The thing we need to remember is people don't act out of character. Barring drugs or some kind of brain injury, when people "aren't acting like themselves", what's happening is they're no longer repressing that part of their character. We thought we knew their character, but we only knew the part we're normally allowed to see.
Or the part we like to pay attention to. And that's the issue when people say Jesus did something out of character. It's not that he let slip the part we all try to hide; it's that he showed the part we want to ignore.
A common complaint is his "going on a rampage" in the temple. Jesus made a whip and drove people and cattle out of the temple courts, turning over tables in the process (John 2:13-17). If your picture of Jesus is based only on "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemies", this passage is perplexing. But Jesus is the one who taught us to pray, "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name" (Matt 6:9). He told us the greatest commandment was to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). If the love of God and neighbor are at the core of your character, defaming God's name to profit off those who try to worship him will be deeply offensive. If you think of Jesus as a pacifist who told us told us to turn from every fight (he didn't), this seems out of character. If you think of Jesus as the judge of all the earth who will destroy the wicked with the words of his mouth, you realize these people got off easy.
Another allegedly out-of-character moment comes when he's asked to pay the temple tax, which all adult Jewish males paid to support the temple (Matt 17:24-27). Jesus objected to paying, but "so that we may not cause offense" told Peter to go catch a fish, wherein he would find enough to pay for both of them. Doesn't Jesus contradict himself here? He told people to "render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's" (Matt 22:21), but here he's difficult about paying. Why?
This is another passage that is hard to reconcile with a picture of Jesus whose only crime was telling people to be nice. But the real Jesus had a very different conflict with Jewish leaders. As Jacob Neusner points out in A Rabbi Talks with Jesus, the Lord claimed an authority that shocked his hearers. He did not talk like a rabbi or even a prophet; Jesus seemed to think he was God himself. Because he was and is. Telling people to pay their taxes to the government is one thing. Telling him to pay taxes to his Father is another. When kings levy taxes "the children are exempt". This event highlights exactly who Jesus thinks he is.
These two examples demonstrate a serious problem. Many people don't believe in the real Jesus. They follow Temu Jesus, a cheap knock-off that will fall apart when they need him.
Idolatry is forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments. 1John ends with the seeming afterthought, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols" (1John 5:21). That's not really a problem for us, is it? Nobody is (intentionally) worshipping Molech or Ba'al anymore.
We do sometimes speak of loving money or excessive devotion to work or family as a form of idolatry, and they can be. But there's a more insidious form that is very common. Like the Israelites making golden calves to worship Jehovah, we can make a fake God. We can fashion a Jesus we like, the one we're willing to follow, by sanding off those pieces we don't want. Our version says "judge not" but never said anything about pearls and swine. It says "love your neighbor" but has no interest in holiness. It cares about the outcast but not sexual immorality. Or vice versa.
Temu Jesus cannot save. It cannot conquer death, it cannot impart the Holy Spirit, and it can offer you no more support in the trials of life than a stuffed animal.
Jesus was complicated. People are always complicated; God is more so. If we try to force Jesus into a form that makes us comfortable, we only hurt ourselves. We have to wrestle with all that Jesus says about himself. We need to acknowledge that all he did was holy. Jesus did not sin when he challenged the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30) or when he cursed the fig tree (Mark 11:12-21). If we don't understand why Jesus told people they must hate their father and mother (Luke 14:26), we need to study the passage, not cross it out.
This is the real Jesus, in all his complicated glory. He is the only one who can save. He is the one we must preach to the lost. Because this real Jesus is going to return to judge the quick and the dead, and their only hope is to place their trust in him.
What about you? As you read the gospels, pay attention to any passages where you feel uncomfortable with something Jesus did. Consult a couple of commentaries or talk to your pastor, and try to grasp why he did what he did. Make sure you're letting Jesus be Jesus.
Image via Pixabay
No comments:
Post a Comment