Republican Jesus

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.   

                                          

…I believe that dispensing God’s grace is the Christian’s main contribution. As Gordon McDonald said, the world can do anything the church can do except one thing: it cannot show grace. In my opinion, Christians are not doing a very good job of dispensing grace to the world, and we stumble especially in this field of faith and politics.     

 

Jesus did not let any institution interfere with his love for individuals. Jewish racial and religious policies forbade him to speak with a Samaritan woman, let alone one with a checkered moral background; Jesus selected one as a missionary. His disciples included a tax collector, viewed as a traitor by Israel, and also a Zealot, a member of the super-patriot party. He praised the countercultural John the Baptist. He met with Nicodemus, an observant Pharisee, and also with a Roman centurion.  He dined in the home of another Pharisee named Simon and also in the home of an ‘unclean’ man, Simon the Leper. For Jesus, the person was more important than any category or label.    ~Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace, page 242   

No list would be complete without Republican Jesus, whose main goal is to see us conquer the world while failing our mission.   This Jesus only does town hall meetings in certain suburban zip codes.  His middle name is ‘Conservative.’   His primary agenda is to install a strigent nationalized religion and outlaw anyone who objects.  With this Jesus, those who are going hungry best get rid of any notions of being fed, no free meals with this Jesus—he’s more likely to charge you for one (and about his admonishments to feed the poor, he was just kidding with his disciples).  In the rare instance there happen to be any handouts, they are to be doled out to only the finest of characters who have fallen on hard times. 

Republican Jesus sports a Brooks Brothers tailored navy suit, a crisp white shirt with cuff links, a bright red striped tie, and shiny black wing tips.  He drives a dull medium blue sedan and his radio is ever tuned into the Rush Limbaugh Show.  His favorite soup is lobster bisque.  He can be found vacationing at the most exotic of destinations.    He has stock in many of the Fortune 500 companies (even if some of them just happen to exploit the poor or fund the murder of  unborn humans).  And lest I forget, Republican Jesus is president of the Nazareth Chamber of Commerce.  Republican Jesus promotes working as many hours as possible to attain bigger, better, and faster. This Jesus doesn’t bother to warn us of the dangers of living as if we will never die. All who follow this Jesus will have their reward in this life.  

36 Jesus answered,  ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’ 37 Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’  -John 18:36-37, ESV

Notice Jesus didn’t say, ‘Only republicans listen to my voice.’   The real Jesus was loyal to his Father in Heaven, not to a political ideology.  And the real Jesus didn’t have a bumper sticker reading ‘Get a Job’ on the rear of his donkey (and speaking of riding a “donkey”, we can be certain he wasn’t republican).  Contrary to what my republican friends might believe, the biblical Jesus doesn’t exclude democrats from his inner-circle.

Before we start defining who is, and who isn’t a Christian—based on political leanings or affiliations—it might be helpful to bear in mind that Jesus wasn’t a card carrying member of any political party.