You’re going to have to use your imagination for this one…I’m going to describe a scene from a cartoon called “geek meditation session.”
Three computer-nerdy kinda folks are sitting, eyes closed, in the lotus position. Like they’re meditating. And one guy goes, “In your mind’s browser, clear your cache. Now, delete your history. Now, navigate to a blank web page.”
Alright, that’s funny. And credit where credit’s due…that comes from joyoftech.com.
One of the things we do here at For The Hope is evaluate the truth claims of Christianity, and during this advent season we’re connecting the dots between Jesus and the stuff of life. So, how is Jesus like a piece of software? And different than emptying your mind’s cache? I’m glad you asked!
Ok, so you probably didn’t ask, but hang in here with me.
Some of you don’t know how software is programmed, and some of you do. If you’re in the latter category, pardon this elementary review, but trust me, this goes somewhere.
At the most basic level, a piece of software is zeros and ones. Like little on/off switches, when you string them together in different sequences, you create software that acts a certain way…like helping you write a letter or make a movie.
Over the years as the complexity of this stuff grew, programmers developed “programming languages” that handled all this code in different ways.
As computers developed, there was also software that organized how everything worked together…how that letter you just wrote gets printed, how files get organized and stored, etc., and we call that software an operating system. Like Windows or Mac or Linux.
Keeping all that in mind, let’s read a familiar passage, John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1, ESV)
Whoah! Kinda changes perspective, doesn’t it?
Let’s review some basic theology things. John is referring to Jesus as the Word…the Greek word of which is logos. Like logic. He’s saying Jesus is God, co-eternal with Father and Spirit, co-creator of the cosmos, all that. Three persons, but one essence.
Now don’t take what I’m about to say – and you’ve already figured it out – as a theology lesson you’ll read about in somebody’s commentary on the Bible. But we know that theologians speak of God not only as creator, but sustainer of the cosmos. He is the very creator and essence of life itself.
Or, in a sense, because the design of the cosmos reflects God’s very nature, His character, He’s like the operating system. When we learn more and more to love and live like Jesus, our software’s running great.
But using that software analogy, what happens when there are bugs -- defects in the software? It crashes.
How about us? Or more specifically, what is sin? It’s law-breaking. It’s code-breaking. It’s bugs in the software. And whether there are few bugs or many, sooner or later it crashes. Or as the Bible puts it, the wages – or outcome – of sin is death.
This kind of makes the Good News of Jesus offering us the Christmas gift of fixing our bugs a beautiful thing. We don’t have to look far to see a lot of buggy software, not only “out there,” but “in here.” And I admit, it’s not the perfect analogy, but God’s rescue mission isn’t about making bad people good, it’s about making dead people live.
Here’s another piece of that good news. God made us in His image, one aspect of which is personhood. This includes our minds. We don’t have conversations with Him by emptying our minds or cache or browsers or desires. We have conversations with Him through restored relationship and transformed hearts and minds and desires.
As John Piper puts it, Jesus has existed in all eternity for the sake of relationship and communication in the triune Godhead, but also became divine communication to us. All for the sake of relationship, all for love, all to conquer the bugs once and for all and invite us to trust Him.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in communications, an award-winning author and speaker, and a passionately bad guitarist. ForTheHope equips on-the-go professionals with biblical principles to engage marketplace relationships with competent humility. On Twitter can follow him @RogerCourville and/or his podcast @JoinForTheHope, or get all updates by email subscription at www.forthehope.org.