Longing for the "The"

Imagine a pastor in the wedding moment. The rings have exchanged. Vows have spoken and anchored. Family and friends wipe tears from cheeks and grins. The pastor turns to the groom and says, “You may kiss a bride.” 

Or consider that you’ve just received word. The news is good! You go to the hospital to the childbirth floor. You locate the room of the new mother. You gush with joy and say to her, “May I see a baby?” 

In such moments, exclusivity doesn’t threaten or confound. In such moments exclusivity protects and clarifies. Everyone in the room would shudder if the groom kissed a bride and the pastor permitted it. We instead long for and treasure the fact that the groom will kiss the bride. To see a baby is almost always pleasant. But for a new mother, it is the baby we want to see. 

The word “the” excludes and highlights one in comparison and contrast to all others. For most of us we treasure the “the”. Our hearts crush toward death when our spouse turns “you’re the one I love” into “you are a one I love.” Most of our lives we search for “the” relationship, “the” answer, “the” job, “the” house or “the” habit that will finally answer and steady our deepest longings. We fatigue deeply the longer we go with finding “a” relationship, “a” job, “a” house. Some of us finally say, “the heck with it!” (we actually say, “the hell with it” but I wasn’t sure if I could write that or not on this blog). We give up and settle for any “a” or “any” that comes along. 

When Jesus says, “I am the Good Shepherd,” he claims to differ from a Good Shepherd. When he says, “I am the light of the world,” or “I am the bread of life,” he claims uniqueness from all other lights and breads. Jesus does not see himself as a light or a bread among other equal lights and breads. He makes the claim painfully clear when he says plainly, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” 

To claim exclusivity scares us and rightfully so in my mind. Hitler claimed to have the answer. People longing for the “the” in devastating economic and war torn realities wanted to believe him and tried his claim. Not every one who claims to have the “the” can or should be trusted. Any of us who have been burned because we thought we had found the one true love of our lives understands this. 

But those who have known one true love without the burn and with the blessing will cherish the exclusive. So it is with those who turned to Churchill during those bloody years. Sometimes exclusive claims harm us. But when our disease threatens us. We instinctively learn the difference when someone says, “I think you need to see a doctor.” Sometimes the nature of our disease requires that we see the doctor. 

Because the doctor knows what others do not blesses, protects and clarifies us. That he or she claims to have unique or rare knowledge is a statement of fact. Arrogance or meanness would only surface in the way the one with the knowledge demonstrated what they knew. To say that no one is Michael Jordan and that every NBA player since is measured by who he was as a player is not to speak arrogantly but factually. So I think it is with Jesus. For Jesus to claim uniqueness is not in itself arrogant or mean. The question for us is this: Is what Jesus claims factual? If it is, the claim offers protection and clarity and blessing for those of us who want God to find us. 

-Zack Eswine