Sunday, February 15, 2009

Chris part 1

So I am doing my documentary on a homeless man I met a year or so ago. His name is Laddie but everyone calls him Chris. Sometimes, I think that he thinks he is Jesus.

When I told my teacher he said to me, "Sarah, it sounds like you think he is not Jesus."
I affirmed his assumption was true, I did not in fact think this man was Jesus.
My teacher told me to prove he wasnt Jesus.
I stared at him. "Well..." I stammered.
I have nothing. I dont think this man is Jesus, but how can I prove it? How do you prove something?
My teacher is atheist anyway so what am i going to use, BIBLE VERSES? Those dont matter to him anyway.
"Is it because he is homeless, Sarah?"
"No," I said. "Jesus was homeless the first time he came."
"Is it because no one else knows he is Jesus, Sarah?"
"No," I said. "No one knew it was Jesus the first time. Or what it meant that he was Jesus."
I tried to tell him the bible said when Jesus returned he would come on a cloud of light and all believers would be have been raptured but it just didnt work out for me. When someone doesnt believe in all that, it sounds stupid to start witnessing to them with that part.
Im not ashamed of the Gospel (116) but i didnt know how to go about this conversation. My teacher is very.....intimidating and convicted and outspoken but with charm and intelligence. Like how do you witness to someone about the saving power of Christ who does not believe in a higher power at all? He sees Christians as weak I think. He has said that religion is an opiate for the masses and helps them sleep at night being reassured about their ultimate demise. I like him though.

So back to my documentary...

I am interviewing Chris (whose real name is Laddie) because mostly he intrigues me. He is smart, educated, a self proclaimed Christian, white (so access to whatever inherent white privilege he can muster), friendly and talkative, he can use a computer, he loves to read ( he reads like 2 books a week at least). He has the whole bible almost completely memorized. He can spit scripture complete with the address like no one else I know. But he is homeless. Seemingly, by choice....
He says he is happy.
He says God put him out on the street years ago to teach him a lesson. The lesson was that he was being too greedy and taken with material things. Now Chris says he is dead to this world and just living on the street to help the other guys until God calls him home. He thinks that material things are dead and unimportant. He shares everything he has with everyone else. He lives for others.
AND....he is happy. He is always seemingly happy.
Therein lies my problem, my conflict....
Why?
He is happy.
Its frickin cold out. He is outside.
He seems to have alot of resources and relationships that could help him get off the street and enter back into society. But he says he chooses not to.

Why would anyone choose to live on the street?
And most important how can he be so happy?

more to come.......................................

4 comments:

Coach B. said...

Wow! I don't think he's Jesus...but he is a great man who definately has a story to tell.

Maybe next time Jesus will multiply into dozens who are sent to teach on a smaller scale. Maybe you have a 1/12 Jesus :)

Anonymous said...

maybe he is Jesus

Simon said...

If Jesus did return, there would be some (likely an overwhelming majority) that would not believe it was him. He'd most probably be deemed crazy and sent to a nut house. He'd certainly never be able to let on that he was Jesus.

If this Chris really is Jesus, then already he has two doubting Thomas'! Has he taught you any important lessons? Is he a good person? Perhaps he is Jesus, who knows. There's no way to prove or disprove it. The real question is: does it matter?

Anonymous said...

Did you ever find out if Chris was Jesus? Did you ever happen to think that Chris is only one letter short of Christ?