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Christians believe in “Jesus Christ.” Did anyone ever tell you those are two distinct faith affirmations? To believe in Jesus is to honor the one man who walked on this earth. To believe in “the Christ” is to include and honor all of creation, his whole Body. (Try
Colossians 1:15-20
or
Ephesians 1:3-14
if you think this is just my idea!) “Here comes everybody” was the way that Jimmy Breslin described what a religion that calls itself “catholic” should be.
Paul says in various places that Jesus is the “first of many brothers and sisters” and he is the first in “a great triumphal parade.” The Christ is the symbolic beginning of the universal procession toward God, love, and life, and he is the end point too. In Revelation it says he is the “Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last” (22:13). This is a cosmological statement about the direction and meaning of history. It is not a statement about the Christian religion being superior or the “only one true” anything. Jesus died and Christ arose. Christ is the one truth pattern, and Jesus personified it in time, but many non-Christians actually live this “truth pattern” much, much better than many Christians. I know some of them.
Adapted from The Cosmic Christ (CD, MP3)
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