Me and my Plastic Jesus

Excerpt: I know Jesus lives, yet I’m unsure He’s here. If I forget He’s real, I’lI treat Him like He’s not. I don’t talk nor listen. I’ll drive all day with Plastic Jesus yet ignore the real one. Jesus, wake me from my unbelief!

In the 1967 movie ‘Cool Hand Luke’, Paul Newman plays Luke, a petty criminal sentenced for 2 years to a Florida prison farm.  Where he refuses to play by the rules.  So a cruel warden intends to crush his defiance with beatings and frequent stints in ‘the box’.  His fellow convicts fear for his life and beg him to toe the line.  No chance. Where does Luke get his fearless bravado?  We get a clue as he grabs a banjo and sings.   His song choice speaks for itself.

“I don't care if it rains or freezes ... Long as I got my plastic Jesus … sittin' on the dashboard of my car.
Through my trials and tribulations ... And my travels through the nation ...With my plastic Jesus I'll go far.
I don't care if it's dark or scary … Long as I got the Virgin Mary … Ridin' on the dashboard of my car”

Luke’s reckless and risky behavior appears to be rooted in a philosophy of life that in itself is just as risky.
The danger is not so much in having a plastic Jesus on my dashboard and looking at Him throughout the day.  
The danger comes if I start thinking like Luke and trust my plastic Jesus as if He's 'my lucky charm from God'.

Luke isn't the first to confuse his plastic Jesus with the real Jesus. Or exchange the real God for an image of God.
"Has a nation ever changed its gods?  (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror” Jer.  2:11,12
It’s been going on since creation. Heathen nations have done it. Israel did it. The early church did it. We do it.

'A Different Jesus'

Paul warned the Corinthians “I fear that ...  your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” Why did he feel they could be led astray? He explains. “You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach." 2 Cor 11:3,4  How could they accept a different Jesus? They weren't fully sold on the real Jesus, who said 'Take up your cross and follow me." 

They were easily led astray because while they liked Jesus, they would prefer a version of Jesus they felt more comfortable with. Quickly aligning with any view of God that lined up with their own. We can easily fall for it too. After all, the God of the Bible and the words of Jesus aren't easy to understand, much less believe and follow. But it's a big risk to blindly accept a convenient alternative and not ask who came up with this view or if it's even true.

'Rabbit's Foot Jesus'

One such view of Jesus is the one Cool Hand Luke adopted. You could call his plastic Jesus a ‘rabbit’s foot Jesus’. 
This man made religion sees Jesus as a good luck charm that bails me out of any crisis as long as I wear His name.
This view assumes that once I become His child, God will rescue me out any trouble even if I brought it on myself.
 
God thinks otherwise. He told Jeremiah to stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and tell His people ‘Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!’ They thought just being in the temple would protect them from God’s judgment and prevent them from being captured by the enemy.  But God isn't fooled.

He told them “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?  Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.' (Jer 7) God isn't a rabbits foot you can manipulate!

'Vending Machine Jesus'

A variation of the rabbit foot view is the ‘vending machine God’. Question: Ever kicked a vending machine? Why? Because we demand justice! 'I put the cash in! So where’s my Rolos!' If I do my part, I fully expect God to do His. I think my obedience obligates God to bless me. A good God won't say no to His child. If he does, He's not good.

But neither view holds up if you hold it up against Scripture. God is not a rabbits foot nor a vending machine.
I am to rely on God Himself, not on my idea of God. Especially if my idea of God is one I custom fit for me.
A God who lets me live how I wish, protects me provided I keep His rules and lets me decide which rules to keep.

'My Very Own Personal Jesus'

If I were to make a dashboard Jesus, I would first need to design and draw what I want this Jesus to look like.
I form a wire skeleton, mold a body on to it with clay, sculpt the clay, bake it and paint it to match my drawing.
Once a clay prototype is finished, custom molds are made, filled with molten plastic and then mass produced.
As a designer, I know I've reached my goal when 'my Jesus' resembles the one I imagined and want Him to be.

