Jesus: Exile beyond Imagination
Incarnation. Impossible to get our minds completely around this mystery – theologically and practically.
God so loved he sent . . . the Son on exile.
The Son so loved . . . he crossed unthinkable boundaries to be on exile.
The great Philippian hymn captures it with majesty – “though he was God, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, so he emptied himself . . . and became human” (Philippians 2:5-11).
Take off your sandals, stilettos, slippers or sneakers – whatever you have on your feet - we are now entering holy ground. Holy ground is never completely explainable with reason or simple syllogisms. God’s work and movement in this world is on another plane, it is trans-rational.
Theologically I could spend the entire blog on the God-man understanding. But I want to stay on the notion of exile.
The emptying.
The downsizing.
The disencumbering.
The downward mobility.
Being on exile.
Honestly considering the expansive nature of God the Son before he was incarnate as Jesus, his physical entrance onto earth feels like it could fit in the terminology of being in exile. And given the role of Jesus as the bearer of sin at the end of his mission, it does feel like being in exile.
But he was sent – so let’s stick with the notion of him being on exile for the moment.
Conceived in a womb. Confining. A Jewish womb. Not the dominant cultural or political advantaged womb one would expect for a king. And not even the dominant Judean pedigree of Jewish king but an unlikely Galilean womb.
Entrusted to earthly parents who also were in exile to fulfill a governmental decree, simultaneously on exile to fulfill a 700 year old prophecy about the coming Messiah (Micah 5:1).
A helpless infant, a stumbling toddler, a growing boy, raised in Nazareth. Does anything good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46). Hardly a promising origin for would-be followers of this upstart rabbi.
Dwelled in eternity. Reduced to time and location.
Long before his 1st advent, he spoke and as a result creation as we know it was unleashed (Genesis 1; Colossians 1:15-16). Now he must learn to speak again in common Aramaic through the babble of learned sounds and by mimicking the others around him.
Paradise was his office for creative design and the direction of the universe. The carpenter/masonry shop was now where he learned a vocation of co-creating with the Father. Previously working with nothing - ex nihilo. Now with the materials available to his carpenter earthly father.
If Jesus was a carpenter in wood – he would have gotten splinters. If he was a mason (more likely) he would have smashed the tip of a finger a time or two. How do I know? I’ve dabbled in both métiers and I have done the same.
The first visitors at his birth celebration were shepherds. Deemed the worst vocation on a list from the 1st Century.
As he moved into adulthood, the common sharer of his table – tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers – ie sinners. The boldest responders in faith to his message were Gentiles – ie even bigger sinners. The companions at his side in his greatest moment of work and calling we thieves – yet worse.
He could live outside the “norm” of a rabbi because he was on exile.
But that final chapter of his life feels more like being in exile.
False accused through the religious structures that he designed for people to get ready to receive him.
Crucified on a hill that he spoke into existence.
Nailed to a tree – metal and wood - two elements of his provision for societal development.
Distant from the one who sent him in the first place – “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:47). Even this declaration had no personal autonomy in it – he borrows completely from an ancient Psalm.
Anointed for burial in ointments obtained through the proceeds of a harlot. Buried in a borrowed grave.
But then vindication - RESURRECTION.
As a result . . .
There is now hope for all people in exile.
There is now opportunity for all people to join him on exile.
I often buy books with a long-term developmental view in mind. I bought three books in the past year with the word “Exile” in the title. Each one captured by eye because I had read the authors before and the concept was something I wanted to add to a doctoral course that I teach for church leaders. They sat on my shelf for months and then just a few weeks ago when I read Peter’s letter to the church and heard him call me an exile as a card carrying member of the church, I knew it was time to read them.
I began with Michael Frost, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture. I want to add a few of his insights.
Christians live with the nagging tension of being at home neither in the world nor in the church as they know it.
The Christendom era, like Rome, has fallen . . . The death of Christendom removes the final props that have supported the culturally respectable, mainstream, suburban version of Christianity.
If we are exiles on foreign soil – post-Christendom, postmodern, postliterate, and so on – then maybe at last it’s time to start living like exiles, as a pesky, fringe-dwelling alternative to the dominant forces of our times.
Jesus thrives in his host empire while always maintaining an appropriately godly distance from it.
Exiles are inspired by visions . . . [of] Christ himself.
The Scriptures call us to emulate the lifestyle of Jesus, which includes both his capacity to enjoy life and his willingness to suffer.
I lifted those quotes out of about 50 pages of reading – just so you know the context. My intent is that you capture the line of thought.
Being on exile, which at times might make us live in exile, is really the Jesus Way. I find this to be quite encouraging because exile is a tenuous place of emotional dissonance. I don’t quite fit in and yet I fully thrive in both society and church. Knowing this reality helps me live with my allegiance to a Kingdom that is now but not yet.
On exile with you in the best tradition of all – the Jesus Way!
