How much of faith is wrapped up in emotion? I mean wrapped up. Elliot Gould in the movie "Capricorn One" was a reporter who lived out of a suitcase. He said, "I’m always unwrapping things. I wake up and take the cellophane off the drinking glass. The soap out of the Holiday Inn wrapper. Even the toilet has a nice little band on it with a note telling me it is for my protection."
So, should we, for the sake of protection, wrap up our faith so that our emotions can’t be seen, heard, felt, or chance being touched by the Holy Spirit, the Preacher, or the Teacher? Tie it up in a neat, hermetically sealed mayonnaise jar, so that rationality never even gets a faint sniff of emotion? Should we take God’s word and place a nice little band on it with a note telling us that all emotion has been sanitized for our protection? Is that how we should approach our faith?
A friend of mine, a PhD in one of our Seminaries, was recently on a short term mission trip to Eastern Europe. He was to teach a few theology classes, then take a short vacation before coming home. Early on in his first class, one of his students asked a rather interesting question. "Professor, do angels have genitals?" When I read the question on facebook, I was like many of the other readers, in the middle of my morning cup of coffee. I choked and almost did the classic spewing of my drink all over the computer! I laughed and laughed and laughed. Then, I would try to think of a good response to a sincere question posed by someone who had apparently never had the opportunity to ask such a question. The more I thought about a response, the more I laughed. It went on for a half hour or so. By the time I had composed myself enough to write, my coffee was very cold and my stomach ached from the belly laugh.
Should I have stopped and asked for forgiveness for bringing emotion into the discussion? Was I being exploited? Was my faith being dragged through the inner sanctums of emotionalism, causing my rationality to be permanently damaged?
Is it wrong to exploit human emotion when teaching about God’s Kingdom? To exploit someone is a term which conjures up thoughts of abuse. Have leaders of Christianity abused their followers by using emotion? Yes. Guilt, for example, is a cruel taskmaster. It is an obvious example of an emotion which teachers and preachers have exploited. Is the abuse so bad that we should guard against this exploitation? Absolutely. But, where does one draw a line between pure rationalism and pure emotionalism? Both extremes seem equally wrong. In true Hegelian form, I suggest there is a bubble which dances between the extremes. Let’s keep the bubble, which shows a level approach, off the edges.
Jesus used humor. I pitty the follower of Christ whose image of the Savior is a staunch and stiff Jew with a spiritual starched collar. He was the greatest teacher ever on earth. He used every emotional device He could to bring the Good News to a lost generation.
He had great one liners: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" and "How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?" These are great and funny lines and examples of a communication device called "overstatement." We have used these particular lines so many times because of the rational truth there is within them. We are so familiar with them, that we forget…these are great, funny, hilarious lines! They were spoken at a tense moment to break the negative emotion of the situation.
Jesus also tugged at the emotional heart strings of those who followed Him: The rich young ruler wanted to follow Jesus intensely. He was sincere. He had all the means to give Jesus all the earthly power and facilities He needed. He had lived a perfect life according to the Law of Moses, but Jesus said these words to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." Words which struck the young man at the core of his faith. So much so, scripture says, "When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth." Jesus used the young man’s emotions to bring about a great teaching to the young man.
Was the lesson just for the young man, or for those surrounding Jesus watching? No doubt His disciples benefitted from the emotional moment. Surely, they had compassion for the young man. The next verse says, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." This statement was just the opposite of what the Pharisees were teaching. Now Jesus transferred that emotion to His own disciples!
The Lord then had the audacity to use humor once more! He said, "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." A great line! How hilarious is that image? What a funny picture could be drawn of that effort if the assignment was given to Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones! Did Jesus exploit the emotions of the disciples? How about the rich young ruler? Of course He did. In the context of exploitation which is not abuse!
To exploit the emotions of people when they are having a teachable moment, is not abuse. Did Jesus exploit Mary and Martha’s emotions when He raised their brother from the dead? This after knowingly waiting three days to make sure Lazarus was stiff and stinking? Was that abusive?
Emotions are, and forever will be, tied to the Gospel. If you cannot get an emotional rise from the story of the birth of Christ, you either have more control over your emotions than anyone I’ve ever seen, or your faith is as dead as a carp. The emotional struggle both parents went through before the birth, captures the very essence of emotions within all parents and children alike. If teachers wanted to take emotions out of the Bible, it would be near impossible when the Baby Jesus arrives. The Mighty Creator, wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a feeding trough…holding together the laws of all physics, while living as an infant! Unable to speak, yet possessing all the knowledge and wisdom of the universe…packed into 7 pounds, 3 ounces. I choke up at the image this places in my mind.
The Bible is chock-full of emotional sayings, concepts, and narratives. Jesus used emotions as the primary hook to the masses. Their faith was very much attached to their emotions. Why should we disassociate our emotions from our faith when teaching or preaching? Should we make sure the bubble balance stays away from the extremes of rationality and emotion? To be sure.
In 1962, Dr. Karl Barth, father of neo-orthodoxy and most influential theologian of the 20th century, visited the USA, lecturing at Princeton Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago. According to church lore, during his trip he was asked to summarize the theological meaning of the millions of words in the Church Dogmatics (a series of systematic theology commentaries he authored). Barth thought for a moment and said: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
With all the rational knowledge in the world, still, the link to the heart is the seed of emotion. The centerpiece of "Love the Lord your God with all your heart…"
(All Bible quotes from the NIV)