Would We Know Jesus Today?

Would we — would you and would I — recognize Jesus if he returned to the world in our time? I don't mean the Jesus of biblical prophecy who will be returning on a white horse and bringing his church as a vast cloud of witnesses. Let's just make up a situation here for the sake of some personal enlightenment. Let's let Jesus come back to our time and in our own culture, and in a manner that is parallel to his first coming. What would he be like?  Would we recognize him?

When we pose this question in church meetings around the country, most people — almost without exception —  are concerned about how he would look and what his social status would be. Would he wear sweats and sneakers? jeans and a ball cap? a business suit? or business casual? Would he be born in a hospital or in the back of a taxi? or maybe in a cardboard refrigerator carton in some camp for urban homeless? Maybe he would even be a female! Most people try to describe Jesus by the way he looks and dresses ... by outward appearances. That's not really surprising, because that's how we judge most people we encounter. It's doubtful anyone would recognize him from the perspective of outward appearances. (Unless, of course, he showed up in a flowing white robe, sandals, a beard, and a shiny halo around his head).

A few people say they could recognize Jesus by the things he would say and teach. Even in a modern context, these folks believe that the teachings of Jesus are so "right and true" that they would stand out from general level of chatter in our world today.   Naturally, they suggest, Jesus would reshape his parables to suit the mind and needs of modern men, women, and children. But the message would still be clearly recognizable.

Oh, I'm not so sure about that. I do not believe Jesus would be received any better today than he was two-thousand years ago. People didn't understand his message in those days, and they wouldn't understand it now. The church has flattened, bleached, and trivialized the gospel so much that Jesus, himself, probably wouldn't recognize it. Now, as then, he would chastise the church leadership for their own transgressions. And now, as then, the church would rise up against him and try to get rid of him because, as everyone should know, the problem is not with the leadership. He would be viewed as a cult leader with demonic powers.  The media would have a heyday digging up enough dirt on him in order to crank out an award-winning broadcast of a long and tedious public trial. Jesus told us that a prophet is never honored in his own town. No, I would add, is a prophet known in his own time.

Just as they did two-thousand years ago, the church leadership would set him up and the civil authorities would carry the persecution to another bitter end.  No, we don't crucify people on a literal cross these days, but we crucify their lives and reputations. We construct a global pathway of hypocrisy, ever seeking high-profile scapegoats to bear the penalty and distract the view of others from our own moral and spiritual squalor. We make due with an occasional celebrity, televangelist, or politician, but Jesus and his gospel of the kingdom of heaven would be the juiciest plumb of all.

I am glad this scenario is purely imaginary. It isn't going to happen. Jesus isn't going to come back as quietly as he did before. But it is important to see the parallels between the spiritual and religious sickness of first-century Jerusalem and twenty-first-century America (and Europe).

The meat of the gospel was radical and revolutionary in Jesus' time, and it would be no less radical and revolutionary today. People simply do not want to hear and understand anything outside their own idea of "how it really is." We want new ideas to conform to us, rather than conforming ourselves to a new way of living and looking at things. We want new ideas to support the things we think we already understand. If a teaching doesn't mesh within the habits of our own minds, we blow it off as stupid, unintelligible, or (in some religious groups) as demonic. Much of the church —s upposedly the guardian of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth — thrives on this arrogant, self-defeating attitude. We are convinced we have it all figured out, and we don't want anyone, including Jesus Christ himself, telling us otherwise.

Sure we would recognize Jesus today if we found some guy sitting on a stool blessing long lines of anxious people. Pin-g-g-g-g, you are healed, your problems are all gone, and you're going to heaven.  We would give that guy some credibility, especially if he spent time walking on water and changing tap water into a good California wine.  But this stuff about seeking, asking, and knocking ... what's that?? Blessed are the meek?   ten virgins with lamps of oil? first are last and last are first? Awww, come on! That's pure gibberish.  It's nuts. Let me back in line with this guy who is doing all the cool signs and wonders. Maybe he will win me the lottery and get me a better life than the one I am tolerating right now.

I really should wrap up this discussion ... I think you are getting the idea here. But I have to bring in one more parallel for the benefit of those who are somewhat familiar with bible prophecy. The prophet we are most likely to recognize immediately from all those signs and wonders is the one who is giving away "666" tattoos instead of "WWJD" bracelets. Am I being flippant? If so, my inspiration is the Bible.

The general consensus of bible scholars is that, when Jesus really does come again (not as in our little exercise here), there will be absolutely no doubt about who he is and what his is doing. "Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all! "

Wow! And amen.

Looking Without Seeing, Listening Without Hearing

Back in the days when Jesus walked the crowded streets and dusty roads of Judea, large multitudes gathered around to witness his miracle-working power and to hear his promises of a new kingdom of God that is free from Roman oppression and religious corruption. Ordinary people were seeing what the wanted to see and hearing what they wanted to hear. Jesus had the ingredients of a really hot megachurch right in his own hands. But then he blew his opportunity by saying a few things the people couldn't readily understand, couldn't believer, or simply didn't want to hear.  The crowds came and the crowds left. The multitudes would cheer him on one day, then go about their own business the next.  Ultimately, Jesus replaced the vision of a great megachurch with a few iron spikes and a splintery wooden cross.

