Which Jesus is the one you hold dear?

In the new comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Rickie Bobby there is a very humorous prayer in which Will Ferrell as Ricky Bobby says grace before a meal. In the prayer he prays to “Dear Lord Baby Jesus” and continually mentions “infant Jesus” until his wife and father-in-law remind him that Jesus was a grown man.

The group goes on—mid prayer—to discuss other images of Jesus including Christmas Jesus, Teen Jesus, and Bearded Jesus as well as Ninja Jesus fighting Samurai and Jesus with giant eagle’s wings.

The grace, like the movie, is silly and intends to be so. The prayer may even be sacrilegious, but it does call us to an important question about our own picture of Jesus.

We find a lot of images for Jesus in the Bible. For example, Jesus refers to himself as The Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. Going out front of the flock for Jesus meant going to Golgotha, the place of the skull. Jesus led the way into suffering and death and then continued to lead the way through death into life. Jesus did this because he is neither a shepherd, nor a hired hand. Jesus taught that he is The Good Shepherd—the one who lays down his own life for his sheep.

This metaphor of Jesus as The Good Shepherd is a powerful one, but it is also important to push beyond the image. For the carpenter Jesus never tended a flock of sheep, he only led a drove of disciples.

It’s like the page in a book you may have seen before that has printed on it “This page left intentionally blank.” Well, if it was left “intentionally blank” then why does it have words on it? Printing words on the page saying the page is blank makes the statement untrue.

In that same way, any one statement about who God is will be untrue in and of itself, as God is bigger than any image we have or can create. For if we want to tell of a shepherd defending a lamb from a lion, then we have scripture that tells of Jesus as “The Good Shepherd,” “The Lamb of God,” and “The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” Or perhaps even more telling about how that story might turn out, Jesus is described in Revelation as “the lamb who was slain.”

In addition to these we have other word images from scripture including: The Alpha and the Omega, the author and finisher of our faith, the bread of life, the Captain of Salvation, the cornerstone, the dayspring, the deliverer, the great high priest, the head of the church, the holy one of God, Immanuel—god with us, the king eternal, the king of kings, the king of peace, the lord of lords, the man of sorrows, the mediator, the messiah, the bright and morning star, the redeemer, the rose of Sharon, the son of God, the true vine, the way, the truth and the life, and the Word.

Images stack on images to reveal the God beyond images. But while this list is long it is neither complete nor can it be completed. For though we speak of God using analogies, we speak of a God beyond compare. These analogies help us to understand God more fully, but God can not be put into a box and these ways of speaking about Jesus do not tell us all there is to be said about him.

I challenge you to break whatever image it is that you have of Jesus. If you tend to think of him as a stern judge, remember that he is also described as a brother and a friend. If you think of Jesus as meek and mild remember that political and religious leaders conspired together to put Jesus to death as a revolutionary. Or if you have left intentionally blank the place in your mind where thoughts of Jesus could go, try thinking through who Jesus is to you. 

No matter what picture we have, the real Jesus is beyond that picture. Whether you see Jesus as a bath-robed, blond-haired, blue-eyed Messiah or the homeless man you saw on the corner when last you wound through downtown Jacksonville, Jesus is ready to break down that image so that you can move closer to real thing.

Ricky Bobby is right, the image of Jesus as a baby in our Christmas story is a powerful image of God. Not that his character necessarily realizes the importance of God being so vulnerable in coming as an infant, but the fictional race driver is on to something nonetheless. The problem is that he is so stuck with that one image of Jesus he doesn’t see beyond it.

It made for a funny movie scene, but the point made is a good one. Smashing the image you have of Jesus—no matter how dear that image might be to you—could be what it takes to see the real Jesus more clearly.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

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