Jesus said, "Follow Me"

Last night I was poking around in the articles I've saved on Diigo...an internet notebook kind of program that I thought would be so handy for saving and highlighting and sharing treasures I find on the web. For me, it worked better in theory than in actual practice so I think I am going to go with a combination of Google Notebook and Zoho Notebook for trying to keep track of the totally mind blowing, overwhelming amount of info that is available on the internet. With these OCD tendencies I have, it is very distressing to have info and comments, thoughts and ideas here there and everywhere. Sigh....

All that to say, I came across a Girardian quote I thought noteworthy on one of the articles I skimmed through. It is an older article....written in 2001 by Paul Nuechterlein owner of The Girardian Lectionary website. The site features a weekly Girardian take on the Lectionary reading. There are also lots of links to sermons and articles written by and about Girard or mimetic rivalry or peace...or the atonement. There are also many of the owner's original thoughts and writings....including sermons he's written and preached from a Girardian perspective.

This particular article was called A Girardian Take on the Historical Jesus Movement. I seem to be focusing my attention on stuff that is old news....but alas I've let God be the captain of my internet travels and.....with a little help from google....the things he has shown me over the past ten years is nothing short of astounding. If I happen to end up reading an article written 6 or 7 years ago, I'm sure there is something for me to learn there. I've never really read the views of the Historical Jesus Movement, although I suspect they more or less attempt to strip him of his divinity. That is just a guess. I don't know for sure.

In this article, Nuechterlein refers to Girard's theory as "evangelical anthropology." I thought that was an interesting term. I've heard his theory referred to as the "anthropology of the Cross" but "evangelical anthropology" has a nice ring to it....and cuts to the chase concerning part of the mission of Jesus. To introduce us to ourselves. To quote this article:

Resurrection proclamation claims, but not proves, that Jesus was right about God.' If Jesus was both truly human and truly divine, as the resurrection Christian faith has come to claim, then we also believe that Jesus was right about us. In other words, Jesus not only gives us a revealed theology but a revealed anthropology. He shows us things about ourselves that we could never hope to see. Without the Messiah, as Isaiah prophesied, we hopelessly continue to sit in the darkness.

Hmmmmm....He shows us things about ourselves that we could never hope to see. I think he shows us things about ourselves we don't want to see. The article goes on to expound on this idea after it lists quite a few modern day scapegoats and sacrificial behavior we find in our society....in ourselves....

But the cross and resurrection graciously reveal these things to us as they are forgiving us for them. Unconditional forgiveness from God is the key to begin to see any of these things, because we could not hope to see something so dark about ourselves if we weren't already forgiven for it, and if we weren't already offered another way of peace through Jesus Christ.

And Jesus said to them, "Follow me......"