Recently, I’ve really gotten into a Christian video series known as “Nooma.” A pastor in Michigan named Rob Bell is continually producing this series. He is the anti-typical pastor…young and non-suited. Enter on stage left the criticism. As a person who spent five years of his life academically studying theology, I realize Bell’s theology is “off.” I realize he isn’t spouting the typical view of God. I realize his Christology is of the type known as “low-Christology.” That is, he tends to focus on the human side of Jesus. The reality of our Tradition is that Jesus is 100% human and 100% divine. That is the “official view,” but it isn’t what you hear in church. What you get in church is this “lofty, otherworldly” figure. You get the divine. To talk about him as a human is borderline heresy. It’s liberalism. That’s where the church is wrong. We make him out to be a distant divinity. We make him the untouchable, exterior figure that does some good stuff for us and then waits on us to get to heaven. Jesus didn’t just come to “get us to heaven.” He wanted to show us heaven. This life isn’t just a “waiting period.” It doesn’t just believe a fact about Jesus so that we don’t burn for eternity. Christianity is more than a belief…it’s a lifestyle. It’s a worldview. It’s a way of living that says there is more. Relationship with the divine is both possible and necessary. Jesus is our example. A real example. He is what we should be and do NOW. With the help of the Spirit, Jesus carried out the work of the Father. This is, in theological language, called “Spirit Christology.” When I learned what that was in grad school, it revolutionized my way of thinking about Jesus. It made Jesus human. He was a baby that cried like the rest of us. He had his “dirty diapers.” He fell. He dropped things. He cried. He learned. He was truly tempted. He resisted through the power of the Spirit. He knew what others were thinking through the Spirit. He healed by the power of the Spirit. In essence, Jesus was divine, but we know he laid down the power of his divinity to truly be human. Let’s let him be this. Let’s use his relationship with the Spirit to see how we too can be more. When we deny what Paul says (Philippian 2) about the “emptying of himself,” we deny what he did. Jesus did what he did as a human. He did it through the power of the Spirit. So this is what the “high-Chrisologists” and the “low-Chrisologists” don’t get. Jesus was both. High Christology, on it’s own, makes Jesus such a divine being that he wasn’t really like us, and therefore, he couldn’t be a true example for us. Low Christology makes him such a human that he couldn’t really do what only the divine could do—save us. So the missing link is Spirit Christology. With his relationship with the Spirit (which we can have as well), Jesus could truly be a human that saves us.
But what is he “saving” us from? This is what the Nooma series wants to show us. It isn’t just “hell” as we so often make it about. “Hell” is literally an “otherworldly” concept. It doesn’t make sense in our modern world. It just seems like such a mythical view of eternity. I’m not saying it’s untrue; I’m just saying that it isn’t something that motivates the modern person. The atheist doesn’t believe hell exists so he laughs at you when you try to convince him that he needs to convert to avoid hell. Nooma shows us that Christianity isn’t just about the afterlife but the present one as well. This life is what motivates us. I want to be a Christian even if it isn’t true. I want whatever way I live my life to be the best way to live my life regardless of if there is another life to come. People today are so focused on this life that speaking about the unknown next life is literally irrelevant to them. Rob Bell gets this. He thinks, as do I, that Jesus’ life shows us a better way to live in this world. Loving your neighbor doesn’t just yield a reward in the afterlife. It does here. Forgiveness shows her profit here. Fear isn’t the motivator it once was. When people don’t like this focus on the here and now, they don’t just misunderstand Spirit Christology. They don’t understand “The Kingdom of God.” Jesus came to initiate heaven on earth. The miracles he performed were “proleptic.” That is, they were an early glimpse of what is to come. Already do we have the Kingdom in Jesus, but not yet is it fully realized. We still have poverty, death, sickness, war, etc. Jesus came to the poor, raised the dead, healed the sick, and taught us to turn the other cheek. Jesus is the bridge to the divine, not just divinity itself. Our world isn’t perfect, so the kingdom hasn’t been perfected. Yet we’ve been given the blueprint.
Most people that have seen some of the Nooma series say that their favorite video is “08 Dust” (myself included).
This is the story about Jesus’ calling of the disciples. In the video, Bell discusses the Jewish system of education. Students were taught to memorize the Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament). Those that achieved this and were talented were allowed to continue on to learn the rest of the Old Testament. Those that didn’t make the cut were supposed to learn the family trade. The ones who continued then learned the rest of the Old Testament to only be told whether or not they could continue on learning from their Rabbi. Were they good enough? Were they talented enough to become “like” their Rabbi (which means teacher)? Only the best of the best could do this. So now, consider this in light of the calling of the disciples. The disciples were out fishing. So that means they hadn’t made the cut. They weren’t the best of the best, yet a Rabbi came along and said “follow me.” The Rabbi chose them where they had previously been rejected. They weren’t good enough to serve God, but now a Rabbi tells them they are. Now a Rabbi says you can do what I do. “I can make you good enough.” When Jesus walks on the water, Peter says “Lord, if it be you, call me.” Jesus says for him to come and Peter does. Peter knows that if the Rabbi does it, and the Rabbi says “come,” then he must be able to do it this as well. And Peter does. He does walk on water until he doubts himself, or in reality, he doubts his call. The call came from Jesus/his Rabbi, therefore, he can. Rob Bell says that Peter doubts himself instead of doubting Jesus (because Jesus isn’t sinking). People attack Bell here because they say that faith is in God, not one’s self. What they don’t get it is that faith in one’s self is faith in God. Why? Because we are called. We are not called by man. We aren’t good enough for man (e.g. the Rabbi’s rejected them). We are “good enough” for God. Jesus teaches us that calling = equipping. If we are called or asked to do something, then we can by virtue of who called us. We deny God when we deny his calling on ourselves. “High-Christology” people, always want to stress the greatness of God, so they do this by belittling man’s role in anything in religion. They do this out of a pure heart, but they just don’t get it. We are the hands of God not because he can’t accomplish his goals without us but because he chose this. The triune God chose to die on the cross when he didn’t have to do this to save us. We know from philosophy that whatever God does in action, he can do in word (consider creation…“Let there be…”). So the death on a cross was a choice which carried a visible meaning to us. God chose to create by voice but to save creation by action. He chose the cross and then said “go make disciples of all nations.” So who saves? Clearly Jesus does, but he chose the church to spread the message. He chose humans to do the work. The message is both of the afterlife and the current life. He doesn’t just heal in heaven. He doesn’t just release from addiction in the next life. He doesn’t just love in the next life. He doesn’t just restore in the next life. The Kingdom of God theology teaches us that heaven has invaded earth now.
The Nooma series has a video called “Bullhorn.”
This is about a man who wants to spread the Gospel by yelling at people to “save” them. Is Christianity just about avoiding burning? Is it more than that? That is what the Nooma series is. What is this life about? The essence of Christianity is not hell.
This is my 2nd favorite Nooma video. “Rhythm” It will say in 2 minutes what has taken me this whole time. (By the way, I love this song.)
Nooma
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