Domesticated Jesus

Domesticated Jesus. Or “DJ”. It’s a horrible name—but a name that accurately reflects what each of us has done in our own lives. “I can hear your protests,” says author Harry Kraus, “and believe me, they are my own. Jesus Christ cannot be domesticated! I’m talking about the way I make myself big. And in the process, I’ve domesticated the Almighty. Tamed him. Advised him. Put him in a box. Expected him to function like a divine vending machine.

That sickens me. Shocks me. And it should.” All of us try to domesticate Jesus, too—in little things like doubt, anxiety, or fear about the future. We let him into our lives, but only so far, until our control is threatened. Then we send him back to his room, back to his box. Harry Kraus takes a hard-hitting, soul-searching look at this atrocity that we commit every day. He challenges each of us to find Jesus as the grand treasure that he is and see him in real life more and more every day. “Pull up a chair, fellow traveler,” he concludes. “Let’s sit together to reason about a horrible thing that I’ve done. I’ve domesticated the Lord of the universe.”