Man, April was a crazy, crazy month, as evidenced by the fact that I only posted six times. May (so far) looks like there will be more time for the three R’s – reflection, response, and writing stuff.
A friend of mine bought this for me a while back at a toy store in Austin. It’s not just any old Jesus action figure – it’s Deluxe Miracle Jesus! He comes with five loaves and two fish, and a water/wine jug (on one side the interior of the jug is blue, the other is red – awesome).
And – the best of all – glow-in-the-dark hands!!
There is a lot to say about Deluxe Miracle Jesus. A lot. I’ll break it down into categories.
I. Deluxe Miracle Jesus As A Toy
I think we’ve all seen action figures of Jesus, but have we really given much thought to Jesus as an action figure? I can only speak from my own experience, but the primary utility of an action figure, to me, was to create and live out your own adventures. In the cartoons Superman might never make it out to the Sahara and discover that Skeletor had kidnapped Wonder Woman, and he certainly wouldn’t usually team up with Spider-Man to save her (two different comic companies, you know), but that could happen in my sandbox.
Is this an appropriate thing to encourage children to do with Jesus? It seems like you’re veering uncomfortably close to blasphemy if you have Jesus team up with Batman to fight the Joker, or the Devil, or a Devil-possessed Joker (though stranger things have happened in comics). Wouldn’t children be encouraged instead to stick with the canonical stories? Get yourself a “Herod’s Temple Playset” with flipping-over-table action? Ok, that actually sounds fun, but essentially what you are doing is re-enacting stories you’ve already seen – is that fun? By a strict definition, it’s not “play.” “Play” has no rules. Sports have rules, and games, and art, but not play (my wife does play therapy a lot with children– she takes this distinction very seriously). Can you really “play” with a Jesus action figure? Can you really “create” with one? (There’s a theological pun in there somewhere.)
Now - other Biblical characters? I think there's a lot more potential there. A quick Google search reveals a LOT of Bible action figures, including Moses, Noah, David, Goliath, Samson, and...Esther?
Ah, I see now, Esther, as a queen, and a girl action figure, comes with a ton of changes of clothes. And a tambourine. There is a lot of potential here. A LOT (strangley, there is no Lot action figure...). But it would take us too far afield from the present topic. Come back soon for more on Bible action figures.
Putting these more theoretical issues aside, here are the pros and cons to this particular Jesus action figure.
Cons:
* Not much articulation, he can only move his wrists, hands, and head. In other words, this version of Jesus will not be drop-kicking anyone, through goal posts or otherwise (though he could flip over tables).
* Those little loaves and fish aren’t going to last long.
Trust me on this – accessories are the first thing to disappear forever from a toy collection, followed by removable costume pieces like helmets and capes, then arms and/or legs. I still mourn the childhood loss of The Lone Ranger’s tiny, tiny guns.
Pros:
Four words (hyphenated) – glow-in-the-dark-hands! Glow in the dark toys remind me of these bad boys:
II. Deluxe Miracle Jesus as a Product of Our Culture
I heartily recommend to you the book “They Like Jesus But Not the Church” by Dan Kimball.
It will make you think – a lot – about the culture around us and how best to reach them with the gospel that changes lives.
In chapter three, “Jesus as Son of God and Plastic Action Figure,” he says:
“Something about Jesus fascinates us. Whether we want him on our dashboards or on our T-shirts or in the lyrics of our songs, he has become something of a pop icon in our culture. ..It’s almost impossible to tell sometimes which Jesus paraphernalia comes from Christians and which comes from pop culture.
What makes all of these products and all of this attention to Jesus interesting and exciting is that, combined with all the interest in and respect for Jesus among many people, it is becoming easier to talk about Jesus. Most people today, whether in a church or outside the church, believe Jesus is a good person who has some sort of spiritual insight.”
Deluxe Miracle Jesus is a great example of this. The sides of the box have the passages which talk about the miracles which the accessories are based on (both from the gospel of John). The back text of the box talks about the meaning of his name, and his place in various world religions, from prophet of Islam to avatar of Hindus to the Christian designation as Son of God.
The text box on the back concludes, “Although he is understood in many different ways, everyone seems to agree that he was an extraordinary man.”
Which leads us to our third point…
III. Deluxe Miracle Jesus as a Theological Statement
As a toy, glow-in-the-dark-hands are awesome. As a statement of belief, this is completely wrong, and a fun little heresy that has been popping up since the second century or so. In the theology world, we call it docetism. In the real world, we call it “believing Jesus wasn’t fully human.”
