there was Ricky Bobby and his wife sitting around the table, overflowing with his sponsors' food, and he starts to give thanks, saying, "Dear Lord Baby Jesus," and then proceeds to give thanks for his "hot wife", kids (Walker and Texas Ranger), as well as his sponsors for their gracious provision of food.his wife then gets a little narky with his constant rememberance of Jesus as a baby; "he did grow up you know!"
isn't it funny how hollywood sometimes hits the nail right on the head?
he did grow up, he did die. and (perhaps surprising to those with nightmarish visions of this half-naked man eternally hanging on a cross), he did rise again from the dead.
yet, as we read from Matthew 2 this Sunday, he "was born king". He didn't become king, didn't kill off anyone and everyone who in his paranoia may have been a rival (c/f Herod, most of the successors to Jereboam's throne).
no; he was born king, with no regent, predecessor nor successor.
his life on earth was what it was, not that he might become king, but because he already was.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:7b-11
5 comments:
you watched a guffaw-worthy movie without me! that's not fair.
.. and on the other issue of Jesus' kingship, yep he is. i'm just wondering about the 'therefore' in that phil passage and why it's there. it's like that song that i don't like 'that's why we praise him' - cause he gave his everything. but he was praiseworthy before that don't you think?
haven't thought heaps on this yet, just putting it out there.
is there a difference between being something and being recognised as being something?
thinking kings, senators etc, would be what they are, but actually getting in there and fighting and winning a battle is what shows you to be that which you are in title, whilst not nec. being recognised as such?
but it seems the wise men didn't seem to need to see him in power. they wanted to see him who is born king.
is there something about jesus' words to thomas? blessed are those who have not seen yet have believed? blessed are those who know Jesus to be king, without having witnessed his miracles?
hmmm... good question my dear!
i'm with evie especially on the lyric "that's why we praise him". it does grate a little every time i sing it.
from Roman's helpful summary of the gospel in the first four verses though: v.4 "declared to be the Son of God [King] ...by his resurrection from the dead"
so what is actually going on? is Jesus born as king because he is descended from David and because he is God, he is born as the heir, or is it because he conquers death - his body not seeing decay.
does his death and resurrection show/demonstrate this title, or does he "inherit" it?
or is it just more practical than that. we see him to be who he is by his resurrection from the dead, and so his Kingship is announced to the world in his resurrection?
The prayer is obviously misguided, but as you say it aptly captures the Western, individualistic phenomenon of self-imagining Jesus.
The whole argument about whose version of Jesus most accurately reflects reality is quite absurd (eg. “I like to think of Jesus as a mischievous badger”), yet strangely familiar ...
hey there, i thought that you might be interested in
Mars Hill Church's movie page.
then again you may not.
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