Page 14 - THE CHURCH BEFORE THE MOCKING WORLD

CHAPTER FOUR
Choreographed Personhood Intertwined
In John?s Gospel, immediately after the Triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, one reads this marvellous short narrative of those who came to Philip and said, ?Sir, we would see Je s u s ?.
Those words are like a hand grenade thrown into the midst of the modern world. Let me explain.
The revelation of Jesus was clearly presented in his Incarnate life and ministry upon the earth. This is who those men who came to Philip wanted to see.
But, and it is very important to think of this for a moment, the Incarnate Son of God was the real and tangible revelation of a deeply held Messianic notion. A notion that was embodied in the symbols of Old Covenant Scriptures down through the ages.
The Passover, The Burnt Offering, The Peace, The Sin and The Guilt Offerings pictured the ultimate reality of Christ?s atoning death. The Ark of the Covenant, the Golden Lampstand, The Feasts of Pentecost, First Fruits, and Trumpets and Tabernacles were all pictures and symbols concerning the character and personhood of Christ.
The Old Covenant Scriptures are saturated with symbols and types, and shadows and pictures; all of which revealed who the Lord Jesus was, and would be, in His Incarnation.
Those symbols embody the truth concerning Jesus Himself.
There is no possible way that the life and ultimate ministry of Jesus could be seen as anything else other than the embodiment of the symbols, especially as they relate to His atoning death and His Holy nature. In short, the symbols are integral to the actual manifestation of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now put a ?non-sacred semiotic Jesus?into the ?post-propositional nihilistic milieu?spoken of earlier, and we have a lower case ?jesus?as a ?secular-symbol?.
When you remove the overlay of the symbols of the Messianic notion within the Old Covenant and replace them with the secular overlay of existential, non-foundational pluralism, Jesus then becomes simply a teacher, healer, preacher and moralist.
For modern man and his post-modern wife, it really does not matter if Jesus exists, existed, or will exist because his existence is simply a projection of a desired value system, rather than an actual, real, historical and unique Person.
Of course, eventually Jesus becomes simply a totemistic projection of our value system. That is why ?21-C-jesus?is a LGBT friendly purveyor of Universal Liberal Democracy, or a Right Wing White Republican Greed Affirming Capitalist. Take your pick to whatever best suits your preferences.