[The Christian] story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men
—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused. -JR Tolkien
Greg Boyd has this great response to this Tolkien quote in his post titled "Jesus: True Myth and True History".
What Lewis and Tolkien are saying is that the Jesus story fulfills the intuitions and longings expressed in many myths and legends. The God revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the reality to which certain aspects of various myths and legends point. Jesus is the reality all authors of myths and legends, together with the rest of us, dream of. If we are honest with ourselves, and if we grasp the depth of the “good news” this story embodies, something quite like the Jesus story is what we hope to be true. Yet, most amazingly, this story gives us reason to believe it is historically true.
I find this to be a great response to the idea that the virgin birth, sinless life, miraculous ministry and resurrection of Jesus are merely mythical. Perhaps our desire to embrace a comic book hero from Krypton reveals a deep God authored longing for such a story to be true? Perhaps the existence of mythology substantiates the historical Christ?
As usual I appreciate this post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan! Hope you and Mickey are staying cool!
DeleteIf all the world is waiting for the One to come and conquer death. (And there does seem to variations on the story around the world, though the details are different.)Should we really be surprised when He appears.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder Mike what the second coming will be like. My thinking is that it may be quite different than we have imagined it to be.
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