If I asked you to picture the “archetypal man,” who comes to mind?
By archetypal man, I mean a man who epitomizes everything a man was meant to be.
Who comes to mind? Stop and think about this.
How about Clint Eastwood? George Clooney? Russell Crowe? Denzel Washington?
It’s probably difficult to think of 3 men you actually have personal contact with because “real men” are - indeed - hard to find. Can I get an amen, ladies??
The problem is that, for most of us, Jesus probably didn’t immediately pop into your head.
Why is that?
Could it be because the church has tamed the life of Jesus in an attempt to make him more palatable to today’s culture? Let’s come back to that question.
Check out this story about a pastor named Jim. Then I want to know what you think of this guy…
Jim is a 30-something pastor to whom people are drawn even though he breaks all kinds of rules. He’s confrontational, opinionated, filled with will-power.
He threatens to fight people he knows who are making money off of religion, even once grabbing a TV camera & smashing it to the ground, creating one long commercial break.
He has called members of his church dumb and dull. The ones who are still around don’t ask him many questions because they fear his response.
He warns his church that people will hate them because of their association with him. Some of them, he said, would even be brought to court by blackmailers with unfair charges. Jim told them to pay off the blackmailer before it got that far.
He once instructed a man to sell some clothing in order to buy a weapon.
In order to stem his influence, the local media devises interview scenarios in which to embarrass him; but he’s so cunning that every time this happens, he consistently shows them up instead.
Jim forcefully disrupts the order of things and disregards convention. He’s inappropriate.
He calls people bad names that “respectable men” never say. He verbally confronts one of the most powerful local government officials.
Jim definitely doesn’t mind his manners around “important people.” He causes problems for society’s respectable people. No wonder they want to pull him down.
In one publicly televised message, to illustrate a profound spiritual truth, Jim spoke of excrement going down a drain. A lot of people thought his language was too coarse for a spiritual leader, and the press had a field day with this one:
PREACHER OR POTTYMOUTH? YOU DECIDE.
He has told reporters that his mission isn’t to promote a lifetime of warm and cozy. In fact, on one morning news show he actually said “I bring division and conflict. Live as I say you should and it may tear your families apart!”
Jim is sarcastic & he doesn’t apologize.
He goes to parties on Friday & Saturday nights and he hangs out with others who do. At least once, he has even provided the alcohol for free even though kids were there. Drinks were on him, even though he knew he’d be accused of corrupting others.
A lot of times, he can be found hanging out with the prostitutes & disabled homeless who are always causing trouble in town.
Most people have given up on Jim simply because they don’t understand him.
What do you think about Pastor Jim? Good guy? Or complete a-hole?
At some point in Jim’s story, you figured out that this is actually the life of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels.
Does it sound strange? This is definitely not the behavior expected of men in Christian churches today - in fact, if we were honest we might even say that Christ was not a Christian ! This is a guy we’d be praying for, not praying to !
How absurd is that.
God didn’t intend for man to be overly aggressive, but he certainly didn’t intend for him to be overly passive either.
We need to stop taming the life of Christ. He was the most loving, kind, and compassionate man in history, but he was a warrior… far from a “nice guy.”
And he was the archetypal man. He was the fulfillment of everything God intended and wants from men today.
Married Ladies: Does your husband come to mind when you think of the archetypal man?
If not - if you’ve got a nice guy on your hands - here’s what I recommend.
First, we’re not going to take it well if you tell us bluntly that we’re not being men. In the entire history of mankind, I guarantee you that conversation has never been productive.
But you can subtly accomplish transformation by affirming our strengths & encouraging change in our weaknesses. Despite our seeming inability to remember most things you tell us, when you compliment & respect the work we do, our physical strength, our ability to provide, yep.. even how sexy we are, it makes us want to give you more of those things.
As for our weaknesses… even though we don’t want to hear about them, we need to. We need loving challenges to be decisive, to create a Godly home, to grow in wisdom, and to be men.
Finally, pray for us because prayer is power. Pray that we’d recognize Christ as the archetypal man - both lover and fighter - that we should strive to be.
Men: Lets be the archetypal men that both our wives and our God need from us.
** Parable of Jim paraphrased from “No More Christian Nice Guy” by Paul Coughlin. Read this book.
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Posted on Sunday, 13th July 2008 in Books, Faith, Life | Comments (0)