I do the same thing when I modify my view of Jesus to one I'm more comfortable with and unoffended by. When
Jesus said he'd soon suffer and die, Peter took him aside to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus basically said 'You're wrong. This idea that I won't have to suffer (nor my disciples) is  not from God." He set him straight. 'To be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.'

“My idea of God is not divine idea. It has to be shattered from time to time. He shatters it himself"
CS Lewis.

Jesus shattered Peter's idea of what it is to follow Him. Does my idea of God need to be shattered or corrected? 
Sharon Miller said 'The Bible is a book about God but I found myself reading it as if it were a book about me. I adopted this view of a God whose whole focus was centered on me: my life, my worth, my purpose, my needs.'   This self-centered focus changed her view of God. She describes four views of God that blind us to the real God.
 
The Self-Help God: He exists to make you feel better about you. You feel insignificant? He'll make you feel special.
The Self-Exalting God: His aim is your success. He'll make you look good and give you a platform of influence.
The Self-Serving God: He exists to meet your needs, make life easier, make you happy and grant all your desires.
The Self-Affirming God: He doesn't want you to feel bad. So He'll always affirm you and will never correct you.

God loves me but He's not like this and I'm glad! I want God for who He really is. Not a God I've custom designed.

 'In the beginning God created man in His own image, and man has been trying to repay the favor ever since.'
Voltaire

'Plastic Jesus'

I see no danger in a dashboard Jesus, but I do see a risk in Luke’s belief that Plastic Jesus guarantees me a risk-free life. But my greater concern is how easily I can start looking at the real Jesus in the way I view Plastic Jesus.
 
What do I mean? I had a co-worker who kept superhero action figures in his office.  Yet I never heard him ask Batman what he thinks of Catwoman. Why? Batman isn’t real and he knows it. So he doesn’t treat him like he is.
Unless you’re a toddler or psychotic, you aren’t likely to have long conversations with Mr. Potato Head. Why?
You know he isn’t real, so you rarely give him much thought. Like bobbleheads on a dashboard, he is merely 
a visual expression of your interest in a certain celebrity or superhero. And for Christians, their hero is Jesus.

So as a Christian, I might put a Plastic Jesus on my dashboard. Proudly declaring ‘I’m with Him’. Yet I have to ask
'Am I with Him?' Then why do I drive 4 hours with Plastic Jesus yet never talk to the living Jesus right beside me?
Because I forget He's actually here. I lose all awareness of His nearness. He isn’t missing. My awareness of Him is.

If I lose sight of the real Jesus, I tend to see Him and treat Him the way I treat Plastic Jesus. And how is that?
The same way I treat IronMan. I know he isn't real so I don't talk to Him, listen to Him or give him much thought.

If I forget that Jesus is alive and real and with me now,
I'll start treating Him as if He's dead or absent or plastic.
I'll ignore Him, neglect Him and grow indifferent to Him.

 Note how the Psalmist describes God in Psalm 115 and how he describes the gods of the nations. Of God, He says "Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him." How does he describe man-made idols? "But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk"

That's exactly how many see God. A God who has ears, but doesn't hear. A mouth but doesn't speak. And it's not just unbelievers who think that way. If God hasn't answered your heartfelt cries for help after months of setbacks, it will make you wonder if He still listens or if He still speaks. Like the prophets of Baal praying to a lifeless block of wood, I scream louder. To no avail. So I cry 'What must I do to get this 'God of Love' to hear me and help me?!'

God points out the futility of those who worship idols they've fashioned from a tree with ax and chisel. (Jer 10:14)
"The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them". He also says 'No one stops to think .. Shall I bow down to a block of wood? Yet he can’t bring himself to say “is not this thing in my right hand a lie!” (Isa 44)

An image of God isn't God, so He says 'Don't fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.' Jer 10:5
He exposes their gods as lifeless and powerless. Yet God's people say the very same thing about Him in Zeph 1:12!
"At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The LORD will do nothing, either good or bad.’  They see God as lifeless and powerless!

