July 12th

My favourite television commercial right now features a brain, an eye, and two tongues. Computer-generated, or maybe clay puppets, they are shown in way that is neither tasteless, gross, or unsuitable for younger viewers. Much more than seeing these objects acting in a rather animated fashion, is the fact that in its thirty seconds of air time, this little commercial tells us a story, gives us character outlines, and at the end of it all, makes you feel that you know exactly who those four animated body parts are.
It is really a brilliant piece of work, when you think about it. In just a few moments, with a few well written lines and some excellent voice acting, an a eye becomes a pesky know-it-all, while one of the tongues gives us the impression of being a harried, under-appreciated, smarter than it sounds, victim of the eye’s sharp, shall we say “tongue...” Meanwhile the brain comes off as the long suffering leader or perhaps older brother, who has to put up with siblings that are not necessarily ideal playmates.
Rather amazing, isn’t it? A thirty second commercial turns out to be a little slice of life that anyone can not only recognize, but feel included with, despite the fact that the characters are nothing more than anthropomorphized (a big word meaning an object that has been given human traits) body bits.
The auteurs of this wee gem clearly know human nature. They know how we interact, as is evident in the interplay between the characters on screen. They also know how we see and understand others, and use that information so that we, the audience-slash-customer not only form a simple bond with those animated, humanized figures, but also buy into the story they are telling, while in the meantime the actual product, is being sold, and quite effectively at that. I add that last bit because this is one of those clever ads that actually makes you remember the product being sold.
This ability to know the audience, to tell a story and let it’s meaning be understood, is what God uses in sharing Jesus with us. Jesus is a character all humans identify with immediately, the hero come to do good works that is set upon by evil villains. As God’s Son, we realize that He is something beyond us, something exceptional, yet as a human being dealing with temptation, family and other everyday things, we also realize that He’s lot like us, too.
In the story of Christ, we are not sold a product; rather, we are offered a way of life, and a goal in life that extends beyond our earthly realm. In that story we see a bit of ourselves, sometimes in ways that embarrass us, sometimes in ways that console us, sometimes in ways that challenge us. In that story we understand the forces working against God, and realize that sometimes those forces are us. Mostly, in that story we not only identify with Jesus, we realize that we are part of His story, too. In fact, without our story, there would be no Jesus-story. God sent Jesus for us, not for Himself. And that is a story that deserves both sharing and involvement because it is the story of our salvation, as much as it that of Jesus, our Saviour. At least that’s the way I see it.