New Images of Jesus and God

*“God Created Woman” by Marcia Fleischman*

We are pleased to share these writings and paintings from Marcia Fleischman, which are a selection from her new book: If God Is Love Why Do I Feel So Bad?

Marcia is a member of Integral Christian Network and previous Board member. Marcia is a retired Baptist pastor and school counselor. She has a BA from DePaul University, M.Ed from Missouri University and an M.Div from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Here is her story:

My journey toward finding God started early as I was attending church and wondering what Christianity was all about when I had Miss Eva Saunders as my 5th grade Vacation Bible school teacher. She talked about God as if she knew God. That was a revelation to me. In college I released my life to Jesus and began a personal, experiential relationship with God.

My husband, Ken, found Broadway Baptist Church, where we attended for over 40 years. Paul Smith was the pastor/ teacher. Eventually, I became a minister there gaining my M.Div. From Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Through Paul’s teaching, I started on the mystical path, hearing the Spirit speak through words, pictures, altered states of consciousness and holy laughter. My greatest ministry Joy was in praying for healing for people and seeing the transformational effects of God’s love on people.

I also got a fatal disease from taking a deadly medicine, was sick for 5.5 years, received a death-defying double lung transplant and have survived going on 18 years. In rehab from surgery, I began painting with an emphasis on painting visions of angels. I am the author of 3 books and am working on my 4th book: Finding the Face of God. I am an artist and have illustrated my books. I invented and patented the most comfortable bra in the world, but that’s another story.

Part One: Who Was Jesus?

God has been seen interacting with humans in human form. It is difficult to get away from personifying God, seeing God as human form. As we explore some images of God and Jesus, I invite you to ask: How do we see God this way? How would we interact with God this way?

Open your mind and heart to some new ideas, new thoughts, new images of God. See how we can understand God in new ways and, therefore, interact with God differently. Perhaps we can experience God in new ways since God is not limited by body, by time, by space. Consider these different images.

What Would Jesus Do?

Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them.

The religious scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.

Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.

Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”

“No one, Master.”

“Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”
John 8:1-11 (The Message)

*“What Would Jesus Do?” by Marcia Fleischman*

This image depicts the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery. Jesus is protecting the woman from the stone throwing Jews. No one seems to be asking where the man involved in the adultery is. (That’s my bias showing, but not just mine!)

Jesus is wearing the bracelet that was popular among a group of Christians several years ago. It says WWJD, What Would Jesus Do? It was a popular, trendy thing to do. As I look at it now, it strikes me as a vital question for those of us following Jesus today. Asking what Jesus would do is not just about the actions Jesus is taking but is pointing to his inner motivation. In turn, he asks the men who are throwing stones to look at their own motivations that governs their actions. He elevates their awareness by calling out their judgmental personalities. He challenges them to throw the stone if they themselves have never sinned. They are confounded by the confrontation and start leaving, dropping their stones.

Jesus is not giving a new rule but is calling them to a higher awareness, a higher consciousness. Jesus is the melding of physical being and God’s Spirit. Jesus calls the people of his day and those who follow him even today into a higher awareness, a higher consciousness, a higher way of being. Jesus calls us to be the New Creation, mentioned by his follower, Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:17:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.
The old has gone, the new is here.

No one becomes a new creation by following new rules, but by becoming transformed at their core, in their inner being. Connecting with God at our core is what transforms us. I will talk about that transforming practice later and want to elucidate places in scripture where the goal and process of becoming transformed into a new creation are mentioned.

The first place I remember this transformation being mentioned is in the book of Isaiah:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9

This is one of the early Scripture that suggest that God is actually a different and higher being than we humans. It isn’t until Jesus comes along presenting the New Covenant that God reaches out to humankind to create a new humanity, a new being, a new creation. How does he do it? First, God brings Jesus to us, a proto-type of who we can become. Jesus is a human infused with God and he is different from us. When we are infused with God’s Spirit, we can become more like Jesus.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses the expression several times:

You have heard it said…but I say to you…

He refers to murder as a sin, but I tell you, even if you are angry with a person, it is wrong. (paraphrase)

In the whole sermon, he is not talking about sin, per se, he is teaching the people how to become the new creation. He is teaching how to raise the people to a new way of thinking and a new consciousness.

Jesus says he has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. He is teaching a new way of being to fulfill the essence of where the law was leading. It’s not a new set of rules but is a guideline for a new way of being. The law was an evolution from original lawlessness. Now Jesus describes the next level of evolution. Jesus is saving us from our old way of being.

Jesus was God, Himself. Others would suggest that he is a human full of God, immersed in God, infused with God. What was Jesus doing that we have not considered before? He was thinking in a new way. He said he came to fulfill the law. What does that mean?

An art teacher explained something about the evolution of art. Before Picasso painted, art was about the expression of things outside of the artist. After Picasso, art became the expression of things inside the artist. So, it is with Jesus and the Law. Before Jesus, the Law was about the outward expression of obeying the rules of God. After Jesus, following the Law was about internal matters, how you thought, how you felt that led to how you acted. Jesus taught a new way to be.