We’ve been looking at the unaltered, unadulterated, and unchanging Jesus. We have enough challenges in following Jesus without being ignorant about who it is we worship. This post continues the discussion about the Jesus presented in the scriptures to draw some clearer distinctions between the timeless Jesus of history and the pretend one we hear about much too often.
Suppose we heard an unknown man spoken of by many men. Suppose we were puzzled to hear that some men said he was too tall and some too short; some objected to his fatness, some lamented his leanness; some thought him too dark, and some too fair. One explanation… would be that he might be an odd shape. But there is another explanation. He might be the right shape…. Perhaps (in short) this extraordinary thing is really the ordinary thing; at least the normal thing, the centre. ~G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Seems a necessary and healthy rebellion is underway. This holy rebellion is based in a rejection of a stodgy, ineffective, and moribund religion made up of nothing more than lame slogans, tired politics, rigid dogma, stingy love, convenient compassion, lopsided justice, and religious gimmicks.
I say good.
Republican Jesus is twisted. He is not biblical. I understand I may have raised the ire of a few of my dwindling republican friends (who I would add, some of which are brothers and sisters in Christ) with my last post. No one commented, but I did get an email that brought to my attention various points my post raised that I might wish to explain (but won’t here, maybe elsewhere at a later date). For the record, I am not a liberal democrat, nor am I a conservative one (an oxymoron I realize).
A caricature depicting Jesus as American is an abomination as far as I am concerned (Jesus doesn’t choose us based on our race or gender, see Galatians 3:27-29 ). This line of reasoning suggests that somehow if you aren’t a flag waving American, or at least have affection in your heart for the United States, you can’t be a Christian (try telling that to some starving orphan who lost both of her parents on the other side of the globe due to one of our bombs, and then tell me that God endorses your doing so). As I have stated elsewhere in so many words—as Christians, we aren’t here to promote a national agenda, we are here to proclaim a heavenly Kingdom.
The real Jesus is not some egocentric power broker when it pertains to morals either, we have the “Religious Right” who do more than plenty for that unholy cause. But there is a danger however, and it is this; to throw out the baby with the bath water. Just because Jesus has been badly misrepresented and made out to be no more than a boring Sunday School teacher by some within the Church, or a hall monitor on steroids concerned merely with outward appearances—by others—doesn’t nullify the genuine Jesus we have been discussing here of late.
Just because I decried a patriotic and political version of a Jesus who doesn’t exist as long as truth is involved (see “Republican Jesus”, last post), doesn’t mean there isn’t the opposite mischaracterization. There is another version of Jesus that is just as sickening. I will call him Hippie Jesus. It’s that Jesus who has a sponge for a back bone, no hatred for sin, and little concern over all matters of justice (including those who can’t fight for themselves).
Recycling everything you can get your hands on, including your worn out underwear, won’t get you into Heaven according to the scriptures. You can be as “green” as Kermit The Frog and be just as unregenerate as anyone (and still end up in Hell).
Hippie Jesus worships the creation and its creatures, the real Jesus is the Creator God—and he alone deserves any and all worship.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:15-20, ESV).
For my friends who insist that Jesus only ate organic granola, that he sported braids in his hair, that he wore a peace sign strapped around his neck, that his nose was pierced, that he referred to everyone as dude, or that he wouldn’t be caught dead in dress clothes—I’d beg to differ. Hey, it’s cool if you want to have dreadlocks, shave your sideburns all crazy, and wear shoes made out of seaweed. But I’d like to be allowed to keep my goatee, not be required to change my geeky hairstyle, and wear my black Adidas flip-flops instead—we don’t have to go to extremes and try to justify our preferences by making some sort of holy dress code out of them, or by mandating a “Christian” grooming style. Being a Volkswagen fan, I’d like to think it’s what Jesus would drive if he were walking (or driving) around today. But I dare not make a religion out of my petty tastes and trivial opinions. So often, that’s what we do though.
We can miss a lot of things. But when it comes to the person of Jesus and who he is, missing it has eternal implications. We don’t get to choose who Jesus might be. “Depeche Mode” sang, your own personal Jesus—Well, sorry to disappoint, but Jesus isn’t looking for those who craft their own version of a designer Jesus, rather, he’s calling disciples who drop their nets. Jesus isn’t some guy with a phony smile and a plastic hairdo behind door number two. He isn’t some pick in a dating gameshow where you get three choices, and all three are right. Just picking the Jesus that best works for you doesn’t cut it.
“A god of our own understanding” is our language, not a term Jesus ever ascribed to his Father—God Almighty. The scriptures teach that God is One, and he is exclusive. And he is God, we are not. We must define him on his terms and not on our own—otherwise we are fooling ourselves (and there is plenty of that to go around).
And if there still are any disputes about whether Jesus was a hippie or a politician, let us remember that Jesus was a rabbi.