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“Be about the work of building my kingdom.”
Said Jesus never.
I’m serious. Go check. I’ll wait....
While I’m waiting, let me draw attention to what Jesus said to Peter: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).
Jesus will build. We won’t. We only confess. We live by imitating Jesus. This happens as we dwell in the house he has already built. We’re not building for Jesus. We’re occupying the space he created for us already. As we do so, becoming more like Christ together, we become the light through which God's goodness shines into a darkened world.
Or consider Paul’s letters. He writes that it’s our focus to “build up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). Which, for Paul, does not mean “grow.” It means “build up one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Not build up an institution. Not build an outreach or program. Build up the body. How? Through love and service to one another.
What am I getting at? Shrunken stories of the gospel. The idea that we need to be busy building for God is one of the shrunken gospel narratives. It’s the call to discipleship merged with Western-American ideals of productivity.
The problem with shrunken stories is that they miss the point.
James Bryan Smith highlights another shrunken story: You are a sinner. The penalty for sin is death. Eternal death. Believe Jesus paid the price and confess your sins so you can be forgiven so you will go to heaven when you die.
There are true statements here. But it’s a shrunken narrative. You can have truths, but within the wrong storyline, they become something else.
The storyline Smith highlights is a shrunken narrative because first of all, the beginning of the story of the gospel is not “you are a sinner.”
Second, the point of the story is not going to heaven. The shrunken story gets this wrong because the starting point is off.
If you, or someone you know, thinks of God as the “big man upstairs,” who gives you a chance to fix your messed up life if you confess and are truly sorry for your sins – that's a shrunken story that is not beautiful, good, or true. Or if things amount to making sure you “get right with God” -- again, we’re dealing with a shrunken story that is not beautiful, good, or true.
It’s a shrunken story because it does not necessarily lead to transformation. Forgiveness might lead to thankfulness and gratitude, but if the story is reduced to forgiveness and heaven, then Jesus really didn’t have to live a complete human life. God could have done things differently. And being like Jesus becomes an afterthought, not the purpose. And that's a shrunken narrative.
This is what James Bryan Smith is getting at in chapter 2 of The Magnificent Story. He wants Christians to take another look at the story of the gospel we’ve been telling. Because mostly this narrative is a pretty recent version that somehow ignores the bulk of Christian tradition and history. Maybe that’s the problem – theological amnesia. Theological amnesia leads to a shrunken version of the story, which leads to all manner of things not beautiful, good, or true.
What if we consider a different starting point? We'd get a different story. If the starting point is that humanity was made as the image of God, in God’s likeness, this changes things, doesn’t it? If that is the case, then “you are a sinner under God’s wrath” is not the place to begin the story, explain why Jesus became human, or tell us what the endpoint is.
For Smith, the beautiful, good, and true story begins with God. Not our sin. And the story ends with God, not us getting to heaven. That’s because the story is not about us and getting us to heaven. It’s about God, who is himself the beauty, goodness, and truth that sustains the world.
Which means the problem is not merely about the things I or you have done wrong. The problem is that the beauty, goodness, and truth of God has been clouded and forgotten. Our eyes have been blinded to seeing it. By sin, yes.
Which means that Jesus’ purpose is not merely to be our get out of jail ticket or give us forgiveness. Jesus is the one who renews and restores, who heals human blindness so that we might see and live with the fullness and flourishing that God intended. Forgiveness, yes. But forgiveness is not the point; it opens the door so that we might truly live. Heaven is for real. It is not the endpoint of our story.
Being aligned with the beauty, goodness, and truth of who we were made to be is the beginning, middle, and endpoint of the story. John puts it well in 1 John 3:2: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
We are children of God. As children, we are created to be like our father. God is not just creator. He is father. Christ reveals what we are made to be. And the point is for us to be like him. This is our story. It is beautiful because it begins and ends with the God who is beautiful. It is good because it is a story that is about the goodness we were made for that has been restored. It is true because it aligns with the reality of the Triune God who has existed before creation and who is the foundation of reality (more on this next week!).
