Three Identities
How do you introduce yourself to others? Likely, you share your name and perhaps what you do for work. If the conversation continues, you might disclose who is in your family, or discover mutual friends. “I am so and so’s spouse,” or “yes, those are my children jumping off your furniture.” These times of making new relationships remind us of an important reality: we are social creatures. We reveal ourselves to others through our relationships, admitting our dependence on one another.
But it’s easy to become forgetful. Instead of thinking of ourselves in terms of our relationships, we might think of ourselves in terms of our work, status, or ambition. We might identify ourselves with our labor, rather than with our fellow creation. And in that act, we erase ourselves and one another. We become people who belong to no one, and to whom no one is given.
That’s why in the life and words of Jesus we see a concern for remaking our identities. There are heaps of confusion about our belonging to one another and belonging to God, because we have been co-opted by powers greater than us. We have built and been formed by a world where power and dominance destroy kinship, and pride erases the memory of love.
When Jesus comes, he comes as the beginning of the new creation. He shows us what is real, against the backdrop of our own illusions. God drives a stake through the heart of the old creation, and opens the doorway to step into a new world as renewed humans. Jesus tells us the truth about how to take that journey, and the identities we gather along the way as we are oriented and learn how to live in this new place.
Children
And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:3
In the midst of an argument about worth and honor, Jesus ignores the crowd and makes a silly face at a nearby little girl. She laughs, and Jesus waves her over. With gentle hands on her shoulders, he looks up and says that this child, whose name we don’t know, is how worth and honor will be measured.
In the new creation that God begins, all of us enter by being invited in like little children. Looking around at what we have experienced, and listening to the voice that calls out to our hearts and they begin to grow warm within us. The voice calling out to us is new, but somehow familiar. It rings with a timbre of trust. The voice calls out to us and says: “jump overboard!” Do a cannonball over the edge, and trust that you won’t drown. You will be held safe, even in these waters.
And so we jump overboard, tread the waters with God, and land safely onshore. In that new place, which Jesus calls the kingdom of the heavens, we are new citizens. We arrive with the patient trust of a child, look around and feel the excitement of this new world, but also that we might become easily lost. We need help to know the way, and to be guided and instructed in this new land with its new language and customs.
Student
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24
Jesus has confidence that those who enter the kingdom of heaven can, in fact, learn the culture and customs of that new world. Though we arrive with the habits and customs of the old world, Jesus thinks us capable. No matter what education or experience you’ve had in the past, you can be a student here and you can succeed. Jesus will call out to us, inviting us to enroll in school with him as our teacher.
And so we stick close to our teacher. We long to hear what he says, and we are willing to do the work with our minds and our hearts. The first lesson Jesus gives, the entrance exam, is the lesson to which we always return. Jesus says that in order to learn, we must unlearn. We must deny what we have known with a radical willingness to learn a new way. We must be willing to admit our ignorance over and over, when we would prefer to demonstrate competence.
In his invitation to become a student, Jesus binds his students to the cross, saying that this will be the place of our instruction. Anyone who wishes to learn or understand more will return to the cross where the mystery of God’s love and the culture of the new creation will be made known.
Friend
“I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
John 15:15
In the kingdom of heaven, we are a new humanity that exists in friendship with one another and with God. As these new creatures in this new creation, friendship is our common kinship. We are joyfully free together, living co-creatively and co-equally. This is the identity that God bestows upon us, by naming us God’s own friends.
Jesus longs for friends with whom he can share the wisdom that dwells in the foundation of the earth and that holds that heavens in place. It is what all children and students become: mature friends of God who live in the loving intimacy of deep friendship.
Of these three identities: child, student, and friend, we do not exchange one for another. We enter the new creation as children and remain there as beloved children. We grow in maturity as students, and we never cease being humble learners and explorers. And we are named friends of God, who continue to find new ways to share friendship with God who delights in sharing all things with us.
Through the Glass is published weekly on Thursdays. To receive new posts directly to your inbox you can subscribe to our mailing list
