The Real Jesus and the Jesus of History

James McGrath has a nice post over on his blog about following the historical Jesus, and how it mirrors the situation that the first disciples and followers of Jesus faced. It's a good reminder once again that certainty is not something that Jesus ever promised anyone. After all, the religious leaders of his day apparently largely rejected him, and I would argue, they probably had good reasons in doing so. Not following Jesus was not absurd or illogical, then or now. As McGrath puts it

"Whereas many Christians envisage Jesus as one who is either literally or metaphorically 'irresistable,' clearly it was possible for not only opponents but even adherents to find the realities of who Jesus was challenging and at times unsettling. He was a figure about whom it was genuinely possible to have doubts."

This reminds of what Kierkegaard has to say about following Jesus in Training in Christianity. There, he argues that we must become contemporaneous with Christ if we want to follow him, and that involves recognizing that following Jesus in his own time was full of uncertainty and risk. It is not something that we can just complacently embrace on the basis of the subsequent course of Christian history, it involves to whatever extent it is possible, an unmediated encounter with Jesus. This is just as unsettling now as it has ever been. It involves trust and commitment over matters that can be doubted, and the only certainty that can be offered is certainty in God, a certainty that is personal and not propositional. And honestly, sometimes that just seems terrifying. It leaves me questioning, scared if I have committed myself to something that isn't true.

Doubt is absolutely essential to faith, and to life, but it is also deeply uncomfortable. If it weren't for doubt, I am sure I would have lost my faith by now. It isn't something terrible or the "atheist's secret weapon" or whatever else it is made out to be. A God who isn't open to intense questioning isn't worth following. The thing that gets forgotten, in my opinion, is that we are just as open to being questioned by God. It isn't a one way exchange, of us standing here and demanding that God reveal himself. Either way the questioning goes, it probably won't be comfortable, which is why Jesus Christ will always remain a stumbling block for many.