What’s Behind Jesus’ Mask?

Last updated on: October 1, 2014 at 6:01 am by Paul Louis Metzger

What’s Behind Jesus’ Mask? 2014-10-01T06:01:31-07:00 Paul Louis Metzger

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What’s behind Jesus’ mask? Jesus.

Jesus is not a mode that a divine “nameless, faceless, omni-being”[1] puts on and takes off. What we see in Jesus is what we get with his Father. Together with the Spirit, they share the divine name in the sacred story of life (See Matthew 28:19). The Father’s actions through the interpersonal mediation of the Son and Spirit in history reveal the eternal triune being of the one God.

As I have written elsewhere, “God is greater than what he is in revelation, though not different from it…”[2] Jesus accurately expresses God’s inexhaustible eternal being and character. Moreover, God does not give us a part of himself in revelation. God gives us himself through the mediation of his incarnate Word.[3] Jesus is God’s very self-expression from all eternity as God’s Word made flesh (John 1:1, 14). As God’s living Word who alone has seen God face to face, Jesus exegetes or interprets God (John 1:18). What we see in Jesus is what we get with God, for he alone is from above and dwells with God (See John 3:31; John 14:6-11). Jesus is not some mask that a Darth-Vader or Phantom of the Opera deity wears. When we see Jesus, we see the Father. The Father reveals his very self in and through Jesus by the Spirit.

In addition to the question about Jesus’ mask, we need to ask about ways we mask Jesus. Jesus does not mask God, but we often do so when we project onto Jesus our own images, such as Fabio Jesus, Rambo Jesus, and Eight-Pound Six Ounce Baby Jesus of Ricky Bobby fame (See the link to the Will Ferrell Ricky Bobby video clip here). The list goes on and on.

Whether we are liberal or conservative, we often turn Jesus into a caricature or projection of us. Take for example the question I sometimes get asked: Do God and Jesus play favorites? Liberal-minded people might not like hearing that Jesus plays favorites or that God’s favorite is Jesus over against all other competing religious brand names. Conservatives might not have trouble with Jesus or God playing favorites, as long as the favorites are conservatives like them. However, the problem with Jesus is that he often favors those like Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector, in Luke 19:1-10.

Zacchaeus was a traitor who ripped off his fellow Jews to pay the Romans, for which his own people despised him. Jesus did not favor Zacchaeus for being a traitor and cheat. In fact, Jesus rejoiced in his repentance, as recorded in Luke 19. Still, Jesus always hangs out in homes with the wrong crowd—the crowd with whom no one else wants to associate. He leads them through repentance and faith to his Father’s home. Guess what! Jesus even stoops to hang out with you and me, if we will have him!

Let’s return to a previous point. Does God play favorites? Yes. Jesus is God’s one and only Son (John 3:16). And yet, who is God’s Son? God’s self-expression is a humble peasant from God-forsaken Nazareth (See John 1:46). If this is who God favors, who does he despise and oppose? God despises and opposes the proud of heart (Proverbs 6:16; Proverbs 16:5; James 4:6), the rich who oppress the poor (Proverbs 22:16; James 2:6), and those who oppose and exclude his Son (See Psalm 2:1-12; see also Hebrews 10:26-31).

God will not exclude Jesus. Nor will he exclude those fellow unwelcome and inconvenient strangers with whom Jesus identifies. We find Jesus revealed behind the mask of the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, and imprisoned. (See Matthew 25:31-46). God in Jesus identifies with them. Of course, God is not a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11). But God favors those everyone else marginalizes and rejects.

God does not exclude us—no matter our pedigree. All we must do is take off our pretentious masks that can never conceal our haughty eyes and hearts from God’s penetrating gaze. We must become like little children (Matthew 18:1-6; Matthew 19:13-15). They alone know that the emperor in Hans Christian Andersen’s story of our lives (“The Emperor’s New Clothes”) wears no clothes, just masks. God gives his Son for us so that we could become God’s children by faith in God’s meritorious love, clothed in God’s embrace alone (John 1:12-13; 3:1-21). Jesus beckons us to take off our masks and engage him heart to heart, face to face.

_______________

[1]I am indebted to my friend and colleague Chris Laird for the expression “nameless, faceless, omni-being.”

[2]See my essay “The Gospel of True Prosperity: Our Best Life in the Triune God Now and Not Yet,” in Trinity and Election in Contemporary Theology, ed. Michael T. Dempsey (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011), page 285.

[3] See “The Gospel of True Prosperity,” page 285 and Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, vol. II/1, The Doctrine of God, ed. by G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1957), page 472.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

September 27, 2014

Are All Moral Problems Mental? Reflections on Christianity and Hinduism

Next Post

October 2, 2014 Kyogen Carlson: Bridge-Builder over Troubled Waters

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month June 2025 April 2025 March 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz