Jesus is not UPS: The Phenomenon of the Human Spirit

Got an e-mail from ONE.org today, an organization that seeks to eradicate poverty and injustice globally through encouraging politicians to make laws that consider those less fortunate. It's a great oraganization, but I was definitely a little surprised by the e-mail's subject line: "The Lazarus Effect." I was further intrigued by an explanation of the phrase: "Our friends at (RED)™ have released a short video called 'The Lazarus Effect'—a film about people with HIV/AIDS who are alive and healthy today because of the miraculous power of antiretroviral medicine."

For a society in which secularism is quickly becoming the new "religion," atheism is becoming more accepted than belief in God because of its plausibility, and science is something people can really believe in for its power and transcendence, there sure is a lot of religious imagery floating around out there. In the TV show LOST, a science fiction thriller, Christian Scripture, messianic figures, sacrifice, and temples are ubiquitous. Or take a look at the movie Donnie Darko (2001). It may be about the scientific intricacies of time travel, but there sure is a strong scent of the predestination/free-will conversation in there too, and even some evidence of the existence of God. Or take this e-mail I received today, wherein supposedly "miraculous" medication is referred to as having a "Lazarus effect" on its recipients.

Now if you would now give me the grace to make some broad sweeping generalizations, I promise I'll clean up the mess later. No one seems to struggle more today with believing in the miraculous than evangelical Christians. Of course, I'm lumping myself in on this one. We who identify as such so often fall into the trap of thinking that everything is about the mind and the heart, and that nothing is about the Spirit. When we who are evangelicals pray for those in our midst who are sick, what do we pray for? "Lord, give the doctors wisdom to do what is possible to remove this cancer." The doctors? I mean, it's encouraged to pray for their wisdom, certainly, but do we no longer believe enough in God's power to heal miraculously to ask for his healing? Really? At the same time, while it seems that the non-religious world believes in the miraculous power of things like medicine (which, admittedly, can't be miraculous because they work within the limitations of scientific laws, but we'll go with it for the sake of argument), submitting to some sort of Godhead seems to be the stumbling block. Yet, the messianic sacrifice is the abosolutely most commonly plagiarized storyline of all time. (See: Cool Hand Luke, The Crucible, The Matrix Trilogy.) For the secular world, it's okay to believe in the miraculous, even to be fascinated by the miraculous messianic story, but to submit one's life to an all-powerful Judge is quite preposterous. The real trick, it seems, is belief in the miraculous and submission to an authoritative God, all in one breath.

This phenomenon of the human spirit isn't a New Age, postmodern thing. Jesus dealt with the dichotomy in his own time on earth. Take Luke 11:15-16 for instance: "But some of them said, 'He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons,' while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from heaven." He had the Pharisees and some others who generally lined up with the former, for whom Jesus' miracles and signs were such a problem and needed to be reasoned away. And he had others who lined up with the latter, for whom a miracle was the only thing they said that they needed in order to believe. How did Jesus respond? He just throws 'em all under the bus:

This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. -Luke 11:29-32

I could spend a lot of time and energy unpacking what Jesus meant here. Instead, I'll point out the two most significant things I see. Jonah was a Jew sent to Nineveh, a Gentile city, and the Queen of the South (of Sheba) was a Gentile who came to hear Solomon, the wisest Jew of all time (until Jesus came) in 1 Kings 10. It is believing Gentiles (Queen of the South and the Ninevites) who will rise up to condemn those who try to fit Jesus into their convenient box. It doesn't matter whether we try to fit him into our miracle-performing box, or our religious box; Jesus is not UPS, and he's not interested in our boxes.

It is the Queen of the South, who humbles herself to receive wisdom from the Lord. It is the Ninevites who receive the miracle of the absolution of sin.

Twice a year, we who believe in Jesus Christ celebrate something miraculous - Christ's birth at Christmas, and his resurrection at Easter. When will we begin to believe that God still works miracles? When will we believe that we worship one God who is the same from beginning to end? The funny thing about all this is that you really have to go against the grain to separate the miraculous and the divine, yet somehow we've done it, and there's contention now between a non-miracle-believing Christianity and a secular world fascinated with the miraculous aspects of the story of Christ. But there's good news. Despite us and our unbelief, God still exists and still is a God of miracles. Our doubts, our boxes, our unbelief and skepticism can't change who God is and what God does.

Though Bing Crosby, Macy's, and mall Santa Claus imposters may make this a little difficult, I still pray that the miracle of the incarnation would pierce the souls of Christians, like myself, who struggle with the whole miracle thing, and the souls of miracle-believing secularists for whom divine power is an implausibility.

Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!