We Had Thought He Was The One

 

 

 

 

“We had thought He was the one.”

That’s how the fellas introduced Jesus to the Stanger on the Emmaus Road. And the Stranger confronted them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe…”

The Stranger’s correction provided an opportunity for the fellas to rediscover God in Christ, a God infinitely better than they had thought He was. The Stranger’s correction confronted the lie of distance and separation. It rebuked every punishing, transactional, hierarchal, thought about love.

It set the table for them to rediscover Jesus as other-centered, self-giving, reconciling, non-controlling love; A God who wins by laying down His life.

…And a humanity who wins in the same way.

“We had thought He was the one.”

It was also a confession; one every follower of Jesus has or will make at some point in our relationship with God; if we’re being honest. It’s a humble recognition that our certainty can be flawed, our ideology broken, our theology incomplete.

But the gospel good news is Jesus never leaves. The Emmaus Road Stranger walks beside every person on every step of our journey, often in ways we don’t recognize, under names we don’t know, so He can reveal Greater Love within us.

You see, “We had thought He was the one.”

And He is!

And it’s always way better than we had thought…

 

 

This article is excerpted from my forthcoming book,

Leaving and Finding Jesus

Jason Clark is a bestselling storyteller who writes to reveal the transforming kindness of the love of God in a world traumatized by the religious abuses done in the name of the love of God. He and his wife, Karen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Madeleine, Ethan, and Eva.

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE…

NAEEM FAZAL / REIMAGINING GOD

Naeem Fazal, founding pastor of Mosaic Church, and author of Ex-Muslim, talks about deconstruction or reimaging God. Naeem talks about the importance of being able to recognize God outside of our personal context, how to view sin, how to approach scripture, and a beautiful gospel that’s not just about a Jesus who saves but about a Jesus who is restoring humanity and all creation.

MAKO NAGASAWA / A RESTORATIVE GOD

Early Church Fathers, the formation of the New Testament, how to approach scripture, Starwars, Puff Daddy, The Police, and the vast difference between retributive justice and restorative justice. Mako Nagasawa’s insights and generous communication were insightful, hopeful and transformative.

Religion vs. Grace

“Christianity is not a religion: it is the proclamation of the end of religion. Religion is a human activity dedicated to the job of reconciling God to humanity and humanity to itself. The gospel, however – the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the astonishing announcement that God has done the whole work of reconciliation without a scrap of human assistance. It is the bizarre proclamation that religion is over – period!” Writes F. Robert Capon.

A Sling and A Song: Worship that Kills Giants

Everything in the Kingdom of God is birthed out of worship. All of our promises are engaged through worship. Our worship is an act of surrender, our will for His. But our worship doesn’t stop at surrender. When we surrender to God, He invites us into the untamed where we can demonstrate our worship

A Matter Of Trust

It could be said Peter failed during his time of testing but it wasn’t about his success, it was about his experience. Jesus already knew Peter would deny Him. Yet the experience was essential to Peter’s journey. His ownership of that experience from denial to redemption was what allowed him to be life to his friends.

JOHN CROWDER / TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY

John Crowder pulls from the different streams of the church to talk about Christilogical Trinitarian theology, grace, union, contemplative practice, intimacy, and mystical Christianity. John and Jason dive into the Cross, Western atonement theories, and the religious industry built upon separation; how Jesus is healing the human race. John describes a relationship with a person, Christ. He invites us to embrace mystery so we might discover that God looks like Jesus.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This

Share This

Share this post with your friends!