God Is Not A Rectangle
By order of the transitive property (thanks, #math) these sentences are saying the exact same thing.
Except to many Christians, that might come across as a radical statement. Because to them, they view these two statements as more akin to:
“A square is a rectangle,” and: “A rectangle is a square.”
(Sorry for the geometry analogy. #math again.)
Obviously, the second sentence in this scenario is false. A 'rectangle' is any shape that has two parallel sets of equilateral sides set at 90 degrees to each other. One subset of rectangles exists in which all of the sides are the same length: that is called a 'square.' So while you could say that all squares are rectangles, you can’t say that all rectangles are squares. A square is a perfect description of a rectangle, but it is also inherently missing some aspect of what the broader possibilities of rectangles represent.
(Does that make sense? Of course it does, you learned this in kindergarten.)
So when it comes to spiritual things, I think a lot of times people talk about God and Jesus as if they were two different-but-similar things, just like in our geometry example. They view God as a “Rectangle” and Jesus as a “Square.” When they say “Jesus is God”, they’re really just calling a square a rectangle—and while there’s nothing wrong or untrue about that statement, the implied truth behind it is that there is some greater quality of the God-Rectangle that the Jesus-Square does not possess.
I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t think that’s what Jesus teaches.
What if the order of comparison went the other direction? What if we really meant that God is Jesus? (Or that God = Jesus, if you prefer to stick with the #math terminology.)
(And I don’t even mean swapping roles and making Jesus the Rectangle here and God the Square. I’m asking the question: What if they were both squares? What if God and Jesus are exactly the same?)
Jesus says that He and the Father are one (John 10). He says that if you have seen him, then you have seen the Father (John 14). He says that he only does what his Father in heaven is doing; that whatever the Father does, the Son does (John 5).
Sounds to me like the Divine is saying “If you want to know what I’m like, look at Jesus.” (Matthew 3:17. My favorite detail of this story is that it takes place before Jesus starts his public ministry. God is already pleased with him. God already wants us to take notice and pay attention.)
You may have heard it said that Jesus is God. But I invite you to consider even greater news: that God is Jesus!
Can you take that in for a second? Can you see how that flips all of our assumptions about God on its head? Can you see how that’s really good news?
Imagine a God who looks like Jesus, talks like Jesus, acts like Jesus, loves like Jesus, heals like Jesus, speaks like Jesus, lives like Jesus, forgives like Jesus, inspires like Jesus, challenges like Jesus, accepts like Jesus, encourages like Jesus…
Jesus is the clearest picture we have of God, the “image of the invisible” (Colossians 1:15). He is God translated into a human person so that we can most fully and intimately grasp who God is and what God is like.
And it turns out that what God is like…is Jesus.
(Not Trump. Not Hitler. Not celebrity pastors or Smokey the Bear. Not even Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, or Paul.)
Jesus alone bears the stamp of Who God Is. He alone can show us What the Divine is Like.
And I think that’s worth getting excited about.
Because at the very beginning of his ministry (Luke 4:16-21), when Jesus gets up in front of the assembly and reads from the prophet Isaiah, he declares it as his manifesto: that the lame will walk, the blind will see, the dead will live, the oppressed will be set free, and that the curse that claims the earth will be eradicated, just as was promised in Genesis 3.
Except to many Christians, that might come across as a radical statement. Because to them, they view these two statements as more akin to:
“A square is a rectangle,” and: “A rectangle is a square.”
(Sorry for the geometry analogy. #math again.)
Obviously, the second sentence in this scenario is false. A 'rectangle' is any shape that has two parallel sets of equilateral sides set at 90 degrees to each other. One subset of rectangles exists in which all of the sides are the same length: that is called a 'square.' So while you could say that all squares are rectangles, you can’t say that all rectangles are squares. A square is a perfect description of a rectangle, but it is also inherently missing some aspect of what the broader possibilities of rectangles represent.
(Does that make sense? Of course it does, you learned this in kindergarten.)
So when it comes to spiritual things, I think a lot of times people talk about God and Jesus as if they were two different-but-similar things, just like in our geometry example. They view God as a “Rectangle” and Jesus as a “Square.” When they say “Jesus is God”, they’re really just calling a square a rectangle—and while there’s nothing wrong or untrue about that statement, the implied truth behind it is that there is some greater quality of the God-Rectangle that the Jesus-Square does not possess.
I don’t think that’s true, and I don’t think that’s what Jesus teaches.
What if the order of comparison went the other direction? What if we really meant that God is Jesus? (Or that God = Jesus, if you prefer to stick with the #math terminology.)
(And I don’t even mean swapping roles and making Jesus the Rectangle here and God the Square. I’m asking the question: What if they were both squares? What if God and Jesus are exactly the same?)
Jesus says that He and the Father are one (John 10). He says that if you have seen him, then you have seen the Father (John 14). He says that he only does what his Father in heaven is doing; that whatever the Father does, the Son does (John 5).
Sounds to me like the Divine is saying “If you want to know what I’m like, look at Jesus.” (Matthew 3:17. My favorite detail of this story is that it takes place before Jesus starts his public ministry. God is already pleased with him. God already wants us to take notice and pay attention.)
You may have heard it said that Jesus is God. But I invite you to consider even greater news: that God is Jesus!
Can you take that in for a second? Can you see how that flips all of our assumptions about God on its head? Can you see how that’s really good news?
Imagine a God who looks like Jesus, talks like Jesus, acts like Jesus, loves like Jesus, heals like Jesus, speaks like Jesus, lives like Jesus, forgives like Jesus, inspires like Jesus, challenges like Jesus, accepts like Jesus, encourages like Jesus…
Jesus is the clearest picture we have of God, the “image of the invisible” (Colossians 1:15). He is God translated into a human person so that we can most fully and intimately grasp who God is and what God is like.
And it turns out that what God is like…is Jesus.
(Not Trump. Not Hitler. Not celebrity pastors or Smokey the Bear. Not even Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, or Paul.)
Jesus alone bears the stamp of Who God Is. He alone can show us What the Divine is Like.
And I think that’s worth getting excited about.
Because at the very beginning of his ministry (Luke 4:16-21), when Jesus gets up in front of the assembly and reads from the prophet Isaiah, he declares it as his manifesto: that the lame will walk, the blind will see, the dead will live, the oppressed will be set free, and that the curse that claims the earth will be eradicated, just as was promised in Genesis 3.
Redemption. Restoration. Reconciliation. That was the protoevangelic promise, it was the prevailing hope of Israel throughout the Old Testament, and here it is the primary purpose of Christ. Which--if God is Jesus--means that it is God’s primary goal, as well. He is going to save what was lost, fix what was broken, and make everything sad come untrue: “Behold, I am making all things new" (Isaiah 43:19, Revelation 21:5).
Let’s join him.
Let’s join him.
May our lives be testaments of resurrection, renewal, redemption, and restoration in whatever we say and do:
"Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is wrath, peace.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is sorrow, joy.
And where there is darkness, light." (St. Francis of Assisi)
Despite all the ways this world is cursed and broken and evil and cruel and just plain stupid, God is even better than we dared to hope or imagine. Because God is Jesus.
The end.
PS - Having said all that, it might *finally* be time for me to watch The Chosen for the first time with this in mind.
"Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is wrath, peace.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is sorrow, joy.
And where there is darkness, light." (St. Francis of Assisi)
Despite all the ways this world is cursed and broken and evil and cruel and just plain stupid, God is even better than we dared to hope or imagine. Because God is Jesus.
The end.
PS - Having said all that, it might *finally* be time for me to watch The Chosen for the first time with this in mind.
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