The Exodus

"Jesus is the most attractive, haunting and disturbing figure in the history of the world"

I am a huge fan of the original movie "The Ten Commandments" with Charleston Heston. I have not seen the new "Exodus" movie but I suspect many followers of Jesus will be conflicted by the way Hollywood portrays biblical stories today.  The whole exodus story is about exile, deliverance, Passover, defeating the powers of evil and rescuing God's people.  The whole exodus story is wrapped as the back drop of Jesus life and story as Jesus ushers in a new exodus in a way that was different from his contemporaries.

Jesus did not look like or act like what some thought of the coming Messiah.  And nobody thought of the Messiah dying on a cross.  People forgot Isaiah's portrait of a suffering Messiah for the other prophets who spoke of a conquering victorious Messiah.  Jesus had a different relationship and vision of God and simply did not fit the pattern of what others were expecting.  Jesus not only turned over the money changers table in the temple but he turned over people's assumptions and understandings as well.

If it were not for the resurrection, it would have appeared like Jesus was a failed Messiah along the lines of many failed Messiahs of Jesus' time.  It is by the power of Jesus resurrection where we can make sense once again of ourselves and the world around us.  It is by the resurrection that we can begin to experience heaven on earth rather than simply be caught in the endless cycle of violence, evil and hell on earth.  Every obstacle of grace is overcome by Jesus resurrection power and the new exodus he has created for you and for me.