Overwhelmingly, the power of Jesus in history is that humans identify with him. We know all too well how it is to be filled with good intentions only to have others construe them as the reverse. We can readily identify with the pain this cost him mentally and physically.
If
you want to have real power and influence over others, just have them
strongly identify with you. There is great safety here, as a
helpless baby is made safe by the immensely powerful identity of the
parent with the child. A tremendous amount of human behavior can be
attributed to the desire and effort to have others identify with us
(for, again, that's where safety lies).
The
current iPhone 5 craze comes to mind. We want to identify with what
is cool, the latest and the greatest. The ultimate thing sought is
for people to identify with us. We want to be safely desirable.
Those in possession of the device share a common secured and shared
identity.
Ideologies
strongly embody the power of identity. One reason we react so
adversely to those who would challenge our accepted ideologies is the
sense of security and safety that comes from sharing a common
identity. There is a saying “Not seeing the forest for the trees.”
Much more typical is the case of “Not seeing the trees for the
forest.” We latch on to the safety of group-think and easily
disregard multiple realities that would discount it.
I
have heard the universal church of Christ criticized as a type of
club. In many ways it is. The common thread is a strongly
reinforced and shared social identity. One significant attempt of
the mega-church is to make Christ socially cool.
If
you ever doubt the strength of identity, consider that our pets have
protection from being eaten primarily because we strongly identify
with them. The basic drive of vegetarianism is identity with
animals. Thus, meat eaters quite consciously scrupulously avoid
encountering anything—including facts of treatment or
slaughter—that would serve to strengthen identity with the
suffering animals.
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