Christ as Vaccine

A year ago, I preached a sermon that pitched the idea of the kingdom of God (not just Heaven, but the whole idea of kingdom) as virus--you can read more in this blog post.  This week, as I've gotten my second vaccine shot and thought about these new vaccines, I've thought about Christ as a vaccine.

These new mRNA vaccines, the Moderna and Pfizer ones, are different from old vaccines.  The mRNA vaccines teach our cells how to deal with the virus.  In future years, they may be useful in the fight against some cancers.

As I've thought about the Trinity, I've thought about Christ as this same kind of mRNA vaccine.  I often say that Christ didn't come to earth to save us from our sins, not in the way that we've been taught.  Jesus didn't have to die on a cross because he knew that 2000 years from now, I'd be mean to my sister or have any other number of failings as a human.

Along with many theologians, I believe that Jesus came to show us how to be better humans.  He announces the inbreaking kingdom of God, right here, right now.   Whatever Jesus can do, we can do too.  I first encountered this idea in Madeleine L'Engle's book, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art: “God is always calling on us to do the impossible. It helps me to remember that anything Jesus did during his life here on earth is something we should be able to do, too” (page 19).

Jesus comes to show us how to deal with all the diseases that would take us away from God--and here I'm speaking metaphorically.  And for his efforts, the Roman empire, seeing him as existential threat, crucified him.

I realize that many of us may feel deeply uncomfortable with the idea of Jesus as vaccine--but Jesus was always teaching in parables that would make his listeners uncomfortable.  We're used to them, and thus, they've lost some of their power.

My poet brain is always on the lookout for new metaphors, for ways that we can see the Trinity in different ways, the spark that might make us comprehend a whole universe that we can't usually see.  Christ as vaccine--that works for me.