Chapter 1 - ReJesus

It is interesting for me to recognize that, among all the Jesus books on my bookshelf, that the book that has most shaped my desire to know and follow Jesus more faithfully is a work of historical fiction: Silence by the Japanese novelist, Shusako Endo. Silence is set in the historical context of a Jesuit missionary effort to Japan in the early 1600’s. About 40 years after the first Christian priest arrived in Japan in 1549, Japanese rulers grew hostile to Christianity and expelled all Christian missionaries; missionaries who defied the expulsion order, along with their Japanese converts, were subjected to extreme torture.

From the beginning of the Jesuit mission, until the year 1632, and in spite of crucifixions, burnings, water-torture, and the like, no missionary had ever apostatized. However, in 1632, after six hours of torture, Fr. Chistovao Ferreira became the first missionary to give the signal of apostasy. To make matters worse, it became known that Fr. Ferreira was collaborating with his former persecutors.

This is where the historical imagination of Shusako Endo takes over. The protagonist of Silence is Fr. Sebastian Rodrigues, a Portuguese priest who believes he will redeem the failure of Fr. Ferreira by entering Japan secretly, to minister to Japanese converts in a small rural fishing village. Warned that Japanese authorities are aware of his presence, Fr. Rodrigues is encouraged to escape and hide. But from his hiding place, Rodrigues is able to see converts being arrested, tortured, and killed. As he watches his flock suffer, Rodrigues becomes frustrated at God’s silence; that God will not answer the priest’s heartfelt prayers on behalf of those who are suffering for their faith in Christ.

Rodrigues is eventually captured and prepares himself for noble martyrdom by concentrating on the image of Christ that he carries in his mind’s eye. Standing before his captors, Rodrigues refuses their invitation to renounce his faith by stepping upon a bronze image (‘fumie’) of Christ. But Rodrigues is surprised to learn that his captors have no plans to torture or make a martyr of him. Instead, he’s detained in a cell where he hears the tormented cries of converts who are being tortured for their faith. Rodrigues learns that it is their suffering -- the suffering of the Japanese peasants – that will come to an end, if only he will step on the image of Christ as a sign of his apostasy.

As Rodrigues weighs his decision, he is confronted by the apostate priest, Fr. Chistovao Ferreira. Ferreira says to Rodrigues, “You make yourself more important than [those being tortured]. You are preoccupied with your own salvation. If you say that you will apostatize, those people will be taken out of the pit. They will be saved from suffering. Certainly, Christ would have apostatized for them.”

Brought once again before the bronze image of Christ, Rodrigues hears Jesus’ voice breaking through God’s long silence:  “Trample! Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I came into this world. It was to share man’s pain that I carried my cross.” 

At that moment Rodrigues discovers Jesus is very different from the Christ he had imagined. Rodrigues reflects, “I know that my Lord is different from the God that is preached in the churches.”

…

In the first chapter of ReJesus, Frost and Hirsch seem to be making the same point as Endo; that when we really encounter Jesus, he is much different from what is preached about in the churches. The purpose of ReJesus is to reintroduce this wild Jesus so that we will become captivated by his agenda. The authors’ assert, “this book is dedicated to the recovery of the absolute centrality of the person of Jesus in defining who we are as well as what we do.” (p. 8) Frost and Hirsch then state, “Today, we need to accept Jesus as our guide, as well as our Savior. And only a savior as human as the one portrayed in the Gospels could ever be our guide.” (p. 22) (Here, Frost and Hirsch to seem push back against a ‘one-or-the-other’ argument between competing atonement theories by saying that Jesus both ransomed us from sin and death, AND emphasizing that his redemptive life was lived to transform our mode of living.)

What happens when we are captivated by Jesus’ agenda? Well, he changes everything! Frost and Hirsch focus on how, when we align ourselves with Jesus’ agenda, we begin to see God differently, the Church differently, and the world differently. Here are a few of the observations that I highlighted as I read about how Jesus changes our way of seeing in each of these three areas:

1.) You Will See God Differently. Frost and Hirsch note that when our imaginations are taken captive by Jesus, we begin to see God as “one who sends himself to us rather than waiting for us to come to him” (p. 24) and “…we see a God so devoted to his broken planet that he issues himself forth to redeem it.” (p. 27) (The Parable of the Prodigal Son comes to mind.) Additionally they claim, “Through Jesus’ death God has entered into our world for good. God will now no longer dwell in temples, but in the hearts of those who serve God.” (p. 28)

2.) You Will See the Church Differently. Echoing a common criticism of what the institutional church has become, the authors assert that Jesus “is antireligious, offering his followers direct access to the Father, forgiveness in his name, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to be ‘reJesused’ is to come to the recognition that the church as the New Testament defines, it is not a religious institution but rather a dynamic community of believers who participate in the way of Jesus and his work in this world.” (p. 29) Quoting Robert McAfee Brown, Frost and Hirsch affirm that the task of this dynamic community is “to create foretastes of the Kingdom of God on this planet—living glimpses of what life is meant to be, which include art and music and poetry and shared laughter and picnics and politics and moral outrage and special privileges for children only and wonder and humor and endless love.” (p. 29)

3.) You Will See the World Differently. In speaking to this theme, the authors are not focused on the planet in general, but on how we see other inhabitants of the world who are not believers. They state, “The vision Jesus brings is one where the believers learns to identify and tease out [the image of God] in others.” Further, “If we reJesus the church, we will lead it toward a greater respect for the unbelievers, a greater grace for those who, though they don’t attend church services, are nonetheless marked by God’s image.” (p. 34)

This initial chapter of ReJesus concludes in the same way I began this reflection: by citing a work of fiction by Flannery O’Connor called, Parker’s Back. And in referencing this short story, Frost and Hirsch do much the same thing that Shusako Endo does in Silence; they highlight how difficult it is for one who considers themself a devout and committed Christian to actually understand or appreciate what God was doing in the incarnation.

As most of us in this ReJesus book study are ministers, or at least very committed Christians, we need to challenge ourselves with the question, “Where and how are we failing to understand and appreciate the incarnation?” Are we inclined to read or listen to those particular sources that prop up the beliefs we already have about Jesus? Or, are we willing to keep our eyes and hearts open, even to those whose images of Jesus are very different than our own?

-Robb Fuesler

Rev Robert Fuesler is the pastor at Aldersgate UMC in Tustin, California.  Robb has served at La Jolla UMC, Borrego Springs UMC and Atascadero UMC.  Besides spending time with his wife and children, Pastor Robb enjoys reading, golf, body surfing, cinema, and a good cup of coffee.