Ditching the myth of Jesus
By The Revd David
Burgess (February 2004)I want to ditch the ‘Jesus meek and mild’ myth, the blonde-haired vacant-looking Jesus of Victorian and Edwardian paintings who seems to float around not doing very much. This was a man who passionately believed in his cause, and at times – when it was appropriate – was willing to take a stand physically against the wrongs that he saw around him.
I had a shock a few years ago when I came across an up-dated edition of the children’s Bible with which I grew up. Much of the artwork had changed – but not Jesus. Still blonde-haired and blue-eyed, he stared out at me once more with that dreamy, holy gaze – and this was when he was overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple! Frankly, the whip in his hand might just have well have been a lead ready to attach to his pet Labrador, for all the action and dynamism that there was in his expression and pose.
... Let him be a real person, not a cardboard substitute for one. It’s time to get rid, once and for all, of the idea of Jesus as the sort of man from whom you’d want to slink away as quickly as possible if he caught you in conversation, because he might get ‘religious’ on you.
Survivalist, party-animal, raconteur, teacher, leader… it’s all there – and that’s just a sample from the first couple of chapters of each Gospel...