Blaspheming Jesus

Growing up adjacent to a lot of Evangelical fundamentalist missionaries, I am used to having many disagreements with people over how we interpret the Bible, understand salvation, perceive grace, and what we see as the focus of Christianity. What I am still not used to is how many professed Christians seem to have let go of Jesus by such a wide margin.

Sure, folks I grew up with had a difficult time processing a place for social ministries within a missions and outreach framework. Sure, I grew up with folks who failed to see the connection between working for justice and following Jesus. Sure, I knew folks who relegated the things of Christ to a spiritual realm divorced from most of lived reality on earth. They also called on people to live by a higher moral code, however. They understood that love was much more important than yelling at people. They considered rapture theology and end times preaching as important, but they were not trying to bring about the end of the world in order to force Jesus' return.

I didn't agree with all their methods, interpretations, or emphases. I did, however, recognize that we were working toward the same purposes. I could recognize the Jesus they preached. They seemed to recognize the same in me. Some of the most conservative of those voices even invited me to teach Bible at that very conservative Christian high school.

I'm not sure where that sense of commonality was lost along the way, but I'm finding it harder and harder to recognize. The conservative voices I knew growing up were concerned with integrity. They were concerned with speaking truth. They were concerned with teaching of God's love. Of course, they were very concerned with anything remotely touching on sexuality. Meanwhile, they were much more concerned with following the gospel of Jesus than protecting any political platform or even reversing cultural shifts.

Oh, they were actively preaching against sex, drugs, and rock -n- roll. Many took issue with the use of drums in church, how people dressed, public displays of affection, and alternate versions of the Bible. I saw many of them speaking staunchly against women's liberation and tied that to their interpretation of Scripture and Christianity. On the other hand, they did not despise women enough to bar some strong women leaders from positions of leadership and authority through the school and leading students into ministry at church and into the community beyond.

We disagreed, but we were not enemies. We were at odds over ideas, but we recognized each other's humanity and the presence of Christ within those with whom we disagreed. We even held a mock political debate at school between Reagan/Bush and Mondale/Ferraro, with students representing the four candidates. We held a mock vote among the student body after the debate and no one became enemies over political disagreements, faculty and staff included.

Somewhere, we seem to have lost that ability to exchange competing ideas without holding those differences against people. In the process, it often seems that within the church, we have lost Jesus in the shuffle.

The disciples routinely disagreed with Jesus, and Jesus corrected them. That’s half the plot of Mark and Matthew. They often misunderstood Jesus. They had difficulty grasping the things he was teaching. Jesus regularly called them back to the basics and redirected them to following him and his example. After all, they were disciples learning from their master. When he was taken from their midst, they continued gathering together, working through what Jesus had taught them, making sense of his death and resurrection, and taking up the mantle of extending what they had learned to others.

We read in Acts of some major disagreements among them. They tackled issues in due course as they came up. They were determined to follow Jesus’ command that they be united as one body.

We seem to have turned that upside down to believe that unity requires everyone else to agree with me, hook, line, and sinker. For Jesus, our was about recognizing that he alone is the glue that would bind us together as we seek to follow him at all costs.

I get it if you don't understand Jesus the same way I do. I don't understand Jesus the way I used to. Hopefully, I won't understand Jesus quite the same way I do today a decade from now. Hopefully, I will still be learning from Jesus. My concern is that too many of us seem to have brushed Jesus off as irrelevant to our lives, the way we do church, and how we express our Christianity.

If we take Jesus out of the equation by ignoring what he actually taught, why do we bother with the label of Christian?

Jesus did not go around condemning people. Jesus did not go around telling people that they were sinners. Jesus did not go around telling people they were going to hell. Jesus did not go around telling people to be afraid of God. Jesus did not go around propping up the wealthy and teaching people how to increase their cash reserves. Jesus did not preach a prosperity theology. Jesus did not preach a message of wielding political power to advance God’s Reign. Jesus was neither militant, nor supportive of those hungry for power. Jesus did not advocate banning books, closing borders, telling people to depend on themselves, or pull themselves up by their bootstraps. He did not tell laborers to work harder.

He put people ahead of profits. He put healing people above shaming them. He put feeding people ahead of scolding them for being unprepared. He put forgiveness ahead of enforcing indebtedness. He put mercy above strength. He put service ahead of power. He put love ahead of intimidation and fear. He put community ahead of individuality. He put humility ahead of fame. He put generosity ahead of fortune. He put grace ahead of condemnation.

I don’t think any of those conservative missionary voices around me would have had an issue with any of those characterizations of Jesus. It is the Jesus they knew. It is the Jesus I knew. It is the Jesus we read about in the gospels.

That’s the Jesus we should be preaching. If that is not what our Christianity looks like to the world around us, aren’t we taking the name Christian in vain? As I recall, the Bible calls that blasphemy. I’d rather have Jesus than fame, fortune, and political power. Wouldn’t you?

— ©Copyright 2023, Christopher B. Harbin 

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