Signs of Hope: Primary Relationships

“... in the Christian religion God is not only the initiator of the relationship between God and the human person, God is also the one who keeps the relationship alive by constantly monitoring and supporting the relationship.”

The Christian religion exists to foster the relationship between God and human beings. That is its basic purpose.

In the Christian religion that relationship is dictated by the life and experience of Jesus of Nazareth. He is believed, in himself, to be the model of that relationship, for in himself is contained the fullness of divinity and the fullness of humanity, living together in mysterious but complete harmony.

In Jesus and in this relationship God remains truly and fully God and the human being remains truly and fully human. Jesus is an individual human being and he pioneers this relationship for other individual human beings. Jesus is also the product of a First Century, A.D. Jewish family and that fact reveals a great deal about him. It gives us the context, the history and background, of much of his life and his thinking, as is true of every other human person. In this sense and in many other ways, Jesus is truly a human individual.

What we know of God is mainly what has been revealed of God through Jesus of  Nazareth. We have a direct knowledge of the human by examining our own selves. What we find are marvelous but deeply flawed creatures. That the all-perfect God should choose to enter into a deep personal relationship with us, nevertheless, is truly astonishing. For that is what is at the heart of this relationship – a decision by the all-good and all-knowing God to so relate to flawed human beings.

The Good News (Gospel) of Jesus Christ is contained in one of the opening statements of his public life. “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Believe this, and change your way of thinking and behaving.” He said this following his baptism by John in the Jordan River, when emerging from the water, he heard the voice of of God proclaiming, “You are my beloved son, a total delight to me.” It was a message Jesus wants everyone to hear. We are all a total delight to God, his sons and daughters and he loves us exactly as we are. That should be the guiding message in our lives, and it should help determine our way of thinking and behaving.

The challenge to believe this is the central challenge of Christianity. It is a difficult message to believe for we are so conscious of our personal failings and sins that we insist that God,  who truly knows us as we are, could not possibly love us to this degree . Jesus insists otherwise and challenges this thinking of ours.

So, the central message and challenge of Christianity is one of belief and trust. That challenge is addressed to every individual human being.

God is clearly in charge in this perspective. God alone sets up the arrangement and takes the initiative. The human person’s role is that of a respondent, although not a passive one.

Jesus reveals the true perspective and also models the human person’s correct response. This is often referred to as ‘the Paschal Mystery,’ which is a combination of the buoyant optimism of Easter Sunday and the harsh realism of Good Friday. Each human person is challenged to follow this model, which is, admittedly, a difficult one for a fallen person in a fallen world, but challenge it remains.

Jesus  led a life characterized by such virtues as humility, gratitude, trust, forgiveness, detachment and compassion. Moreoever, he lived all fully and at the same time. In addition, Jesus worked constantly for the establishment of the ‘Kingdom of God’ throughout this world, that is a set of conditions that promotes total human living, here and now. He invites his followers to continue these efforts. It was Jesus’ way of responding to the goodness and love exhibited by God in establishing the relationship between himself and human persons.

To be a follower of Jesus, to be his disciple, is to accept his perspective on life, follow his Way of Life, and pursue his  objectives or aims in life. This is an enormously difficult task, truly impossible without the active help  of God. God promises that help to be available.

So, in the Christian religion God is not only the initiator of the relationship between God and the human person, God is also the one who keeps the relationship alive by constantly monitoring and supporting the relationship. Again, God is always the initiator, the human person is always the respondent. It is principally about God.

The human partner in this relationship, conscious of his weaknesses and sins, tends to carry a great deal of guilt. Jesus insists there is no reason for this, as God loves us first, precisely as we are. Jesus insists that we be aware of our sins, strive to overcome them, but not be defeated by them. In his own life, Jesus forgave those who abandoned him when he needed them most. He insisted that they be aware of their sin, but he also insisted that they know he still forgave them and loved them. In Christianity, all the followers of Jesus are challenged to act in the same way.

So, in Christianity, it is not a matter of denying one’s sinful self, but of reacting to it in a positive manner. This is often denied by the human partner in this relationship and the burden of guilt for one’s sins is allowed to become overwhelming. The ‘good news’ of Jesus Christ is considered too good to be true, andconsequently it is denied, practically; it is not believed.

There, again, we find the difficulty of Christianity, a total trust, faith in the Sgoodness of God. Yet, it is central, and it is essential.