Enamored – Practical Theology Today

A couple of years ago, my friend Kevin inspired the blog post Enamored. Over the past few years, he has been on a journey through the four gospels, discovering the Jesus of scripture, a Jesus he never knew. Last week Kevin shared with me a summary of his discoveries from his gospel immersion. It is something worthy of sharing, so here it is (by Kevin Thomas, Regional Initiatives Coordinator, Young Life North Star Region)…

Ludicrous

It’s an unquestionably ludicrous task to attempt to summarize the life of Jesus in a short essay. Over the centuries the life of Jesus has been analyzed, critiqued, deconstructed, and reconstructed countless times, with each writer attempting to offer a clear, compelling, and accurate view of this man’s short life on earth. Everyone who has attempted this endeavor inevitably falls rather short of their original intention (see John 21:25).

Having completed 34 years as a local church pastor who preached through Scripture each Sunday, I had to ask myself a rather uncomfortable question: do I really know Jesus? Oh sure, I could adequately explain how Jesus Christ fit into God’s plan for human redemption and the restoration of all things. Yet did I know Jesus the way his disciples did? The Jesus with whom they ate meals, took long walks, listened to stories, witnessed miracles, and shared day after day together?

Thus, throughout the past four years, I journaled my way through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John by writing out pretty much every word of these texts, with notes, ideas, and questions listed all over the available page margins. Having completed this endeavor, I figured I had better present some type of summary of my discoveries. I offer here a surprise, a caution, and an encouragement along the pathway to a somewhat better understanding of Jesus.

My Surprise: The guy desperately needed a PR agent. Repeatedly throughout the gospels, Jesus had people eating up his words, mesmerized by his powers and personal aura. And repeatedly he “wasted” these opportunities by doing or saying something off-putting, confounding, or offensive. He lived in a time when people were desperate for a leader portraying compassion, authority, and a compelling vision of life and society. Yet, when multiple moments offered him the opportunity to sweep up the masses in a ravenous rapture of fervor and devotion, he simply walked away while tossing out a bizarre comment or an offensive demand that stopped the crowds in their tracks. (John chapters 5-6 illustrate this theme in full technicolor.)

My Caution: Don’t even try. Try what? DO NOT TRY to get Jesus to side with you. Lots of people worked their angles in an attempt to rally Jesus to their holy cause—to join their theological, religious, political, social, moral, economic, national program to fix the world. He never bit, much less nibbled at their propositions. (Consider John 18:28-19:16 as a portrayal of Jesus’s shocking aloofness as his life hung in the balance.) Jesus presented himself to be “wholly other”—a person whose unique vision for life, faith, church, and society will never fit neatly within the categories others have defined. Whatever surety of intellectual positions I held before delving deeply into Jesus’ life and teachings, I now find myself sitting with only my toes in the ocean of the mystery of God’s work in our world. Maybe someday I’ll be able to wade out ankle-deep in the unknown fathoms of God. Yet despite my best efforts, I don’t think that’s likely to happen anytime soon.

My Encouragement: You really can meet your hero. While certainly not a voracious reader, over the years I’ve soaked in a few biographies of the famous people of our nation’s past—those 500-page biographies of people like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant, Douglas. It’s always with trepidation that one venture into the life of the famous. You are certain to discover the dark side of their character—some underlying compulsion that undermines their success and taints their legacy. With Jesus, I found no such underbelly. His vision is clear, his integrity is all-encompassing, and his commitment to sacrifice himself for the good of others is nothing short of astounding. I couldn’t unearth a single thought or act that tainted his life and legacy. It’s unthinkable, really. (John 13 offers a compelling example of Jesus’ love in the face of personal betrayal.)

Feeling hopelessly lost in the bigness of Jesus, my first attempt to summarize his life was to start a list of simple, yet often paradoxical, descriptors. It’s now in the form of a “word cloud.” I offer it below, aware that only a ludicrous person would attempt to place Jesus in a box.

I had an interesting conversation with my friend Kevin a couple of weeks ago that keeps ruminating in my mind. I first met Kevin four years ago when he left a 25-year career of church planting and pastoring to join our local Young Life region to help develop ministries in new communities. As a church planter, it was a natural fit for him.

During our conversation, Kevin was reflecting on his past years of ministry. He said he’s begun to realize, in recent years, that something seemed “off” in his previous years of ministry leadership. He felt like he had been “selling Christianity as a package, with Jesus as one part of the entire product line.” Through his continual engagement with Young Life, he said he’s become increasingly amazed and enamored with Jesus. For him, Jesus has become the whole package that he gets to offer to others.

Enamored. Not a word I use often, but for some reason, it resonated with me. The dictionary definition would point one toward something romantic – affected by strong feelings of love, admiration, or fascination (Merriam-Webster). A synonym that further enhances an understanding of enamored is captivate. Captivate suggests being influenced or dominated by something irresistible.

As you may be aware when discipling or mentoring (mostly younger) people, I have them read the Gospels repeatedly – for all kinds of reasons, but mostly to “hang out” with Jesus, knowing its transformative value.* The Jewish understanding of becoming a disciple of a rabbi was to become like the rabbi and join him in his mission. They become captivated and fascinated with the rabbi and pattern their life accordingly. I think becoming enamored with Jesus is the exact right outcome of one spending continuous time reading the Gospels.

I think of Jim Rayburn (Young Life’s founder) always saying that Jesus is the most fascinating person in the universe. What a great starting point for becoming enamored with Jesus. I suspect that our western Christian cultural approach is not to be enamored with the most fascinating person in the universe. Rather, we are enamored with what the most fascinating person in the universe can do for us (i.e., pave a way for us to go to heaven). Does that mean we are more enamored with heaven than with Jesus? Wouldn’t that be a form of idolatry? (NT Wright always reminds his readers/hearers that heaven is big deal, but it’s not the end of the world.)

What does it mean to be enamored with Jesus? Here’s a great question to ponder: What did Jesus’ disciples see in him that caused them to walk away from their work to follow him? I have always suspected that Jesus didn’t “cold call” people when inviting them to follow him – especially when we think of those first ones – fishermen Peter, James, John, and their local tax collector, Levi. I have to believe that Jesus had spent time with these guys, taking an interest in their work and engaging in their world. I suspect these guys were fascinated and captivated by this different kind of rabbi – they were enamored. Enamored enough to drop what they were doing to discover more. Jesus was irresistible!

How does one become enamored with Jesus?

I don’t think it’s something we can make happen. I think it’s a natural (organic) outcome of focusing on Jesus, the most fascinating person in the universe. Focusing on who he is – his character, mission, interactions – not just on what he can do for us. It’s hanging out with him, becoming more and more fascinated and captivated by him. Like Kevin, it changes our perspective on everything else.

One of my favorite books is Jim Collin’s Good to Great. His team researched companies that experienced a transformation of growth that outpaced the stock market trends of the time. He studied the companies in an attempt to discover the cause of the growth. Most fascinating to me was the chapter recaps describing “unexpected findings.” I suspect an “unexpected finding” for Kevin was becoming enamored with Jesus!

I think that periodically it’s healthy for us to ask the question, “What are we enamored with? What fascinates and captivates us?” The answer to the question will shape the “package” we have to offer the world around us.

* ADDENDUM 1/31/2023: Annie F. Downs has created a podcast that will help listeners experience all four Gospels twelve times during the year 2023. It’s called Let’s Read the Gospels. Enjoy!