Personalized Savior?

“…He who is already King has come to open His kingdom to men; but in their blindness men try to force Him to be the kind of king they want; thus they fail to get the king they want, and also close the kingdom He offers.” – Bailey (on John 6:15)

“Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don’t upset us…” or so the commercial jingle goes. But, it isn’t just our hamburgers that we can make just how we want them. Personalization is everywhere and available for almost anything. Your smart phone, your computer, your web browser even cars come with personal settings that you can pre-program and call up whenever you sit in the driver’s seat. And none of that is “wrong” per se (though you should obviously choose sky-blue if it is an option). In fact, for the most part it is good and helpful. But, this personalization teaches a not-so subtle lesson that “me” is the center of any universe I enter and things and even people must bow to my wishes. While this is in general an unhelpful way to interact with the world, it is devastating to life-giving relationship with Jesus.

At the core of relationship with Jesus is our connection to Him. But, if we define Him in ways that He would not define Himself and then build our relationship based on our ‘fake’ Jesus we end up with a sham discipleship. We are not following Jesus as He really is, so we are not following Jesus. This has been a problem since Jesus’ earthly ministry. John 6 is just one episode of this exact phenomenon keeping people from entering Jesus’ Kingdom. The crowd of John 6 wants Jesus to be king on their terms. Jesus’ refusal and then further teaching which drives them away should be a cautionary tale to any would be follower of Jesus. Jesus defines you. He sets the terms of your relationship. You don’t personalize Jesus to fit your needs, desires or affirm your identity. If you try, you will fail to get the King and close the Kingdom to yourself and others.

For the follower of Jesus in an everything “your way” culture, this calls for careful self-examination. It also, and more helpfully, calls for careful Jesus-examination. Jesus was clear about who He was and doesn’t want us to be confused (His “I AM” statements being just one example of this clarity). His demands on His followers flow out of His identity. This means the more I understand Jesus as He is the more I can follow Him in meaningful and life-giving ways. It also means that knowing Jesus deeply is a safeguard against personalizing Him as a Savior who does and says things as I like them. Many people claim to follow Jesus but their lives show that the Jesus they are following is a personalized version of Jesus empty of His life giving power and its accompanying demands.

If we are to ‘feed’ on the Bread of Life, we must be sure we’ve got ‘real’ bread. Then, we must be willing to let Jesus define us and personalize us. He must increase, I must decrease. Jesus came to offer His life for mine. To have His life means I must lay mine down, personalization and all (even if it means no sky blue). If there are areas that Jesus clearly says “no” than I must change. Conversely, if there are areas where Jesus says “yes” than I must obey. To do less than this is to make me the personalizer, the very error no one can afford.