Surprises always await me when I return home from two weeks of traveling. Usually it is some minor crisis in our family business. The staff call off sick. The office manager is burned out covering for them. 

This time my surprise awaited me in my mail. I had completed a course at a local theological college on the "Life of Jesus".  There, in the big stack of mail, was my returned assignment. Eager to see how I did, I flipped to the last page and read the following: “I am really sorry but I can only give you an F.”  What? An “F”? I was stunned! A lot of thoughts rushed into my head but the dominant one was the irony of it all. I had failed at the life of Jesus!

After I settled down, I realized I was not alone. Most Christians in the workplace feel a failure at the life of Jesus: defiled by temptation, difficult decisions, and bitter disappointment. Church is not much help. Jesus is presented as full of supernatural power; sorting out demons with a word, healing the sick and raising the dead. It seems like he glides over all the difficulties of life without much bother.

Knee deep in dirt at work, I am more engrossed in frustration, disappointment and defeat than Christ likeness. In sum, every time the Church challenges us to be like this superhero Jesus I feel a failure. Now I actually have a grade on an official transcript that proves it!

After learning about the historical life of Jesus, however, I am beginning to wonder if the Jesus presented to us at church is the same Jesus that lived 2000 years ago. The question of Jesus’ life and especially the question of how he died, cries out to be answered in a concrete tangible way. How could the Jesus of faith, who glides over all the problems of the world, be the same Jesus as the Jesus of history that suffered such violence at the hands of the world?

Jesus said, “I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative.” (John 10:17-18 NASB). This is an intentional act on his part. Jesus is on a mission that includes death. This has been interpreted to us as Jesus bearing the sins of the world, so that we may receive God’s forgiveness. This is a theological construction, referred to as “propitiation.”  While the doctrine of propitiation is foundational to Christian faith, from a concrete historical point of view, though, it seems absurd that a human being should be subjected to such a painful death in order to achieve what seems like an abstract theological objective.

My point is that the death of Jesus cannot be reduced to a theological construction. His life and his death must have authentic real world meaning and application in the 1st century Palestine, if it is to make sense of the actual historical details. Looking for the meaning in Jesus voluntarily submitting himself to crucifixion is the key to discover how to succeed at following him in the real world of the 21st century.

We feel a failure at the life of Jesus because the Jesus we are trying to emulate is theologically constructed and only bears a passing resemblance to the human being of history. The Jesus we need to emulate is Jesus, the human being, not Jesus, the theological construction.

So, despite my failing grade in the Life of Jesus course, I did learn some interesting historical facts that have widened and deepened my appreciation of the human being, Jesus of Nazareth.

The setting of the gospel story is as distant to us, historically, as if it all happened on another planet. The dominant power was Rome. The culture Jesus grew up in was Jewish. For the Jewish people of the first century, the number one event of their time period was not the crucifixion of Jesus. It was the Roman destruction of the Jewish temple in AD 70 [1].

Forty years before this terrible event, Jesus could see that the violent nationalism that stirred the hearts of his people was going to lead to a bad end.[2] He believed the prophecies from Daniel.  These prophecies warned there would be beasts that would seek to destroy the people of God (Daniel 7). There was one especially bad beast, the fourth one in succession, the one who had iron teeth who was more terrible than all the other beasts and who would be very destructive. According to historian Tom Wright, Jesus believed that the militant nationalism that gripped Jewish society would lead to the destruction of his people by this beast, the Roman army.[3] 

Thus, there was urgency in his message.  He sensed the end was near. He challenged people to lay down their violent aspirations. He proclaimed the Kingdom of God was at hand, not in the form of the violent overthrow of the Romans, but in the form of a new humanity made in the image of the truly human one, Jesus. He wanted them to follow his way of being truly human, the way of love, not the way of Rome, the way of the beast. He believed that if he demonstrated this way in his life and even in his death that God would vindicate him and through bring about the salvation of the world.

When Jesus gathered twelve disciples around himself it was a living parable that said, he represented Israel, the ancient patriarch who had twelve sons. When he road into Jerusalem on a donkey, it was a living parable that implied he represented Israel as their servant king. When he willingly laid down his life in crucifixion it was a living parable that said, there is a time coming when the Romans will bring the nation of Israel and any would be King of the Jews to a violent end. Therefore, listen to my message and be prepared to change your ways and flee from the coming destruction.[4]

In Luke's gospel, Jesus warns his disciples, when you see “Jerusalem surrounded by armies” (Luke 21:20) flee, for your city is about to be destroyed.[5] Members of the early church understood Jesus’ apocalyptic warnings not as theological pronouncements of the end of the space time universe but as real world warnings that the Jewish existence was under threat. They heeded these warnings and fled before the Roman armies. Thousands were saved from the annihilation that was visited on the Jewish people.

This is a historical explanation to the question of why Jesus died the death that he died.  By arriving at this explanation I am not discounting the great theological truths that underpin the gospel.  What I am saying, though, is that unless these theological truths tie directly to a real world person with a real world concern for real world people they are nice ideas but not truths that have real world impact. They are good advice but not good news!

Therefore, when Jesus states, there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13), he is not just talking about an abstract principle of propitiation, he is demonstrating in his life and especially in his death that he really loved his friends and believed his last act of dying on a cross would be the message and the warning that the early disciples needed to keep them from annihilation. Jesus embodied the truth he believed. He really did love them “to the end” (John 13:1)

The glory of the gospel is that the Creator of the universe entered history, taking on human flesh and embracing pain, heartache, weakness, suffering and death. (Philippians 2:3-9)  Far from floating over the difficulties of human life, Jesus embraced them and in doing so, dignified them.

Therefore, though we fail, we know that God values us and affirms our humanness, weak and vulnerable as it is.  For the Jesus we are to be like is thoroughly human and our challenge is to follow him in his demonstration of true humanity not in a theologically constructed divinity.

What a relief it is to know that the measure of our Christ likeness is not in a demonstration of divine attributes, but in an embrace of our humanity for the sake of others. This is why we can celebrate missing the theologically constructed mark of a super hero Jesus. This is not what we are meant for.  We are meant to glorify God in our humanness, representing Him to His world.

In the 21st century working world, performance impresses professionals more than promises. Draping your work life in religious symbolism or “pie in the sky” chatter about a super hero Jesus, means nothing if there is no performance. In fact, religious symbolism and overt piety is often misread by non Christians as signs that you are intolerant, ready to impose your fundamentalism on others. It is not an invitation to ask questions, it is a warning sign to be avoided. Perhaps cryptic speech acts, living parables, that demonstrate the love of God are a better way to provoke questions and communicate the gospel than plain spoken evangelism in the workplace.

In conclusion, I did not fail my course because I lacked knowledge.  I failed it because I refused the challenge of discovering the real Jesus behind the theologically constructed caricature.

So the test of the living the life of Jesus at work is not about mastering theological material but about simply following in his footsteps. This is not so hard to understand but is always challenging to practice.

Success or failure in the life of Jesus at work hinges on the choices we make that inform our actions. Jesus laid down his life “willingly.” That is, he consciously chose to do what he did. He was intentional and strategic in his choices to love others. He understood the context and the need for sacrifice.

He calls us to follow his example, to be for others what he would be for them if he were tangibly present.  That is why we are the “body of Christ,” so that we can embody the truth we believe and give tangible expression to God’s saving love for this world.