WOULD YOU KNOW?

I had the privilege of reading Roland Merullo’s “American Savior” last week, a creative satire depicting the second coming of Jesus Christ - save this time he comes as an aspiring politician, one aiming to secure none other than the US Presidency.

The novel is clever and witty and full of multiple moments when the reader finds himself almost chuckling out loud. Jesus is an adept surfer and marathoner, not to mention being a master orator, strategist, friend to the special needs community, and counselor, as well. Undergirding the plethora of sarcasm amid the pages, Merullo confronts the prevalent self-righteousness that girds current political candidacies. (Granted, Merullo’s credibility would be a little stronger had he more equally challenged the self-righteousness oozing from BOTH political parties.) But his point is well taken. The American public craves a leader that puts our country’s best before personal ambition and is not enslaved to the polarizing self-interest groups to which his or her actual election is perceived to be indebted.

(A footnote here... Rightly or wrongly, many believe Barack Obama is exactly that kind of leader. Truthfully, we can’t tell yet; let’s wait and see. I hope he is. All we currently know, however, is he’s not the second coming. I think ‘Barackstar’ would agree with me.)

Yet in regard to the “American Savior,” there’s a nagging point I just can’t shake. It deserves a little personal “wrestling,” if you will. At this fictional point, Jesus is addressing a fairly hostile, swarming fundamentalist crowd that’s perplexed at Jesus purported identity. He passionately shares with them the words of John chapter 7, describing his initial coming, when he was met by ignorant accusers (remember the word “ignorant” means “lacking knowledge”). The text reads as follows:

Jesus went on calmly, a bit more loudly: “Part of the crowd, it says in the Bible, was thinking, ‘He is a good man.’ In fact, a bit later in the text, when the temple guards are sent to arrest him, they come back empty-handed, saying, ‘No one has ever talked like this before.’ And Nicodemus, in a famous passage, stands up for Jesus’s right to speak. So, you see, as painful as it might be for us to admit this, we could draw a parallel to our situation today. If --”
“You are not God!” A woman screamed. “You are not the Risen Christ!”
Jesus looked at her patiently. “I might not be,” he said slowly. “I might not be. But my question to you is this: would you know him if he came into your midst? If he came into your midst and did not look the way you expected him to look, and did not speak as you expected him to speak, would you know him?”

I doubt any of us know exactly what he’d look like. Would he still have that long beard and olive skin like in all those black felt Sunday school paintings? Would he wear jeans? Levi’s? Certainly nothing on sale from Kohl’s. He’d pay full price. Would he surf? Would he sing? Would he know all the words?? Would we be able to discern his heart?

Parallel to our situation today... would you know him? Would you know?


AR