A few days ago, I spoke about the need to move from asking the question, "What do I believe?", towards asking, "What does a Christian believe?" ("Don't Ask What You Believe"). Something else related to that came up as I recently read H. Richard Niebuhr's influential work, Christ and Culture.

Much like picking and choosing our beliefs, the figure of Jesus Christ can become one that we shape and mold to fit our own wants and needs as well. It is perhaps not the best example, but if you've seen the movie Talledega Nights, you might recall Will Ferrell's picture of Jesus being the perpetual "sweet baby Jesus." To him, that was how he needed to picture Jesus, it was the way in which he best understood him. While it's crass, it does illustrate a point: we make our Jesus who we want him to be.

Niebuhr points to the problem directly, and says, "So great, however, is the variety of personal and communal 'belief in Jesus Christ,' so manifold the interpretations of his essential nature, that the question must arise whether the Christ of Christianity is indeed one Lord" (12). Individuals, different groups, and different cultures all perceive Jesus in a different light. He is a teacher, a law-giver, a king, a liberator, a moral example; the list can go on ad infinitum. I have a few photos in this post, various images of how Jesus has been pictured. Growing up in the West, of course, we cannot forget the proliferation of the image of Jesus as a kind, gentle Swede, caressing a lamb or hugging the children. Critics of American foreign policy and the militant spirit of the religious right have crafted a Jesus that more suits that image. Orthodox iconography paints many more pictures of Jesus in a host of different roles, one of the most abundant being Christ as Παντοκράτωρ (pantokrator, meaning "almighty" or "all-powerful"). The point is that whatever you are looking for in Jesus, you can find it or imagine it.

Surrounded by this confused myriad of characteristics of Jesus, Niebuhr calls us back to look at Jesus for who he really is.

The Jesus Christ of the New Testament is in our actual history, in history as we remember and live it, as it shapes our present faith and action. And this Jesus Christ is a definite person, one and the same whether he appears as man of flesh and blood or as risen Lord...There always remain the original portraits with which all later pictures may be compared and by which all caricatures may be corrected. And in these original portraits he is recognizably one and the same. Whatever roles he plays in the varieties of Christian experience, it is the same Christ who exercises these various offices (14).

Niebuhr's Christology, I understand, is criticized by many for being both confusing and contentious, but I do not seek to address that here. The point he does make that I wish to draw out, however, is clear and echoes the point that is stated succinctly in the Hebrews 13:7: "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." This is essential to remember as we navigate through the ever-increasing caricatures of Jesus. To be sure, Jesus is the redeemer, liberator, king, brother, comforter, and teacher. But he is not just one; he is all of those, and to shape and mold Jesus into only one of those forms does not honor him as the Lord of Heaven and Earth (John 1:1-5, Romans 11:36, Colossians 1:15-23).

Conversely, Jesus is the form that we must mold ourselves to. Paul makes the point clearly in Philippians 2:5-11, admonishing us that our attitude is to be like that of Christ, and illustrating that point with one of the most theologically rich passages in the Bible. Christ sets the standard, and we are to follow it. Our perception of Jesus can only be the totality of what he has revealed to us. To have anything less is to not truly have Jesus, the fullness of God.