What's A Meta-For?

WHAT’s A META-FOR?

John 3: 14-21 NRSV

Today I'm going to talk again about our understanding of God. It is so important to remember we see God only through our human eyes with the help of the Holy Spirit. We can't make God human - we can only say that some "characteristics" of God can be compared to some human characteristics. It becomes a tightrope walk (That's a metaphor for a difficult task similar to walking a small wire between two buildings like Nik Wallenda does.)

A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things not using the word “like” or “as” to make the comparison. Metaphors can be powerful, but they can also be tricky to get at times.

Metaphors are short cuts we use to be more efficient or more effective in our conversation with and to others. Almost every type of human communication uses, references, or hints at metaphors.

There was even a Star Trek television show where the characters had difficulty understanding and communicating with a new planet’s people until they understood the people talked using only metaphors.

Obviously the big problem with metaphors is ensuring that everyone conversing understands the same references and experiences used. Metaphors are culturally and socially relevant.

Let me give you some examples:

Rug Rat:  What we call an infant or crawling child. Often the child is on a carpeted floor or a rug to prevent injury. Babies are known for their drooling and uncleanliness, and their willingness to eat anything.

Compare this description to our common perception of a rat. The rug rat is an effective metaphor because we visualize a cross between rat and baby - something that has an air of both sarcasm and truth, and may also reveal something sinister about how our culture perceives early childhood parenting.

Couch Potato: When a person buries themselves in the cushions of a couch "vegging out,"
mindlessly in front of the TV, eyes in a fixed, submissive stare. A couch potato never leaves home, and cannot be motivated, having everything nearby so they never have to move.

Compare this to the potato, which is buried in the comfort and providence of soil and to which the only escape from its lifestyle is death. Covered in eyes, but without a brain or muscle, the potato
is snuggled and unmotivated. 

Road Hog: Something we may call an aggressive driver. The aggressive driver desires to take up
far more space than they need. They tend to push aside other drivers in their efforts for territory and destination, and in doing so, are impolite - even outright greedy, and are considered unintelligent and dangerous.

This matches our concept of the hog, with our many phrases like "greedy as a pig," "you're making a
pig of yourself" or "corporate pigs." One can visualize the pig at the feeding trough with other pigs, shoving with their self-centered intentions.

Metaphors are important. Unlike anthropomorphisms that reduce God to human terms, we are saying some things about God and Jesus that make them more understandable to our human ways, when we use metaphors.

Jesus used metaphors when He preached and taught. It’s important for us to understand the ones He used even though about 2000 years of language and culture separates us. It means we have to do a little work to learn what He means.

The most widely acclaimed metaphor Jesus used is found in John 3: 14-21:

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.

²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Jesus uses at least 4 different metaphors in this passage: wilderness, serpent, lifting up, and the concept of light.

“Wilderness” is a reference to the places the Jews wandered after they left Egypt and before they got to the promised land. God was with them as they weathered the land and faced the dangerous beasts they encountered. If God is with you there is no such thing as being alone because He loves His creation.

The “Serpent” is a reference to a bronze serpent God ordered placed on a pole and used to “heal and cure” those Israelites bitten by the poisonous snakes sent by God as a punishment for those who sinned against Him. He would give us life.

Numbers 21: 9 – “So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

The “lifting up” was a conscious act of faith the Israelites had to perform to be saved. By this lifting they were brought into the light of God. He would lift us up to the light of His Son.

If we take the four Israelite metaphors and apply them to what Jesus says in the Gospel Passage of John 3: 14-21 then we see that God is doing the same things for us that He did for the Jewish people so long ago. Love, Lift, Life, Light are dynamic metaphors of Christianity combined with the powerful understanding that a father so loved the world he sacrificed his only son.

Bertrand Russell was born into a Christian home and taught to believe in God, but he rejected his training and became an outspoken atheist. His daughter, Katherine Tait, said of him, "Somewhere at the bottom of his heart, in the depths of his soul, there was an empty space that once had been filled by God, and he never found anything else to put in it."

Metaphor – “empty space.” A God sized hole that needs to be refilled “reconciled” by God’s Grace.

The time will come that our God will act as Judge, but right now He is freely handing out His grace to all who will come to Him through Jesus Christ.

God the Father has made a law for mankind to follow or suffer the consequences. That law says, I will forgive you of all your sins, clean you up and adopt you as my own, but there is only one way it can happen.

My Son died for you and took the penalty of your sins on your behalf. He satisfied my justice and has made it possible for Me to save your souls. You can only come to Me through Him. This is it. There are no exceptions.

God says, “If you accept this, you will receive my grace. If you do not, you will receive my judgment.” 

Are those enough metaphors for you? Amen