Our Image Of God

        In class today, we talked about how we as people perceive God and, more commonly, Jesus.  In an earlier blog, it was mentioned that we tend to "put Jesus in a box".  We create a Jesus that is predictable and unemotional, because we fear what we can't predict, and a God with emotions is very unpredictable.  We have developed a certain persona for God and that is one that is always serious.  So what do we do when we meet a God with a sense of humor?  We certainly would not expect that.  That is precisely what makes God a comedy, because He is unpredictable.
     
      Professor Leeper told us about how the Pharisees had a certain image for God as well.  They did not believe Jesus could be the Messiah because they were expecting a warrior covered in blood.  

     This made me think of the film The Road To El Dorado.  In the film, Miguel and Tulio were believed to be gods by the people of El Dorado, by all but the high priest.  The high priest (I can't remember his name),like the Pharisees, thought the gods were supposed to be warriors, not that they could possibly be like Miguel and Tulio.  He was afraid of the unexpected and that made him a dangerous enemy.

(I tried to find a picture of what the high priest thought they were supposed to look like, but I could not find one.)

        We want God to be serious and predictable, but the truth is that He is not.  When He told Abraham and Sarah that they were going to have a child even at their old age and they laughed, He laughed with them.  In Luke 18:16, Jesus tells his disciples to let the little children come to Him.  Do we really think that Jesus could be serious with children?  I've seen many pictures of Jesus playing with children, smiling and having fun just like a child.  We certainly could not predict that.

        
        After realizing that we have misconceived the image of God, we have made up for our mistake by displaying pictures of Jesus as a clown.  We are not mocking Him in any way by this, but portraying through that the concept of God as comedy, as the unexpected.  God is not something that we should be able to restrain and predict, but He is also not something we should be afraid of.  The Truth is that He is unpredictable and can do unexpected things, and through that should we be in awe of Him.