So what do you do if you see your God as a lifeless idol who doesn't hear, no longer speaks and can't do anything?
Simple. You get another god. It's what Israel did when they came to Aaron and said 'Come make us gods" Ex. 32
And why did they do it? "When they saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they said "Come make us gods who'll go before us. As for this fellow Moses... we don't know what has happened to Him".

They've given up hope that their God will ever show up. Have you? It makes sense that we'll feel that way at times.
I'll be honest. When life has handed me nothing but setback followed by disappointment followed by heartache, everything in me screams 'If you love me, speak up! Show up! You said you'd never leave me. So where are you?'
Sometimes I think of Jesus like Israel saw Moses. When I see 'He's so long in coming', I look for another Messiah.

Ok, I won't go that far. But I may form an image of Jesus that 'makes sense'. Since I'm not convinced He's risen,
I'll try to 'keep Him alive' by reading His story. Which is like looking at old photo albums to remember a friend.
(As if he died and isn't beside me.) I 'quarantine Jesus to a picture frame called history'. (Leslie Weatherhead)

I'll let Plastic Jesus remind me of the real Jesus, who died for me, rose again and ascended. Which is good. Unless I think He's still up there instead of right here. If so, I'll love Him indirectly. From 'afar'. What do I mean? I'll talk about Him but rarely to Him. I'll worship corporately but not privately. I call Him King yet I'm slow to obey Him.

Why? Despite my beliefs, when Jesus doesn't feel real anymore it’s easy to assume He isn't and treat Him as such.

There may be some justified push back right now. You may not feel this way. You may never doubt His presence with you and rarely lose your awareness of Him. Or you may believe He rose from the dead, but your awareness of Him right there with you fluctuates, depending on what’s going on around you. That’s where I often find myself.

I believe in the resurrection and I believe Jesus lives in me through His Holy Spirit. Yet while my mind knows He is with me, I can’t say my heart always believes it. My faith in His closeness wavers. How do I know it wavers?
 
1. How little I think of Him or speak to Him throughout a given day. If someone’s in a room with you, you know it. You’re aware of their presence. You might talk to them or you both may sit in silence. But you’re aware of them.

2. The absence of awe. If the ‘someone’ who’s near me is a person I greatly respect or admire, I’ll be all the more conscious of them if not in awe of them. I’ll be acutely aware of how I act around them and hope they like me. Yet after they leave, the God every hero will bow to stays here.  Yet I’m bored. Why? I’m not even conscious of Him.

3. The ease with which I’ll yield to temptation if I’m alone. Why is it easier to sin if no one else is there? Because I truly believe no one else is there. If I’m watching porn and my wife walks in, I either come clean or try to hide it.  Yet Jesus was here the whole time. Why did I never give a thought to what he might think? He’s not on my mind.

4. My response to hard things. I won't even attempt it if I know I can't do it myself. Because I think I'm by myself.

So how do I open my eyes to the living Christ I've lost sight of? How do I wake my soul out of this deep slumber?
You don't. Only God can open your eyes to see Him. Only God can wake up a soul. But He can! And He wants to!

'The Jesus you didn't see coming'

So two disciples are walking to Emmaus after Jesus was crucified. So Jesus comes up besides them and asks why they're sad. And they tell Him why they feel disillusioned.  'We had hoped He was the one to redeem Jerusalem'.
After a long walk, he acts like he'll go further. But they invite Him in. He breaks bread and 'their eyes are opened'.
They realize it's Jesus! He's alive. They later say 'Did not our hearts burn when He opened the Scriptures to us?'

Something similar happened to a bored unhappy boy. Except it was a plastic Indian who turned his world around.

