Sermonette: Action figure Jesus

One of my father-in-law’s hobbies is collecting toys. He has a myriad of different collectible figures from different movies or TV shows. Recently he visited me and gave me five figures based upon the characters from the TV show ‘Lost.’ I find them fairly amusing because they are plastic models of actors attempting to portray people who never really existed. That thought makes me laugh a little inside. My father-in-law has figures from all sorts of movies (Star Wars, the Fantastic Four,) TV shows (Lost), and I believe he even has a few based upon recent politicians; but of all the figures my father-in-law owns, I do have one distinct favorite- his action figure Jesus. He stands about six inches tall and has magnets in his hands so he can hold the loaves and fishes that come with him. Action figure Jesus has bendable elbows so he can hug other action figures, fair skin, blue eyes and brown hair (completely ignoring the fact that Jesus was middle eastern, not German), and a smile that could light up a room, or at least the shelf he sits on. The final, most glorious aspect of this figurine is his glow-in-the-dark hands. I’m not really sure why Jesus needs glow-in-the-dark hands, but they’re amusing none the less. Every time I see this action figure, it makes me smile and chuckle a little.

I tell this story not to insult or blaspheme. My father-in-law is one of the most effective youth pastors I’ve ever known and making an action figure based upon Jesus isn’t a horrible idea. I mean, come on, did GI Joe ever walk on water? Did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ever calm a storm with mere words? Did Barbie ever cheat death? I tell this story because I believe many Christians worship an action figure Jesus. They worship a Jesus who is happy with one hour a week; a Jesus who saves them from hell, but doesn’t really care what they do with their lives, as long as they don’t do any of the really bad things, like murder, commit adultery, or not dress up for church. My experience has been that this is the habit of rural midwestern churches. I grew up in a church that read the Bible every week, yet came to the conclusion that Jesus wanted an hour, and only an hour, on Sunday morning. From my perspective, these churches are shrinking Jesus - instead of worshiping a man who put the fear of God in demons, who challenged the authorities of the day, who died, but then beat death - we worship a small, plastic Jesus. We treat the Son of God as if he is a plastic image that is dusted off occasionally and makes a great conversation starter. This is ridiculous. Life size Jesus demands everything. Life size Jesus loved us so much that he became a man to die for our mistakes. The truth of this was so powerful that of the 13 apostles (11 disciples + Judas’ replacement Matthias + Paul) 12 of them died because they wouldn’t stop telling the story of this man, Jesus. Of the 13 ordained men who saw the resurrected Christ, only one died of natural causes. They were so affected by life size Jesus that they had to give their all. The reality of what Jesus did shaped their lives, their first followers’ lives, and even today there are people who daily give their lives for this Jesus. Somewhere along the line, though, Christians began to think that Christianity is about traditions and ethics, as opposed to the life changing, reality altering experience it is. The first disciples’ Jesus wasn’t six inches tall and plastic. He was bigger than they were. He didn’t sit on a shelf; he was active, inspiring, healing, saving. He wasn’t happy with a weekly dusting, he wanted everything. He wanted their love, faith, finances, families, careers, trust, hearts, dreams… everything. He still does 2,000 years later. Today, he wants your all. He’s not satisfied with 10% of your finances, .89% of your time ( 1½ hours a week,) and 0% of your heart. This is because he’s not 6 inches tall with glow-in-the-dark hands; he’s God in heaven with the ability to fill your heart like it was designed to be.

So today, may your reality of Jesus be the all mighty, the all-powerful, who desires all of you…and not just your dust rag.