To close, I wanted to include a little something about metaphor and language, since we have been sharing the many, many ways to describe, discuss and relate to Jesus.
"To be a human being is to interpret, to think of 'this' and 'that,'to make judgments concerning similarity and difference, to think metaphorically. To be a believer is to follow the way of the parables and Jesus as parable, to live with the tension between the kingdom and the world, never identifying the one with the other while aware of the transformation of the world by the kingdom. Whether as human being or believer, we never overcome the distance between ourselves and the world; the main difference between a 'secular' and 'religious' perspective is the degree of tension between ourselves and reality. Religious people are less comfortable in the world, aware of the difference between things as they are and things as the ought to be; they are conscious of the metaphorical 'is and is not.' A deeply metaphorical perspective such as that based on parable demands a way of being in the world characterized by a high degree of tension, relativity, iconoclasm, and change."
Sallie McFague, Metaphorical Theology: Models of God in Religious Language, pg. 66
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