Somewhere in the deep recess of my brain, I have several snapshots of a cartoon Jesus my mother used to play for my sister and me.
I can replay a few seconds of the film in my head—our Lord and Savior in sandals and a long, flowing white robe, his wavy hair tousled by the wind. He approaches two brothers who are in a docked fishing boat. “I will make you fishers of men,” he says. Then he turns and begins to walk along the beach. The brothers drop their nets and follow.I’ve realized that my image of Jesus may have been influenced a bit too much by my Sunday School days. When I picture Jesus at the pool of Siloam, mixing mud to heal a blind man, I see a cartoon Jesus, his two-dimensional fingers over the blind man’s clean, smiling face.
The real Jesus, of course, was anything but two-dimensional. The real, three-dimensional Jesus demands more of us than just following him along the beach. He calls us to do as he does, to love as he loves, to practice true, radical friendship.
This message is excerpted from “Jesus in three dimensions” by Sarah Carson in the March 2019 issue of Gather magazine. Today is April Fools’ Day. Don’t be cruel!
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