Thursday, October 3, 2013

Jesus and Rodeo Clowns


What does it take to strap yourself to an angry 1,200 pound beast? Guts? Stupidity? Maybe a combination of both? Riding a bull, or at least attempting to ride a bull, has got to be one of the strangest sports ever invented. Who looks at a large animal with horns and says, "Yeah, I want to ride that!"? I guess there are some who do or it wouldn’t be on television and it’s because it’s on television that we get to see another odd occupation. Qualifications for this odd occupation include a willingness to wear face paint, goofy clothes, and risk your life for the sake of a person dumb enough to strap themselves to a fierce animal. If you are willing to do the first two items you can be a circus clown but if you are willing to do the third you have found your calling in life as a rodeo clown.

After the rider has willingly jumped off of the bull or simply been thrown to the side by the bull it is the job of the rodeo clown to keep the cowboy safe. The bull would enjoy nothing better than to gore the guy who was holding a tight rope around his sensitive areas and so the rodeo clown is trained to divert the attention of the bull while the cowboy makes a hasty escape over the fence. Rodeo clowns risk their lives dealing with angry bulls despite the fact that they aren’t the ones who put that rope on the bull in the first place. The guilty party got away free and clear while the rodeo clown interceded on their behalf.

I have heard renditions of the gospel that in many ways resemble this bull, clown, cowboy scenario. We are guilty cowboys who did something that really shouldn’t be done. We offended the bull, God, and now he’s angry so we deserve to die. However, Jesus the rodeo clown gets in the way and gave his life so we could get away from the angry bull and our lives are spared. The part of this scenario where we are spared despite being guilty sounds great. The part where Jesus risks his life for me has me really loving this Jesus guy. But then there’s the part about the angry bull trying to kill me. I don’t like that part. I am pretty fearful of that bull and to be honest I’m not quite sure why he’s so angry.

I think there are many who like, or maybe even love, Jesus that have extremely mixed emotions when it comes to talk of God or God the Father. Every time I see a photo of some person picketing and holding a sign saying "God hates______" I totally understand why people in today’s world would want to keep that God at arm’s length or further. In college I had to read a sermon by Jonathan Edwards called ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’. Who could forget a sermon with that title? The title alone creates an uncomfortable kind of imagery. As a sinner in the presence of a holy and righteous God I get the sense that things will not go well for me.

The disparity between how people feel about Jesus and how people feel about God bothers me for a couple reasons. First, I am bothered because of what I read in the book of John.

19 Jesus gave them this answer: "Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. 22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.--John 5:19-23

And later,

9 Jesus answered: "Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.—John 14:9-12

It seems to me that people who love Jesus should also love the Father. If you want to know what the Father is like then look no further than Jesus. What he says and does gives us a glimpse of the Father and time and again we see in scripture that sinners LOVED Jesus. They couldn’t get enough of him! And Jesus sure seemed drawn to those sinner folk. The angry bull and the clown just don’t resemble each other in the way that Jesus says the Father and Son do.

Second, I am bothered because of what I read in Hebrews, which, ironically enough talks a lot about bulls too.


15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.—Hebrews 4:15-16

The reason this passage comes to mind is because the imagery we see here is so totally opposite of what we see in the bull, clown, cowboy example. It is here where we see Jesus doing what he did as a high priest in order that we may come TO the Father. Jesus didn’t offer himself as a sacrifice to keep an angry God away but instead offered himself as a sacrifice so we can be together. Jesus doesn’t protect us from the wrath of the Father, he invites us to experience the love of the Father. What happened in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection opened up the opportunity for us to approach God’s throne and it’s at this throne that we find grace and mercy. Boy, do I need those!

My guess is that there is also a disparity between Christians and Jesus. I know I don’t resemble Jesus as I should. Just ask my wife. What if our disparity with Jesus is what is causing the disparity people ‘feel’ between Jesus and God? Maybe people think God resembles an angry bull hell bent on their destruction because God’s followers act like angry bulls hell bent on their destruction. But what if we looked more like the Jesus who looked like his Father? What if by the work of the Spirit we were molded and shaped into Christ likeness? If this world were to be filled with a bunch of Jesus look alikes it would have a front row seat in terms of seeing what the Father is like. And if they saw what the Father is really like maybe they would turn to head home only to see the Father has already left the porch and is coming to embrace and bless them.