Blog #1 What Do You Mean Messianic Existentialist (part 1)

I Googled the term “messianic existentialist” today and I found exactly two items on the search, both of which were things I created. If you Google the term “Christian existentialist” you find considerably more entries, none of which quite capture what I mean when I describe myself as a messianic existentialist. So, for my first post, let me tell you what I mean by the term; hopefully I will be able to do so without contradicting what I said in those other two items I mentioned.
Let’s start with the existential side of things. Existential philosophy recognizes four ultimate concerns in life: meaninglessness, isolation, freedom, and death (Yalom, 1980). These come as no surprise if we consider the human condition as one of constantly searching for meaning and purpose. I really believe this to be true of all people, even the stupidest, most shallow of us is still searching for meaning and purpose, just in horrible, stupid, shallow ways. The impetus behind this search is the image of God inside of us-his touch, his breath, the echo of his original intentions for us in our design that remains inside us all calls to us and compels us to seek this image and the one behind it. Our nature is fallen, however, and thus we are unable to ever fully realize the imago dei, especially when left to our own devices to search for it (I know the fallen nature has many other consequences as well, but we are not addressing those here).
Now back to the ultimate concerns. Again, these are all byproducts of the intersection of our nature and the image of God inside us. A non-theistic take on existentialism holds that life is essentially meaningless and that we as human beings must struggle with this meaninglessness and somehow come to terms with it. Sounds pretty hopeless, but it’s not fully wrong. Consider how long your life is in comparison to time in general, the whole of our existence, with all its passion and desire, its joy and sadness, its moments of fear and courage and embarrassment and happiness and love, all of it is but a spec of time, a brief instant along the continuum of existence. And the fact of the matter is most of what you do simply will not matter in the long run. This is true even within our short lives. Most if not all of the issues and events that were so life-altering to me in my childhood are of no consequence now. How can I expect anything I do to be of consequence to anyone else in this life, much less in the years to come after me, if it can not even matter to me in my own time? I save a life-they still die eventually. I help a man break an addiction to drugs-he becomes addicted to alcohol. I teach the truth-they believe a lie. So much is meaningless in this life.
But then there’s Jesus. Here is a peculiar belief: I believe that about 2000 years ago in the Middle East a man was born. He was not born in the natural way, however. His mother was a virgin when he was born. Peculiar. I believe that that boy grew into a man and followed the law of God perfectly, where no other human being in history ever could or ever would. Peculiar. I believe that that same man taught truth-not truth that is “true for me”, but truth, THE truth. I believe that he was an innocent man and in many respects an insignificant carpenter who managed to scare those in power so much that they decided they had to kill him. Peculiar. I believe that when he died the whole relationship between God and man was changed forever. Peculiar. And I believe that he didn’t stay dead. I believe that he came back to life, got up, took the grave clothes off, and appeared to many. Peculiar. I believe that he rose into the air and is with God and will someday return. Very peculiar.
What Jesus left behind, besides a whole new way of relating to God (and that’s a pretty big deal) is a whole new way of life-life in the way of Jesus. Living life in the way of Jesus is a life that leads to revealing the imago dei; and this is the goal, the meaning, the purpose of life, to live fully in the life of God. I am not left to find meaning and purpose on my own (though I am welcome to shape my meaning and purpose with God) but I am shown meaning and given purpose by Jesus. What I think and say and do as I live life in the way of Jesus has eternal repercussions because the only one who is eternal grants them this honor-life is meaningless no more.
The second ultimate concern is isolation. By this the existentialist means that we never truly, fully know another human being and more to the point another human being can never fully, truly know me. No matter how well I express myself or how close we live in proximity to each other, even if you were to observe me all day long and I were to tell you my life story including every juicy secret there is, still you would not be able to experience life as me and therefore you can not fully know me. In one sense this is a bit of a relief, because I don’t want someone to know ALL my thoughts. But then again, we all struggle from time to time to be understood; sometimes it is all we want out of life-just someone to know us and understand us, but alas….
And then there is Jesus. He is the one who created me. He not only knows my thoughts but my intentions behind them (i.e. he knows my heart). And he knows my destiny. Yes, he knows everything about me, even the juicy little secrets. Moreover, the believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He indwells and he knows-I am isolated no more. This is so much so that the Bible says that the Spirit Himself helps us to pray when we don’t know how or what to pray-He takes the groans of our heart and translates them for us. I am known.