How to uniquely present idea of Messiah or Savior?

Hey, bylinebree.

Here's an idea - flog it about, keep or discard as you like:

In Scripture, Jesus disappears from the narrative from about age 12 til about age 30. Just a thought - but what if He were traveling in other parts of the world, i.e. China, the wilds of North America, Africa, South America....

Your story may not even take place on this earth but you could have your savior returning from a long absence. A lot can change in 20 years. How he deals with what he returns to could be a whole book in itself.

It's your story - you don't have to describe his birth and growth. He could arrive on the scene fully grown.

- just a concept. use it if you like or not.

I’m not sure if any of these are workable for what you’re doing, but here’s some off-the-cuff ideas . . .

Introduce a new character (perhaps a sort of “thirteenth disciple” or a non-believing Roman) who lived during the time of Christ and recorded his own thoughts about the teaching of Jesus. The writings of his character become a starting point for introducing Jesus.

Have some of your characters founding a new church based on the things Jesus taught (similar to what Thomas Jefferson did when he created his own version of the Bible based on the words of Christ).

Have a “current day” character similar to Paul; that is, a man who begins as anything but Godly, then converts and become a leader of a new movement.

Have a church which has been founded on a belief in the Old Testament rather than the New Testament (although not Jewish) wrestle with the idea of a Messiah.

Take any of Jesus’ well-known teachings and apply it to a number of characters. Perhaps one character “sees” the effects on others.

Anyway, just some ideas. I wasn’t completely sure what you were looking for from your original post.

ac

Lewis said that if God ever appeared to clams, he would do it as a paragon of perfect clamhood. Think about the fantasy culture you are working with and ask yourself what a matchless person would look like in that culture.

On the other hand, Jesus was an itinerant nobody too. He wasn't a rock star that everyone idolized. Lots of people hated him, because he made them look like fools and challenged the structures of power and respectability in his culture. Think about your culture and what Jesus would come to turn upside down in it.

Don't forget to have this Savior sacrifice himself to himself to save mankind from himself.

I'm just summarizing the essential concept of Christian salvation with a catchphrase. How closely did you want to stick to Christianity with your fictional Savior idea? A Savior needs to "save", not just preach the Word like a regular rabbi.

Just throwing around ideas. What is it that your fantasy-world people need to be saved from? What got them into that position? In Christianity, God sacrificed himself (Jesus) to himself (God) to save men from himself (God's condemnation of all men for Adam's sin).

bylinebree said:

I'm asking mostly from a fantasy genre point of view, but other ideas are welcome.

I'm wrestling with how to portray the Son of God in my sequel. The first book introduced the monotheistic idea of God to the kingdom, as contrasted with both idol-worshipping and humanism. Sort of a Judaic "Jehovah" concept, no savior showing up yet in their theology.

But I want him to -- I miss Jesus being in there! There is an ancient Scroll showing up, but no Messiah-Savior...and I'm really wanting to portray Jesus somehow.

I do introduce the ideas of blood-sacrifice and selfless, God-oriented love and service in the "new believers" in the kingdom. Also will introduce martyrdom and evangelism more in the second.

Click to expand...

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis presented a Savior figure in the form of a lion named Aslan. He made Aslan into a perfect individual, and he made him go through a sacrifice on an altar of stone, in which many of the tortures that Christ Himself went through, the lion also had to go through. Aslan even rose from the dead afterward, defeating the White Witch.

Maybe something to this effect would work in your own WIP. Giving not an 'Alternate Jesus' but perhaps a 'Parallel Jesus', one who suffers much like Jesus did and lived a life similar to what He had to live, may be of use to you.

I hope this helps, and good luck with your WIP.

This is a general answer for any who would write Christian fantasy

I'm not writing a "Christian Fantasy", so there is no "Savior" or "Gospel" in my story. Yet, it is profoundly spiritual in a similar way to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The Bible is about so many things, wisdom, the nature of the heart, fallen nature, the inner struggles, and primarily "Who is God and what does he want with us?"

I understand that you love Jesus so much you want to tell the world in your story. If you are starting out, then my suggestion is to learn from Jesus. Jesus didn't jump in people's faces and say, "Accept me as your personal savior...or you'll go to hell..." Instead he was a real person who never compromised his values. He loved people, mingled with people, which meant he was very gentle and not pushy. Children loved him, and "sinners" hung around him.

Christian fantasy doesn't have to be "in your face" to make a point. Jesus gave his own disciples ample time to view him, listen to him, hear what he was about, before he asked, "Who do you say that I am?"

Jesus didn't try to capsulize the Gospel into a formulaic "lead me to an altar call" scenario. He used stories to illustrate the basic dynamics of the kingdom of God. "The kingdom of heaven is like... "bread"..."a mustard seed"..."when a nobleman goes away..."

Jesus used word pictures to convey the many sides of the kingdom of God. And so instead of looking at "The four spiritual laws" approach, which I think of as a sales pitch, rather than letting people see what you are about, what Jesus is about, which is really what the Gospel is about.

If you get what Jesus was doing, he wasn't using "smack you over the head with blunt 2x4" sayings. Metaphor and allegory don't have to be blunt.

I'll be honest. Most Christian fantasy that I've read has been too trite, contrived, predictable. It sounds contrary to the reality of most people's lives as portrayed in scriptures and as lived in so many places in the world- real people suffering, doubting, falling. Paul spent the second half of his life in a prison, not victorious living. In the Old Testament, Daniel and Joseph were both elevated yet for all intents and purposes they died as slaves in a foriegn land. Most of the people mentioned in the Bible had flaws, including Peter and Paul.

I'm not sure what age group you are approaching, but I think "sophisticated" is the best way to go unless your goal is to pretty much sum up the Gospel for those who already know the Gospel. The world is very sophisticated these days.

Sorry for this over-long answer. But many people already know basic Christian sayings. If you look at non-Christian and even anti-Christian websites and threads, they can repeat the basic Gospel. They don't however comprehend these things very well, God's love, God's nature, what sin is at its core. They only hear it in theory, but not in a revelation- the (Ah ha!) moment when the lightbulb goes on.

I realize why when I see flame-boards where Christians and non-Christians get into cat fights. Too many Christians scarcely know these things, so they can't explain them. They are in, as the book of Hebrews says, stuck on the "elementary principles" or Christian elementary school. Any writer that wants to do something great that touches peoples lives, I think it has to be revelatory of the greater picture.

Jesus did came to reveal his Father, which was so much more than a formula for how to win the heaven lottery. His first teaching was about heart issues, values, attitudes, priorities- the Beatitudes.