For a boy, boredom is painful.  On his birthday, it’s torture.  The book ‘Indian in the Cupboard' opens on Omri’s 9th birthday. His brother’s gift is an old cupboard.  His friend’s: a plastic Indian. But Omri is bored by plastic men fighting imaginary wars. The Indian looks cool but like toy soldiers, Omri knows his plastic Indian is as fake as he looks. He can’t do anything but look cool. That night he locks his Indian in the cupboard and goes to bed. Bored.

In the night, a noise jolts him awake. It’s coming from the cupboard! Omri is scared. But he cautiously peeks in. Crouching in the corner is a living, breathing Indian! His sunburned chest and strong arms glisten with sweat. He’s still tiny but alive! And afraid. His name is Little Bear. He lifts his knife as Omri reaches in. It takes awhile, but they slowly warm up to each other. It isn't long before Omri grabs a plastic cowboy and the adventure begins!

My brother and I played cowboys and Indians. So the image of a plastic Indian on a library book captured my eye. And his story captured my heart. Actually, God did that. Little Bears transformation changed my view of Jesus. Difference is: The real Jesus was never plastic. Except in my mind. Where I locked Him in a cupboard of unbelief.
Little Bear reminded me that my hero is alive! And that the idea that Jesus is absent and I'm on my own is a lie. 

Easter reminds me He’s alive. Yet I’ll admit, I wonder why the Easter story doesn’t give me more joy than it does.
For me, I think it’s due to the ascension story. Or my view of the ascension story. It’s messed up my view of Jesus.
Here’s what I mean. His birth tells me of His coming. His cross tells me of His love. Easter tells me He’s alive.

But His ascension reminds me of His absence. I know He left so the Spirit could come. Yet I get stuck on ‘He left’.
At times, I feel what the disciples felt after Jesus died. Sad. I’m told that He’s alive but it doesn’t always feel like it.

Logic tells me He can’t be 2 places at once, so while I know He’s at the Father's side, I’m not so sure He’s at mine.
But once again, our ideas about Jesus can be wrong. The way I see the ascension is not how He sees it. Not at all!
I see it as Him leaving. To Him, it’s the opposite! Because of the ascension He can come to us. Live in us. Which is
precisely why He ascended! But then I ask ‘But how can He be there and here?’ It’s the how I get hung up on.

But as with the trinity or incarnation, just because I can’t see how it’s possible doesn’t mean that it isn't possible.
Read what Jesus said about it and ask the Holy Spirit to show you whether it’s true. FYI: He may not explain how.
Many Scriptures teach us that Jesus is with the Father yet with and in all who receive Him as Savior. Here’s a few.
 
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another (‘one just like me’) advocate (one who comes alongside) to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. The world can’t accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.' Jn 14  On what day will He be in us? On the day He sends His Spirit. It’s by His Spirit He dwells in us.
 
Jesus said "The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Jn 8:29
His Father in Heaven was somehow with Jesus while on earth. And Jesus can somehow be with us by His Spirit.
If Jesus showed up today in visible bodily form today, you wouldn’t waste time trying to figure out how He did it.
You'd just be glad He's here. By means of His Spirit, Jesus is here. Forget the how. He's with you! So be with Him!
 
So what's my point? Like Little Bear playing with Omri in his room, the living breathing resurrected Christ is in your room. Treat Him like it. Talk to Him. Listen. Obey Him. Trust Him. Live with Him. It'll transform your life!

What affected me most in this story is how Little Bear affected Omri. This bored unhappy boy changed overnight! The before and after pics are stunning. His whole mindset changes. He's motivated. He has a spark he never had. He wakes curious. Eager for a new adventure!  This little Indian totally transformed his lifeless colorless world. 

What made this change in Omri so remarkable is that his circumstances hadn’t changed at all. So what prompted such a change? The plastic toy Indian he locked in a cupboard out of boredom was now a living breathing Indian!
And that's what transformed the fearful disciples hiding in Jerusalem. The living breathing Christ showed up!

He's also on your road, right beside you. On the very day you feel alone. May He open your eyes to see Him there.