Discovering the Real Jesus in Monroe

Yesterday Michael Vick publicly announced that he’s turning to God and giving his life over to Jesus. Here is Vick’s statement: “”Dog fighting is a terrible thing, and I did reject it. I’m upset with myself, and, you know, through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God. And I think that’s the right thing to do as of right now.”

What can we make of this? I am glad Vick said these words, for his own sake. I can’t judge if they are real, but here is why they could be.

1) Every person has a need for inner cleansing. The basic Christian teaching is that, inside of us, things are not as they should be. I think most people, indeed nearly all, feel this way.

Why? In the biblical book of Romans, ch. 2, we are told that God has placed within each person a sense of moral rightness and wrongness. This is so central to Christianity that C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, called it the “key to the meaning of the universe.”

I have met many persons over the years who have come to me inwardly agitated by the inner moral law. Once, when I worked at MSU, a member of MSU’s football team gave me a call. This football player was a pre-season All-American candidate, After he graduated he went on to play pro football. He came and sat in my office and shared with me some things that he had done, and asked what he could do about them. He had made some bad choices, and felt responsible for them. He felt the burden of being a role model to kids who were idolizing him. Inside, he had what Thomas Merton would call “seeds of destruction.” How could he ever make up for things he had done, especially to other people?

My answer was to tell him that he could never rewind his life to go back and do it again. And, there was nothing he could do to “make up” for the destructive consequences of his self-centered choices. In theological language, self-atonement is impossible. He needed to, as Michael Vick stated, “find Jesus.”

2) Even the atheist Freud acknowledged that there is something evil inside human beings, and that is why we need “civilization”; viz., to keep us from destroying ourselves. For a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist, the answer for how to get cleansed of one’s evil and destructive choices is to keep a set of rules and do enough good deeds so they will outweigh the bad deeds. When C.S. Lewis was asked, “What makes Christianity different from these other religions?” he responded, “That’s easy. It’s grace.”

3) “Grace,” according to Jesus, is getting something that we have not earned and therefore do not deserve. “Mercy,” according to Jesus, is not getting what we deserve. These things are so central to Real Christianity that at one point the book of James announces that, ultimately, mercy will triumph over judgment. “Forgiveness,” Jesus-style, is having a debt cancelled. In other words, our evil and destructive choices bring pain either to God, others, or our own selves. When this happens, we feel we “owe” something, and need to “make it up” to either God, others, or ourselves. But this is impossible. How, then, can we find freedom from our dark choices? The Jesus-answer is: forgiveness is extended to us. This means: a) we receive something we do not deserve (“grace”); and b) we don’t get the punishment we deserve (“mercy”).

4) Are persons basically good? Not according to Jesus, nor according to Freud. And, if you doubt this, look inside your own heart if you can. In this regard Jesus tells people not to “cast stones” at other human failures. This calls for a heart of compassion. We “feel with” other moral failures precisely because we have come to understand our own violence within. To look with horror on Michael Vick is to betray one’s own deluded self-righteousness.

Should Michael Vick pay for what he has done with jail time and money? Of course. Should he have to pay for what he has done all his life by being labeled an especially horrific being? No. Not according to my Christian understanding. I am quite sure I am no better than him in the sense of being more deserving of God’s love.

Has Michael Vick really found Jesus? I don’t know, but I do hope so. The real thing, the Real Jesus, is after Vick’s heart. I have seen, many times, the real conversion of a heart of darkness set free to walk in the light. Let’s pray for the freedom of Michael Vick.

(The picture is of an ultralight that was flying over the Jazz Festival a few weeks ago.)