It’s understandable why we would fall for this. We worship the resurrected Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the agent of creation, the image of the invisible God, etc. When we read the gospels, especially those stories involving miracles, healing, and God-given foreknowledge, we transpose the heavenly Jesus onto the figure who lived in first-century Palestine. We imagine Jesus as almost but not quite floating six inches off the ground. We see him as untroubled, sinless, always in control of every situation, able to read the mind of God and everybody else, able to perfectly discern God’s will, and maybe even with glow-in-the-dark-hands. We even imagine such thoroughly human people as Abraham, David, Peter, and Paul in this or similar ways. We take our heroes of the faith and make them more than human. We make them angels.
But – none of these people were angels. And neither was Jesus. He was a man. Everybody who met him saw him as a man. No one who saw his physical appearance said “That guy must be divine.”
And – get this, no one who saw him do miracles thought he was divine. When he calms the storm the disciples say, “What kind of man is this?” The Samaritan woman to whom he revealed knowledge he could not have received on his own did not say, “Sir, I perceive that you are the Son of God.” She said, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.” And prophets were human.
There has been a lot of ink spilled over how the human and divine nature of Christ are related – that isn’t my concern here. My concern is a more practical one. How did Jesus do what He did? How did he know what he knew? And what if (cue ominous music) the power that he used to do such things were also available to His followers – to those who are in him?
Jesus got hungry. Jesus got tired. Jesus got worn out by crowds. Jesus got angry. Jesus got stressed out. Jesus got thirsty. Jesus was deeply moved and upset by the sin around him. Jesus was deeply moved by compassion for those hurting around him. Jesus wept for his dead friend. All of these things are part of what makes us human.
Jesus wasn’t afraid when all others around him were. Jesus wasn’t confused when everyone else around him was. Jesus knew what God required from him, and he didn’t waver in doing it. He knew His life’s purpose. Jesus spoke with authority. Jesus loved with abandon. Jesus healed the sick. Jesus saw people as God saw them, not as how they were labeled by their culture (especially their religious culture). Jesus did not sin. And I propose to you that all of these things are every bit as much characteristics of humanity as the characteristics in the paragraph above. They are characteristics of a human who is in right relationship to the Father.
When we think about humanity in religious terms, we usually think in terms of negatives. Sin, brokenness, and eventually death. But God made humans to be good – completely good – righteous, whole, and alive. That’s what it really means to be human. We see Jesus' example of being righteous, whole, and alive, and we think “he’s more than human.” He’s a Deluxe Miracle Action Figure, a superhuman in human form. But we’ve got it backward. Jesus is the only person who did “human” the way it was always supposed to be. It’s not that he was more than human – it’s that we are all less than human. We’re missing the one key thing that makes a human fully human – a right relationship with God.
How did Jesus, the human, get this right relationship? Well, you’re not going to believe this, but apparently – according to the gospels - Jesus got this right relationship through prayer and reading the scriptures.
We read the divinity of Jesus that we believe now back onto the Jesus of the first-century, and we imagine that Jesus had some sort of heavenly telepathy, and powers of transmutation. We read the divinity of Jesus that we believe now back onto the Jesus of the first-century and we miss that he asked the Father to give his disciples (that’s us, too!) the same kind of connection as he had to the Father.
The last word here is that, of course, Jesus is also divine. He is, in a sense that is very difficult to articulate, but not hard to believe, God. What we sometimes miss is the moment that people started saying these kinds of things about Jesus. It was after his resurrection from the dead. “You know, what, everybody,” the disciples said to each other, “I think we can now safely conclude that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of God.” The same Jesus they ate breakfast with, took long walks with, saw perform miracles, saw DIE, and then – saw alive again. Not a ghost, zombie, or angel – but the real, honest-to-God Jesus, back from the dead, never to die again. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t the Son of God before (that’s another heresy that’s been around a looong time). It means the resurrection confirmed for the disciples and the world what had already been true in the kingdom of God.
We'll let Peter have the last word here, from his Pentecost sermon - but pay attention to how and when Peter refers to his friend and master, Jesus:
“Men of Israel, listen to these words! Jesus the Nazarene, a man accredited to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know – this man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God has raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power…This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses…Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ – this Jesus whom you crucified.” – Acts 2:22-24, 32, 36
