The Rest Of The Story

So, you know how Paul Harvey's radio show?  Yeah, I wish there a few more like it:

"Hello, Americans.  I'm Paul Harvey.  You know what the news is.  In a minute, you're going to hear...the rest of the story."

There are a lot of things about which I'd love to know the rest of the story, much of which revolves around significant moments in history: what were the astronauts saying to each other when the Challenger exploded?  Where is Jimmy Hoffa?  What was Pontius Pilate thinking?

In fact, I am so, well, nosy, that I just love to read memoirs...from the lives of celebrities, perhaps, but I have really come to love memoirs written by regular people who, for one reason or another, decided to document their experiences.  Two of my very favorite books fall into this category, in fact.  One is Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and the other is Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle.  Late last year, I decided that I wanted to read books authored by Holocaust survivors, detailing their struggles during that wretched time in history.  I also found a couple of books written by Nazis.  It was fascinating.  Depressing, nauseating, and infuriating, of course, but also fascinating.  I couldn't get enough.

Sometimes, it drives me nuts that so few details of Jesus' life are presented in the Bible.  I mean, there's duplication of several events (you know, like his birth and his death, for example), and a lot of those duplications are attributed to Matthew's and Luke's knowledge of Mark's gospel when they authored their own.  But, I really really don't want to get into a conversation about gospel sources.  (Is there a Q?  Is there not a Q?  That is the question....that I want to avoid).

The point is this: aside from a trip to the temple as a tween, something else had to go on in Jesus' life, right?  I mean, we know he had siblings.  Don't you just wonder what it was like to be Jesus' brother or sister?

"Mooooooom.  Jesus turned my lemonade into milk again."  or  "Daaaaaad...why do you always act like Jesus is so perfect???" (Joseph's response: "Now James, we've been over this: your brother is the Messiah.  He really is perfect.")

And, don't you wonder if Jesus was embarrassed when, say, his voice cracked in the middle of his reading the Torah?  Or if he cried when his favorite pet camel died?  Or if people made fun of him and called him the "teacher's pet" in school?  Or, what about when he was older.  Even when the gospel does talk about Jesus' ministry, it's still only excerpted.  I mean, if I were to write about the past three years of my life in the way that Mark does, it would say something like this:

"Kristen was pregnant.  She had an easy pregnancy, only being frustrated by headaches, her inability to eat chocolate and meat, her heartburn and, at the end, her terribly swollen feet.  Then, it came to pass that she had a son, and his name was Andrew.  And Kristen and Joseph loved Andrew very much.  Then, Kristen decided to apply for a PhD program.  And so it was that Kristen was accepted.  But, she decided that her time would be better-spent by raising Andrew, and so she decided not to attend classes.  In the years that followed, Kristen still desired an education, but she continued to care for Andrew while making the finest lattes in the land in her place of work, which is called Starbucks, for it was at this place that expensive gourmet coffee could be found.  Now, in the land to the West of Kristen's home lived her parents, Stephen and Susan.  Stephen learned that he was sick and, in wanting to show her love for her parents, Kristen traveled by night to her parents' territory.  She visited them regularly, and loved them very much.  On the night of the fifth visit, Kristen decided to plan a vacation with the family to Florida, and so it was..."

Do you know how many details are NOT in that little blurb?  Even really significant details?  A LOT.

So, what are we missing about Jesus?

There are several times in Scripture when we are told that Jesus, having been fully human (and fully divine), felt the full spectrum of human emotion and experience.  We can easily identify moments when Jesus was sad, joyful, disappointed, afraid, hungry, angry, lonely and tired.  But how can Jesus possibly understand what it feels like to have a terminal illness?  Or to feel lost and useless?  Where does the Bible point to any details about Jesus' experience of indigestion or runny nose or allergies?  None of these things would cause, or be the result, of sin, so why shouldn't Jesus have experienced these things?

I bet he did.  And I bet he did a lot more than we'd care to know about.

But, here's what's great about the Bible:  yes, it is largely misses Jesus' life, really only highlighting the first and last three years of his thirty-three, but, maybe that's because we're not supposed to get caught up in the details.  If the Bible says that Jesus fully knows and understands our emotions and feelings and experiences, then we ought to trust that.  But, it doesn't need to be expanded upon the way that our understanding of the most important components of Jesus' life and message do.  We need to know less about Jesus' dealings with H1N1 and more about why his death and resurrection are so significant.  We need to know very little about Jesus' preference for watermelon over musk melon, but we clearly have an awful lot to learn about the way that Jesus treated other people, having told us to go and do likewise.

