasons. On the one hand, there are time, energy, and focus constraints on my life right now. Moving, renovating the new house, cleaning the old house, going to PT for my knee, going to the dentist, starting a new daily writing practice, and not getting fired from my day job. On the other hand, I’ve been thinking deeply about shifting what I write about and how, guided by an exploration of “the Artist’s Way: a Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.” Whereas I’ve been writing about things which are interesting to me, they are not necessarily the things that I am passionate about. I’ve been stuck in this mode of trying to see things the way that other people might see them. It’s probably a useful exercise, but I also feel like I need to get out of the dark forest of anticipating the way others think and feel. What follows is more in line with my heart, not just my head.

Here is something I’ve been sitting on for several years. How do we read the following scriptural poem?

Psalm 1
Blessed is the man 
       who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, 
       nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord, 
       and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
       planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
       and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
       but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,
       nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, 
       but the way of the wicked will perish. 

There is a wrong way to read the above Psalm. I used to read it and think to myself “I want to be like that ideal representation. I want my life to be always green, always nourished, bearing fruit at the right times after due diligence.” The zeal for righteousness is inseparable from a belief in the good. One of my life’s guiding drives has been the desire to be good. I want to put down the roots of my personality into the living water of what is really true and meaningful. If all that I did prospered, I’d surely be blessed. However, this ideal remains always at the outer boundary of potential, receding when approached. I can’t be the “blessed” man.

When this Psalm is read as an instruction manual for behavioral modification, it will only mirror back to you your failure. Exactly how much of the year have you kept your thoughts and actions free of wickedness, scoffing, and sinning? The righteous man keeps his mind occupied by goodness, truth, and beauty at all times. This is why he prospers. Are you doing that? How much of your life is like chaff? Will it blow away in the wind of adversity, judgement, and death? Have you built a lasting legacy of life, one that will endure to future generations here, and in the afterlife for you?

I believe that many of us still read this Psalm (as well as the rest of the Jewish and Christian scriptures) in this manner. We see in the scriptures a guide to living holy, righteous, and good lives. At best we are honest with ourselves, acknowledging that we do not live up to the titanium moral standards presented therein. Yet, who can keep up the Sisyphean effort? Who wakes each day, knowing failure is inevitable, yet carries on with preternatural diligence? Who can keep their nose to the grindstone day after day after day? Who amongst us has not harbored black and twisted thoughts in the gloomy shadows of our inner monologues? Will you be able to stand on the day of judgement?

There is a better way to read the above Psalm. Paul, writing to the Romans, made a transformative discovery in re-understanding the sweep and scope of Jewish scriptures. He began to see Jesus as the fulfillment of every yearning for righteousness and goodness. What if every time we come across a scriptural reference to the “blessed/righteous/holy/good” man, it is not telling us how we should behave, but prophesying of one who will fulfill that role? What if we reread this Psalm as if it were predicting Jesus, not our homework assignment?

The brilliance of Christianity is that it turns religion upside down. Whereas everyone in Jesus day (and basically everyone today) assumed that eternal life was the reward of seeking to do good, the revelation of the gospel of Jesus flatly contradicted the performance-reward model. Paul proclaimed to the Romans,

There is no one righteous, not even one; 
       there is no one who understands; 
       there is no one who seeks God. 
All have turned away, 
       they have together become worthless; 
there is no one who does good, 
       not even one. 

For everyone who puts stock in their own moral perfection, Jesus is enemy No. 1. He invalidates their core motivation for being good; “…no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by works of the law…”. You will not reap eternal life by patiently and diligently trying to be a better person. It is an insult to our pride and to our desperately held belief that we are good because of everything we’ve worked so hard to obtain. All your righteousness has been wasted. All your careful abstaining is like chaff. All your sacrifices are altogether worthless.

For anyone who has looked into the depths of their own soul and seen the grave, the abyss, and the poisonous vipers that dwell there, Jesus is a welcome relief. If we are honest, we intuitively understand that we possess the potential to be truly horrible humans. We may have even slid some, or a lot, in that direction. We have kept ourselves from descending into the hellish monsters we could become only through constant restraint and effort. Jesus shows up to us like the warmth of a new dawn after a cold and rainy night. The first rays of light promise of a good day to follow. Your only mission is to watch with anticipation. It is to look at Jesus. It is to enjoy the sunshine. It is to meditate on one who was perfect, knows everything about you, and still loves you unconditionally.

The core belief of the religious is that if they don’t keep up the treadmill of performance they will slide backwards and fall into decay. It is only by their very great effort that they are as good as they are. And that is true. The salt in the wound, though, is that they will never be as good as the one who simply accepts the presence of Jesus while acknowledging all their faults and failures. The wicked, in resting from all their striving to be good, wake one day to find that they have effortlessly become better.

The way of the wicked will perish. The wicked, themselves, will be declared righteous through the faith of Jesus Christ, the one who will stand in the day of judgement.