Yesterday we talked about the script you were handed as it relates to what it means to be a man—how you define it, measure it, pursue it, and demonstrate masculinity. There’s another script you were handed—the Jesus script. At some point, a pastor, Sunday school teacher, or someone created a picture of Jesus for you. Maybe it fits your picture of what it means to be a man. But maybe it doesn’t. Perhaps you picture a sweet, passive Jesus, and you just can’t relate to that image of him. If you’re really honest, do you wish he would have stepped down off the cross and smoked his enemies? I mean, that's like what a man's man or a real king would do, right?
How do we reconcile the manhood scripts that have been handed to us and our image of Jesus? Do Christian men just need to man up? Is masculinity just the script that our father, uncle, or grandfather put around us? Is it the scripts that are prescribed to us by culture? How do we decide how to define what it means to be a man? What should we point our sons and our daughters toward? And what does it mean to be a man if you're going to follow Jesus? The reality is that in Jesus we find the ultimate picture of a man of masculinity. It applies to all of us regardless of what kind of man you are, what you've experienced in life, or the way you're wired. It doesn't make us all the same… but it makes us all better men!
Jesus, the ultimate man, was tougher than Roman nails. He was by one descriptor, “the lion of Judah.” He fearlessly and voluntarily marched into the lion's den of Jerusalem knowing what was going to happen to him. But he didn’t enter as the lion he was—he entered as the lamb of God. His final act defined and illustrated what it means to be a man… as God created men to be. His final act dismantles and undermines all of our flawed and imbalanced cultural and family scripts of masculinity. His final moments are the way forward for all men—the alphas and the artists, the collectors and the coders.
John, an eyewitness to Jesus’s death and resurrection, captured these words once spoken by Jesus:
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.
—John 12:32–33
Jesus said that his death would draw all people, including all kinds of men. In him, we see the ultimate purpose of what it means to be a man made in the image of our heavenly Father. There was nothing meek or mild about the choice he made. Picture it… people stood watching and waiting for him to die. Rulers sneered at him. Soldiers mocked him. They said, “If you’re the king of the Jews, save yourself.” In other words, a real king, a real man, is not going to allow himself to be defeated in public. They assumed he could not save himself. But the truth was, the ultimate man refused to save himself. Because if he had saved himself, he would have forfeited his opportunity to save you, his accusers, and everyone in the world.
By refusing to do for himself what every one of his accusers would have done for themselves, he defined what it means to be a man. And in that moment, he won a fight his accusers weren’t even aware was being fought. At the intersection of lion and lamb, we find perfect masculinity on display. At the cross, we are all confronted with the battle that every single man wrestles with. It’s a battle every single man is invited to fight every single day regardless of temperament, personal interest, physicality, or personality. It’s the battle we’re invited to wage at home, at the office, and in the hotel room when you’re all alone. And it requires the courage of a lion and the humility of the lamb.
It's the battle to say no to me so I can say yes to the people around me. It's the battle to deny and control myself so I can give more of myself away. If you’re a Jesus follower or attempting to be a Jesus follower, this is the script. It’s the script we’re to follow and the one to pass on to our sons. It’s the script to model for our daughters.
Years after the resurrection, the apostle Paul encountered Jesus. He went from persecuting the early church to starting churches. God leveraged all of his skills and all of his activism to spread the message about Jesus. Here’s how he captured the Jesus script…
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
—Philippians 2:5–8
Jesus never leveraged his position with God to his own advantage. He was found in appearance as a man—as one of us. He humbled himself. His strength was in his self-control. His power was in his others-firstness. He reigned in and harnessed himself so that he was able to give himself away—on your behalf. He was both lion and lamb. And he invites all of us to follow him—to adopt his tone, his posture of humility, his approach to life, his script. And if we do, we will not all be the same. That's not the goal. But we will all be better men, better friends, better fathers, and better husbands, because we will be like our Savior, the super man, the perfect man. Want to know what that looks like? We’ll get specific starting tomorrow.
