TYPECASTING
Matthew
13:54-58
"Is
not this the carpenter's son?"... And they took offence at him.
I was told recently that a devout Christian
when asked if he knew about me declared that I was a "free-thinker!” The word refers to intellectuals who reject the
teaching of the Church and the Bible on the basis of critical thinking. Freethinkers refuse to accept as truth what cannot
be proved by reason, and are invariably agnostics and atheists! I have been called many things in the course
of my life but, as far as I know, never a "freethinker!" So there you have it! And I always thought I was a Christian who
used my God-given rational faculties when thinking about my faith.
But that is not all. I once preached at one of Cape Town's
well-known boys' schools on their Memorial Day.
The chapel was full of Old Boys and supporters of the school who had
come for this special occasion. At the
time, South Africa was still in the grips of apartheid. My sermon was based on Jesus' words that we
should seek God's justice above everything else, for without that there could
be no future for our country. After the
service, as I stood at the door, I overheard one Old Boy say to another as they
were waiting their turn to shake my hand:
"He must be a communist!"
Whether or not I was intended to hear the comment, I knew they were referring
to me. It was not the first time I was called a communist, like others at that
time who were taking seriously the teaching of the Bible that we should seek
justice. But by calling me a communist
they thought they had discredited what I had said. So there you have it. I am not just a freethinker but also a
communist!
But I am in good company. Jesus was treated in this way. "Is not this the carpenter's son,"
declared the crowd one day when Jesus preached in his home town of
Nazareth. "Where does he get these crazy
ideas from? Who does he think he
is?" The people who heard Jesus
preach that day in Nazareth had great difficulty in accepting what he said, in
fact, like the prophets before him his words offended them. What he said about God's kingdom did not fit
their ideas about either religion or politics.
So they put him in a box to discredit what he was saying. Jesus is just old Joseph's son! Can anyone take seriously what a carpenter's
son has to say about the kingdom of God?
We often use labels to discredit people. We call them liberals or fundamentalists,
religious fanatics, counter-revolutionaries, communists or nationalists, or whatever
name helps us to discredit their views. We usually do so without really getting to
know them as people. So we we end up
relating to others in terms of labels rather than as human beings. This is also the danger of psychologically
type-casting people. "Oh, yes, you are an introvert!' Or an extrovert. Some of you may be familiar with Enneagrams, which
is a way of helping people understand themselves according to their dominant
characteristics. According to the Enneagram
theory, there are nine types of human beings.
Type 1 is the reformer, the self-controlled perfectionist; type 2 is the
caring, generous people-person; type 3 is success driven, efficient, and image
conscious; type 4 is the sensitive individualist, self-absorbed and
temperamental; type 5 is the intense, brainy person, innovative but also
isolated; type 6 is committed, responsible but also security conscious and
suspicious; type 7 is the enthusiast, fun-loving, versatile but a bit
scatter-brained; type 8 is the dominant, self-confident and confrontational
person; and type 9 the easy-going peace maker, receptive, reassuring if also
complacent and agreeable. If you did not
recognise yourself in any of these descriptions, I can assure you that the rest of us recognized
you immediately!
Such typecasting can box people into categories
or even be used to justify what we or they do.
"Oh yes, I have a dominating personality and therefore I have the
right to dominate others!" On the other hand, Enneagrams can help us understand ourselves
better and why we may have difficulty in relating to someone who is different
to us. They help us identify aspects of
our personality that need strengthening in order for us to become more balanced
human beings. We might also think about
Jesus as the one who embodies the best in each of these psychological types,
and therefore as the model of what it
means to be truly human. To follow him then
becomes a journey into wholeness whereby our dominant personality traits are
truly integrated in our lives without being hurtful or harmful. We may still have
a dominant type of personality, but in Christ we learn how to relate to them in
a helpful way. So we grow into maturity
as human beings and Christians.
But let us also not forget that Jesus the
"carpenter's son" sometimes offended his hearers! So let us not typecast Jesus into our idea of
what a fully balanced human being should be. Prophets are seldom "balanced
people" as we normally understand that word. So, too, the Jesus we encounter in the
gospels keeps on breaking out of the boxes in which we often place him in order
to make his teaching more palatable, balanced and acceptable. Yes, of course,
in times of difficulty and trouble Jesus can be the companion who gives us
strength and comfort. But he can also be
an uncomfortable companion along the road, challenging our attitudes and
actions as he did that day in Nazareth when people took offence at what he
said. "Has the carpenter's son
become a communist," some might have even said if they had known the
word! Too often our understanding of
Jesus is based on the little we remember from Sunday School, hearsay, clichés,
or even words like saviour, messiah and Lord that we think we know the meaning
of very well. That is why we need to
keep revisiting the gospel story to discover who Jesus truly was and now is for
us today. Otherwise if we met him along
the road today we might not actually recognise who he is. He is just a carpenter's son!
When Jesus really makes himself known he invariably
takes us by surprise, breaking apart the moulds into which we have cast
him. It's as though we are meeting him
for the first time. But how exciting
that can be for the journey of faith in following him. Instead of taking offence at what he says to
us, we commit ourselves afresh each day to follow him into the wholeness of
life.
John de Gruchy
Volmoed 30 October 2014
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