And, I even think that that might be a healthy way to view each other, too.  We tend to get wrapped up in the details about the people with whom we interact (whether in a personal way or via magazines, t.v. and whatever).  We even allow things that are details become the very things that we used to define others.  And this, I suggest, is how gossip and prejudice have found our society to be such fertile ground for growth.  Growing up female (though I realize this is an issue for males, too, but I think it's especially significant for females), we were even called upon to look at the minutia on our surface, and to do everything in our power to make it better--to correct it--to improve it--to perfect it.  If we could just have clearer skin, less frizzy hair, bigger boobs, a smaller waist, straighter teeth, or whatever, then we'd be a better person.  If we wore the right clothes, we'd be a better person.  And, if we saw other people who observed these same tendencies, then we would do well to "befriend" them.  Anyone who didn't follow this code of conduct, however, was a castoff, a loner, and "totally uncool."  We were told to focus on the details--the worst details of ourselves and others--and that this would somehow make us better.

Is it just me, or is that absolutely ridiculous logic?  First of all, yes, I used to dislike features of myself.  We'll just stick with the freckles on my face.  I hated my freckles for a long time.  But, HELLOOOO, those freckles DON'T define me.  They exist, and they are a part of me, but it's such a teeny tiny part.  And, even things that are larger than that:  my ability to play piano, for example.  Yes, I play piano well, and was especially proficient towards the end of high school, when I'd been playing regularly for 13 years.  But it's not as if I would walk around and people would say, "there's that piano player."

I think we need to accept the fact that people are always going to use labels and categories when attempting to understand other people.  In doing this, of course, we create a society that is, at the very least, disenfranchised, though I'd suggest that we're not even really a "society" as a whole, but, rather, a bunch of societies who simply tolerate each other (mostly) and co-exist.  We focus on the things that are different, no matter how important or unimportant those things really are in understanding the other person.  We spend very little time seeking to know what is the same.  We spend very little time looking for the things that are positive.  And, I might suggest, too, that the cognitions we use when we seek to understand another person are so distorted that we don't even know which truths about a person ought to define them.  We judge people and/or make assumptions about them based on any number of things: their political party, the car they drive, the number of piercings that they have, their denomination, the house in which they grew up, their grades, their skin tone, their children, etc. etc. etc.  And then, whether or not we actually know the truth about that person, we determine whether or not they deserve our time, attention, friendliness, whatever, based on our assumptions about them.

Of course, we also live in a society where openness and honesty are seen as negative attributes in many cases.  It's better to cover up our wrongdoings than it is to share them and seek forgiveness.  It's better to hide our feelings than to be an overly emotional sissy.

What if we lived in a world where the following things were true:

1. We found ways to be united, not isolated.
2. We were blind to the details that we, historically, have determined how we can or cannot relate to a person.
3. We stop making assumptions.  And gossiping.  And judging.  We fill in the gaps, instead, by communicating, loving, supporting, asking questions, celebrating.

Yes, people are different.  Yes, there are some things that other people believe that I think are absolutely wrong.  But, I guarantee you that you can find at least three things in common with every single person that you meet.  That's something I try to do every single day, with every single encounter I have (and so, if I've met you in the last 4 or 5 years, I've done this with you): whenever I meet someone new, I come up with three positive things about that person by the end of their conversation.  Admittedly, it's easier with some people than with others.  But I've found that, if I can come up with three positive things about that person, and/or three things that that person and I share in common, I'm much more likely to treat them the way that they deserve to be treated, even when buttons are pushed and disagreements arise.

So, no, we don't have the whole story of Jesus, and we'll have to wait until we're in Heaven some day to ask those questions of him ("Do you use a fork or a spoon for your macaroni and cheese, Jesus?")  But, we have the most important parts, and we're not even doing all that we can do to implement those things that we learn from his example, let alone being overwhelmed by even more.

Anyway, I just think that there's a lot to learn with the information that we have.  So, what are we waiting for?!  Let's get to it!!!!!

"This is Paul Harvey.  Good day."