May you live this story.
Said Jesus never.
I’m serious. Go check. I’ll wait....
While I’m waiting, let me draw attention to what Jesus said to Peter: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18).
Jesus will build. We won’t. We only confess. We live by imitating Jesus. This happens as we dwell in the house he has already built. We’re not building for Jesus. We’re occupying the space he created for us already. As we do so, becoming more like Christ together, we become the light through which God's goodness shines into a darkened world.
Or consider Paul’s letters. He writes that it’s our focus to “build up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). Which, for Paul, does not mean “grow.” It means “build up one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Not build up an institution. Not build an outreach or program. Build up the body. How? Through love and service to one another.
What am I getting at? Shrunken stories of the gospel. The idea that we need to be busy building for God is one of the shrunken gospel narratives. It’s the call to discipleship merged with Western-American ideals of productivity.
The problem with shrunken stories is that they miss the point.
James Bryan Smith highlights another shrunken story: You are a sinner. The penalty for sin is death. Eternal death. Believe Jesus paid the price and confess your sins so you can be forgiven so you will go to heaven when you die.
There are true statements here. But it’s a shrunken narrative. You can have truths, but within the wrong storyline, they become something else.
The storyline Smith highlights is a shrunken narrative because first of all, the beginning of the story of the gospel is not “you are a sinner.”
Second, the point of the story is not going to heaven. The shrunken story gets this wrong because the starting point is off.
If you, or someone you know, thinks of God as the “big man upstairs,” who gives you a chance to fix your messed up life if you confess and are truly sorry for your sins – that's a shrunken story that is not beautiful, good, or true. Or if things amount to making sure you “get right with God” -- again, we’re dealing with a shrunken story that is not beautiful, good, or true.
It’s a shrunken story because it does not necessarily lead to transformation. Forgiveness might lead to thankfulness and gratitude, but if the story is reduced to forgiveness and heaven, then Jesus really didn’t have to live a complete human life. God could have done things differently. And being like Jesus becomes an afterthought, not the purpose. And that's a shrunken narrative.
This is what James Bryan Smith is getting at in chapter 2 of The Magnificent Story. He wants Christians to take another look at the story of the gospel we’ve been telling. Because mostly this narrative is a pretty recent version that somehow ignores the bulk of Christian tradition and history. Maybe that’s the problem – theological amnesia. Theological amnesia leads to a shrunken version of the story, which leads to all manner of things not beautiful, good, or true.
What if we consider a different starting point? We'd get a different story. If the starting point is that humanity was made as the image of God, in God’s likeness, this changes things, doesn’t it? If that is the case, then “you are a sinner under God’s wrath” is not the place to begin the story, explain why Jesus became human, or tell us what the endpoint is.
For Smith, the beautiful, good, and true story begins with God. Not our sin. And the story ends with God, not us getting to heaven. That’s because the story is not about us and getting us to heaven. It’s about God, who is himself the beauty, goodness, and truth that sustains the world.
Which means the problem is not merely about the things I or you have done wrong. The problem is that the beauty, goodness, and truth of God has been clouded and forgotten. Our eyes have been blinded to seeing it. By sin, yes.
Which means that Jesus’ purpose is not merely to be our get out of jail ticket or give us forgiveness. Jesus is the one who renews and restores, who heals human blindness so that we might see and live with the fullness and flourishing that God intended. Forgiveness, yes. But forgiveness is not the point; it opens the door so that we might truly live. Heaven is for real. It is not the endpoint of our story.
Being aligned with the beauty, goodness, and truth of who we were made to be is the beginning, middle, and endpoint of the story. John puts it well in 1 John 3:2: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
We are children of God. As children, we are created to be like our father. God is not just creator. He is father. Christ reveals what we are made to be. And the point is for us to be like him. This is our story. It is beautiful because it begins and ends with the God who is beautiful. It is good because it is a story that is about the goodness we were made for that has been restored. It is true because it aligns with the reality of the Triune God who has existed before creation and who is the foundation of reality (more on this next week!).
May you live this story.
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