Discovering Rosebud--January 19, 2021
"I became [the church's] servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints." [Colossians 1:25-26]
Spoiler alert: it's Jesus.
Jesus is "the mystery... now revealed." According to the apostle here, Jesus is where the story of the whole universe has been headed, and Jesus is the One who makes sense of all the craziness of human history. In fact, Jesus is the One who brings God into focus for us--so that we'll know how to recognize the Real McCoy from the fakers like Caesar or Pharaoh or Zeus or Ra--all the other would-be gods who thought just being loud and powerful bullies made them divine. Jesus shows us what God is like--and what it really means to be human--all the way down to the core.
It's a little bit like the movie Citizen Kane. (And okay, spoiler alert here for a movie that is 80 years old this year and regarded by many to be the greatest movie of all time--so, if you haven't seen it and don't want the ending given away, go watch it and come back here. I'll wait.) The whole plot of Orson Welles' classic movie turns on the question of what the title character's dying word, "Rosebud," means. And the movie traces the story of Charles Foster Kane's life in flashbacks as a reporter interviews people who had known him, trying to find out what the word means, and why this is the last thought on his mind after his life of business, politics, and worldly success. When you finally find out what "Rosebud" means in the very last seconds of the movie, it gives a whole new meaning, a deeper meaning to what his life has all been about. (See, I'm really not spoiling anything--I haven't said what it is, have I?) Without knowing the meaning of "Rosebud," you have some impression of the main character, but in the final seconds, you get a whole new understanding of what really mattered in the end, and what turns out to have all been worthless and vain.
I think the letter to the Colossians sees Jesus in similar terms. Without Jesus, of course, you can still know plenty of the human story--the rise and fall of empires, the stories of kings and kingdoms, fortunes made and lost, wars fought and truces struck. But Jesus revises the meaning of all of it--the coming of Christ reveals what really mattered about our existence, and what things were all piddling games of King of the Hill. Jesus' existence reveals the meaning of existence, and the purpose of our lives, is not caught up in making ourselves "great" or making bigger piles of money. It's not about commanding armies or conquering the world, and it's not about seeking my benefit over against yours. Jesus reveals that all the attempts in all of history to coerce and conquer or to clutch onto what's mine at the expense of my neighbor are empty--they crumble into dust in our hands. The only thing that gives the universe meaning is love--the love that takes on a human face and wounded human hands in Jesus, the love that ate at the houses of mess-ups and stinkers, the love that identified with the nobodies and anybodies, the love that was willing to take on death for us rather than to kill and save itself.
Knowing Jesus is like finally understanding what the story--The Story of Everything--was really all about all along. And so, rather like getting a glimpse of Rosebud only in the last seconds of the movie, the apostle here says that after generations and centuries of one empire trouncing another, Jesus comes along and shows us that they were all vanity, but self-giving love was everything all along. And with that, the world makes a whole new kind of sense.
The story--your story, my story, the world's story--hangs together differently once we discover that God saves the world, not with weapons drawn, locked and loaded, but with arms open ready to take nails. The meaning of our lives is different, and can never be the same, once we have understood our lives in light of Jesus.
That's what this verse from Colossians means about the mystery now revealed--it's the realization that because of Jesus, everything takes on a different meaning, and it's not what the So-and-sos of history thought it was. Once we let Jesus become the center that brings everything else into focus, we see the rest of the world with a new clarity as well.
And it becomes clear (if we are honest) that we don't get to hate other people and call it religion... and that we don't get to whip up and angry mob and storm the Capitol building and then pretend Jesus smiles on our actions (even if someone prays using Jesus' name while they do it)... and that we don't get to make our motto "Me and My Group First" and think that it lines up at all with the way of Jesus.... and that we don't get permission to let ourselves off the hook for caring about the needs of our neighbor, even if their situation doesn't directly impact mine, even if my neighbor doesn't look like me, and even if I don't particularly like my neighbor.
Seeing Jesus as the key to the mystery means I don't get to take my already-in-place view of the world and just slap a cross logo on it like an endorsement from God--it means Jesus is to going to dramatically revise what matters in the world, and what doesn't. It means discovering all our time and energy spent amassing power or hoarding money or puffing up our own egos was a waste, but all the time spent seeking the good of others was the key to the universe. Everything else burns to ash or crumbles to dust, but the moments of genuine Christ-like love, those are the only things that endure or have worth in the end. See--it's Rosebud all over again.
You and I have been given the key to everything--the clue to the mystery that gives meaning to all of the universe. It is none other and nothing less than Jesus, and the way he brings the Reign of God into the world through small gestures of love, courageous words of truth, and daring actions of justice. What will it look like, today, to live in light of that reality? What will it look like to center your life on that?
Lord Jesus, center us on you and give us the wisdom to let everything else rearrange itself in light of your way of love.
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