As a child, I had a concrete grasp of a story’s viewpoint. First person – that’s me, second person is you, and third person are those other people over there. Obviously, a first-person story was more entertaining and superior to a second- or third-person story, because of its subject matter.

Fortunately, my understanding of viewpoint matured as I gained experience in writing and editing and in reading my trusty bibles—The Chicago Manual of Style and The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style. I highlight sections in the style and usage section. I memorize rules about time constructions and capitalization and hyphenation. (Including this capitalization rule from The Christian Writer’s Manual of Style: “Capitalize the word Bible except for those instances when it is used metaphorically, as in The Audubon guide is the bird lover’s bible.")

At least I think I’ve matured in my child's understanding of viewpoint, and then I open the Bible, which is no metaphorical bible, but God-breathed words that reveal the Word made flesh, not a metaphor but very God of very God.

The fourth stanza of American writer John Updike’s poem “Seven Stanzas at Easter,” reads:
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence,
Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded
Credulity of earlier ages:
Let us walk through the door.

Gospel writer John defines the door in John 10:9, where Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” The resurrection is not a metaphor; it really happened. Jesus is the real door; I get that.

What trips me up is the word anyone. Those third person others standing over there may enter the same door that you and I do, be saved, and go in and out and find pasture. And through my myopic first-person lens, I already have the pasture picked out for them, the grass might not be as verdant as mine, but no bother, it's still a pasture.

But I have walked through the door, and that egocentric first-person viewpoint should bother me. A lot. Jesus’ invitations to come, to go in and out and find pasture, to rise up and walk are for me, you, and the others over there. Jesus preached peace to the far off and to those who were near, and reconciled both to God, eliminating the distinctions between our human viewpoints.

After all, there is only one first-person viewpoint.

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)