humble and bold . . . the Jesus pattern

I do not claim to be Jesus or anything close to him, however I do believe that he demonstrates a pattern from which we can all learn. In the opinion of many, even those who reject his status as the Son of God, Jesus is the epitome of virtue and love. His compassion shines through on countless occasions. He rescues the downtrodden and spends time with the oppressed. He is a friend of the hurting and disenfranchised. At the same time, this same Jesus was not afraid to speak of judgment, oppose arrogance, and demand consistency with God’s ways. Jesus, in other words, was able to be kind, gentle, and open to his Father’s plan, yet simultaneously bold and forthright and, dare I say it, dogmatic. He did, after all, claim to be “the way, the truth, and the life.” :-)

Of course I have no delusion of thinking that I parallel Jesus. But, I do hold him up as a pattern and seek to live with the same tension with which he lived. In other words openness and kindness can, in theory at least, coexist with straightforward dogmatism. This is my hope, that I can increasingly pursue and embody this tension. In my case, I openly admit that I do not have all of the answers, that I sometimes wonder about just about everything, that we must all learn to be humble and teachable. We must never be afraid to follow the truth . . . wherever it leads. This, I would argue, is the type of daring faith that is worth having.

At the same time, there is also a part of me that believes and senses that there is such a thing as “right vs. wrong.” Likewise, there is truth to uphold and exude (as an expression of our love for God) and error to oppose. This is why we should (and often intuitively do) react against injustice and why we have a sense that it is important to embody love.

Though I cannot make sense of it all, this tension that we see in Jesus is, in my opinion, worth following. The proportions of each will vary, and we will never get it perfectly right (at least not in this life), but it is, I think, the best way ahead. We should seek to be both bold and humble, open yet dogmatic, questioners in search of the truth and those who (at some level at least) are confident enough to state the truth. "Lord, provide the wisdom we need to rightly sustain this tension."