“Dad, when we get home I want a boyed cheese sandwich”
Yes, you read that correctly. Boyed --- pronounced “boyd” -- cheese.
“Huh?” I said to my young son who was sitting in the backseat of the car.
We were on our way from home. He was hungry. And he was letting me know his preferences, which he again affirmed.
“I want a boyd cheese sandwich.”
In inquired further. Or rather, I probably grunted. “Boyd?”
It took a bit of additional prodding to figure out what he meant. He wanted what he’d heard called a girled cheese sandwich, but he didn’t want the feminine version. He wanted the boy version. A boyed cheese sandwich.
We hear what we hear in light of what we already know. It’s particularly true for adults (who generally know more stuff than kids). It’s part of why andragogy – the study of adult learning – is distinct from the more general idea of pedagogy, the method or practice of teaching.
So today is National Grilled Cheese Day.
But it also happens to be Easter Sunday, the day when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
And isn’t it curious how our relationship to Easter (and Jesus) is also sometimes shaped by what we think we've heard or know?
As I’ve been in grad school studying a segment of theology that attends to evaluating and defending the truth claims of Christianity versus other truth claims, I’ve grown to not be surprised at how many Jesuses there are.
Some think he was a good moral teacher, some think he was a charlatan. Some accept him as a prophet but most certainly not God incarnate. Still others think he didn’t even exist (despite the preponderance of even skeptical and atheistic scholarship which accedes to the idea that he at least existed).
The crazy thing, if we start at the start, is that truth is that which accords with reality. If someone tells me it’s raining outside, whether it is or isn’t is not my opinion, however sincere I am at asserting what I think (I could be sincerely wrong).
So how’s this Jesus thing connect to boyed cheese?
Religion is all about what humans do. It’s about achievement… getting to god, or moksha, or success, or self-actualization, or…
Christianity is diametrically the opposite. It’s not about what we do. The good news is that our Creator knew we couldn’t fix ourselves. We can’t achieve our way to God, so God sent Jesus on a rescue mission for us. Because for all our chasing, all our accolades, all our money, all our movements and causes, he knows we still are missing something. It’s a “something” that religion and religiosity don’t fix.
It’s not that money or causes or trying to be a better person are wrong, of course, but these things of temporal value can’t fill the place in our life that can only be filled when we’re restored in relationship to the one who made us. Jesus, a loving Savior, longs to heal and restore your joy when you trust him. And in a world full of angst still striving fruitlessly to achieve, there is no more profound message of hope than looking to the very roots – the Creator of us all -- to receive new life and eternal significance. In other words, it’s new life received, not achieved.
And it all hinges on the resurrection – what Christians remember and celebrate on Easter. It’s true, and it’s also beautiful.
To badly paraphrase one of Jesus’ contemporaries, Paul, either the resurrection happened, and Jesus is, in fact God, or we Christians are idiots and fools. To badly paraphrase CS Lewis, this means Jesus was either nutbag, the greatest con artist ever, or, in fact, Lord.
When we encounter Jesus, we encounter Truth and Beauty through the lens of what we knew before. Kinda like my son thinking what he heard was “girled” cheese. But what we think we know doesn’t change the truth that’s “out there” (like the whether it’s raining or not). There are a lot of ideas about Jesus and religion floating around. But if there’s a God who chose to create us and launch the rescue mission we celebrate on Easter, then it’s not people’s opinions that define who he is or what he’s done.
As John, one of Jesus’ followers and an eyewitness of the resurrection put it: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
If true, it changes everything. If not, I’m an idiot...
...and should be celebrating National Grilled Cheese Day instead of Easter.
Boyed and girled cheese sandwiches AFTER (online) church, anyone?
ForTheHope is a daily audio Bible + apologetics podcast and blog. We’ve got a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
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