Theology Thursday 19 - Size Matters

I drive a pickup truck and I am often asked to help people pick up their stuff and move. When I drove a Honda Accord hatchback nobody asked me to help them move. That’s because size matters; size determines our actions. With a large pickup truck I can help people move, load up a bed full of supplies for a camping trip and pick up that new TV at Best Buy; because I have a large truck I can do certain actions. When I had an Accord hatchback, I was able to drive three people comfortably and move groceries; that was it. The size of my car limited my actions. Our view of Jesus is the same way.

If we have a large view of Jesus we’ll be able to do different actions on his behalf.

If we think Jesus is the creator of the universe…

If we think Jesus holds the entirety of creation together…

If we think Jesus changed the entre course of cosmic history by ushering in God’s kingdom…

If we think Jesus defeated sin, death, darkness and brokenness through his death and resurrection…

If we think Jesus presently works in this world to redeem and restore shattered lives and realities…

If we think these things about Jesus, which are very big things, then our actions on behalf of Jesus should strive to match them in scope. If we have a large view of Jesus, that should push us to large actions on his behalf. Not because we are great but because he is so much greater than anything we can comprehend.

If our view of Jesus is small, like an Accord hatchback, our actions will shrink to match that view. If we just think of Jesus as a cosmic teddy bear who is solely interested in making us feel less guilty and raising our self esteem, then our actions on his behalf will be just as small and narrow-minded as that image.

But if we want our actions on Jesus behalf to be large, sweeping movements that impact the entire world, then our Jesus needs to be bigger. We need to take him out of the small boxes in which we’ve confined him and let him be big: big in our lives, big in our relationships, big in our churches, big in our communities and big in our world. When we have that view of Jesus, we better understand who we’re serving, and that understanding will push us to give everything we have for the cause of our very big Lord.

What view of Jesus do you have? A pickup Jesus or a hatchback Jesus?