Deconstrucion
Dear Friends,
A pastor named Brian Zahnd wrote a book on Lent and called it “The Unvarnished Jesus.” Inspired by ancient icons, or paintings of Christ, he noticed how often those icons—whether painted as frescos onto walls or canvases—got covered up with other paint or varnish. This seemed to mar the original beauty, covering up what was meant to be seen and celebrated. Similarly, there are certain comforts or identity markers that can mar or distort who we are, creating protectant layers along the way. Lent often provides an opportunity for us to see some of those extra identity markers and strip them away for a season to gain a different perspective on who we are. Lent can show us our true identity as beloved.
This stripping away is true for us as people, but also in the church. How many layers of varnish have we covered Jesus in? How many theological constructs have we contained Christ in, painting the Jesus we want to see? We either dumb Jesus down and create some sort of universalistic perspective where Jesus was simply a good teacher—definitely a liberal democrat—who just wants everyone to get along and as long as what you’re doing isn’t hurting anyone, it’s okay. Or we’ve made Jesus into some national treasure—definitely a conservative republican—preaching hellfire and brimstone, waiting for you to make a mistake because you’re just a worm anyway. And we keep covering Jesus in more layers, repainting him based on what religious circle we might be influenced by at the time.
There’s a theologian who offers courses during Lent called “Atheism for Lent.” I’ve never taken this course because, honestly it sounds really bleak and not for me, but I love this concept. Lent can be a 40 day journey of deconstruction, or what another friend of mine calls “detangling.” How fitting this 40-day wilderness existence with Jesus is to disentangle ourselves from those, sometimes unhealthy perspectives about Jesus and Biblical interpretations?
Before Jesus entered the wilderness, he was baptized and his primary identity as BELOVED was spoken over him. When I think of my own baptism, I keep seeing myself coming up out of the waters with algae or seaweed clinging to me. Like I should be coming up with my true identity in Christ on me, and yet there’s this coil of seaweed called predestination around my neck. There’s this slimy length of “everyone who doesn’t say the sinner’s prayer is going to burn in hell” sticking to my arm. And attached to my leg says that every other church is getting it wrong, but not the one I’m going to. There’s one on human sexuality, on social justice, on war and violence, on the death penalty, on infant baptism, on creationism and evolutionism. The slimy list is endless and reminds me of Jesus saying to those listening, “you’ve heard it said, you’ve heard this theology or this biblical interpretation, this hermeneutic, but I say to you.” Time to detangle, strip away, and drop some of those weighty and distracting parts because, when we do, this leads to a spiritual renewal and depth of growth in Christ. We get to see the most important parts of what it means to be human and what it means to love Jesus.
Lent gives me an opportunity to see each clinging perspective for what they are so I can grab hold of them and disentangle myself from them, dropping them off of me while I’m reminded of who Jesus truly is. When Jesus was crucified on the cross, he took the cumulative weight of every way humanity has succumbed to deceit, every area of sin, harm, shame, every lie that we’ve believed, everything that distorts our primary identity as BELOVED and every way we’ve covered up our primary identity, Jesus took it all upon himself and when he died, all of that died with him. And when he was resurrected from the dead, he conquered sin and death and invited every person to find their identity in Him.
Now, some of those previous constructs and interpretations are helpful and good and help us stay the course of Christ-likeness. But some of them have become distracting arguments and idol making where being right or winning the argument is more important than honoring God and loving your neighbor.
So as you strip away this Lent, may you begin to seeyour identity as beloved before anything else. And may you begin disentangling yourself from any imperfect biblical interpretations by coming to God’s Word with a curious spirit, a humble heart, and inviting the Spirit to teach you like a child.
With (love),
Bethany