Jesus Is Not Joss Whedon

I assume most of my readers are Christians. I also assume that some of them are not. This post, as with most of my posts, is mainly aimed at the former group, but if you are a member of the latter, hopefully you'll enjoy this too.

This blog post was inspired by something my pastor said somewhat in passing this past Sunday. Going through the Gospel of John, he said something along the lines of, "Jesus wasn't just a cult leader." Naturally, my mind bounced to Joss Whedon.

If you don't know, Joss Whedon is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, along with several other excellent works that could be best described as "cult hits". He has a tremendously devoted following, says cool and quotable phrases, and consistently puts forth, at a minimum, a good product. No problem with that. My fear is that some people (including, at times, myself) view Jesus this way. As a cool guy whose work I like, and that I quote sometimes in my Tweets or Facebook status because I like this thing he said, and a lot of other people I know like him too.

Don't get me wrong; I am not writing this to tell you that you should stop following Joss Whedon. (Unless you're literally following him. Like, stalking him. That's just creepy.) What I want to say is this. If you're a Christian, and you treat Jesus like you treat Joss Whedon, then there's a problem. Jesus is infinitely more than Joss Whedon. He is not just a quotable figure or a cool guy whose work you enjoy. He is the ultimate, supreme creator of the universe who loved you enough to experience the penalty for all of your screw-ups in life. I am eternally thankful that He did love me, that He does love me, and that He will love me.

Viewing Jesus as nothing more than an icon to follow is disturbing at best. The main problem with this view is the fact that no one else we could ever hope to follow is perfect. Treating Jesus the same way we treat a celebrity is fundamentally incorrect. No matter how much you want Joss Whedon to be able to save your life, the most he would probably do is make you feel better on a bad day. This is not a statement against Joss Whedon, mind you. This is a statement against a wrong view of the savior of the world.

Joss Whedon is great. But great is too small a word to grasp God.

Three random thoughts:

1. I recently discovered the ukulele-wielding songstress named Molly Lewis. I don't know why I find her music so addicting, but I do. Maybe I'm just a sucker for ukuleles and Dylan covers.
2. I'm leaving the country in three days to go on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic. I hope to set up some auto-posts while I'm away, but don't be surprised if I don't!
3. I made a silly video about the silly video series me and my roommates decided to make, and will be continuing this fall. WARNING: Contains running.