No Box Works

Boxes bring wonderful order to our life.  They keep cereal from spilling and books from tumbling.  When it comes to containing stuff, boxes are masterful.  But when it comes to defining Christ, no box works.

Oh, his contemporaries tried.  They designed an assortment of boxes.  But he never fit any of them.  They labeled him a revolutionary; then he paid his taxes.  They labeled him a country carpenter, but he confounded the scholars.  He defied easy definitions.

We still try.  I once reduced Christ to a handful of doctrines.  He was a recipe, and I had the ingredients.  Mix them correctly, and the Jesus-of-my-making would appear.

Jesus blew the sides out of all misconceptions.

Don’t we need to know the transfigured Christ?  One who spits holy fire?  One who takes friends to Mount Hermon’s peak so they can peek into heaven?  Ascend it. Stare longingly at the Holy One, the Only One.

Taken from: Fearless