Today we sit on our self-made, self-righteous thrones of judgment and condemn the multitudes of first-century Judea from their lack of hearing, eyesight, and spiritual discernment.  We have the Bible. We have church. We have bookstores full of Bible commentaries and Christian how-to's.  We have Christian TV and Christian rock.  Multitudes? Yes. We are blessed with an entire sub-culture, complete with heroes, villains, sights, sounds, and limitless opportunities for ministry careers. And talk about big crowds! Whoooo! 

In most Christian circles today, Jesus is a miracle worker and peacemaker whose central message is one of loving the unlovable (including ourselves) and being nice to one another. Some feel a calling to a somewhat deeper spirituality, seeking to rebuild themselves according to the perceived model that is portrayed in a popular hymn: "I want to be more like Jesus, I want to be more like him." Commendable. Scriptural.

The Christian culture has fine-tune the image of Jesus and has balanced the sounds of his words. Every effort is made to avoid the mistakes Jesus made — the ones that drove away the multitudes and, eventually, the core of his ministry that had been with him from the beginning. We are no different.  We see what we want to see and we hear what we want to hear.

We see what Jesus does in the Bible, but we hear only what we want to hear or are taught to hear. Far more sermon texts and commentaries come from the Epistles than from the red print (the words of Jesus, himself) in the Gospels. Why?  Because the Epistles lay out clear rules and instruction. We are prone to better understand rules and instruction: "Tell me what I'm supposed to think and do."  But the parables of Jesus are the essence of all the rules and instruction. Someone once said, "The red print is the core of God's truth. The rest is all commentary." The parables are about fellowship with God, not about how to think and how to act. Understand the parables, and you are in heaven already — where righteous thinking and behavior are the effortless norm. It is far easier to try mimicking Jesus than to understand him.

Admittedly, it isn't easy to grasp the essence of the Gospel. Jesus struggled to explain it, and actually failed most of the time. So who am I to suggest that I can do a better job today? The best anyone can do is point the way. Jesus tells us about "pointers."  Jesus, himself, points to the Father. Look at Jesus, and we see the Father.  But natural eyes and culturally biased thinking make it impossible to see the face of Jesus and the way he is pointing. We need the Holy Spirit — the Sprit of Truth — to help us (not the latest book, and hottest new ministry). Then, and only then, can we carry out the "great commission" by pointing others to the path of Jesus.

We are no better off than the fickle crowds of Jesus' days in Judea. Jesus IS here today in the form of the Body of Christ, the Church. But we confuse this body with the essential Him.  Jesus tried to instruct the people to look past the sights and sounds of this world and into the heart of the Gospel. But that wasn't fun. So, as in the days of old, we see and do as we choose. As Jesus taught in one of his parables, "Many are called, but few are chosen."

A new breed of evangelist will be born from the woumb of the emergent chruch. This new breed takes salvation for granted and points to the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness.

Simply Sin

You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Jesus -- Matthew 5: 27-8

We don't know what sin is. Jesus tries to explain it. He tries to take us beyond the Pharisaical view that sin can be portrayed in a volumes of do's and don'ts that are crudely carved onto hearts of stone. Jesus never intended to make sin a trivial matter, but rather to take us beyond the most rudimentary views. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." He came to fulfill the Law — to take us beyond God's most primitive, rudimentary perspective on sin and righteous living and up to a higher order of living and understanding. Yet today, we tend to ignore Jesus' teaching, favoring man-mandated rules and misguided notions of holiness and (self)righteousness. And where the notion of sin makes us uncomfortable, we embrace the flippant notion that grace and love covers the need for any real concern about sin.

Frankly, we aren't taught what is, so it figures we also have no clue for dealing with it. It's a very risky position we place ourselves. As Jesus says, "Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven ..." Of course that's always somebody else ... right? Right."... but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." We need to get beyond pretending we know what sin is all about, and abandon the demonic tool of guilt that is so often used for driving people toward our own sin of moralistic self-indulgence.

Jesus rarely got the point across, so who am I to suggest that I can do it here? I can't tell you exactly what sin is, because the essence of sin is beyond human expression.  But I can tell you what sin is not, because the false notions of sin are created by people and are thus easily articulated in normal human language.

All I can do about sin is point you in the direction of understanding. That, of course, is in the direction of Jesus Christ and his gospel of truth.  Through the work of Jesus, we have access to the door of understanding. Through that door, we can sense the essence of sin. We can see the devastation it is creating in our lives. We can see how it is blocking our higher walk with God. We can clearly see the implications of our sin, because we see the truth of ourselves through the work of the Holy Sprit, and free of the foggy ambiguity, guilt, and emotional corruption that some ignorant teacher/preacher would impose upon us.

Know the Bible — the entire Bible. Join an active fellowship of believers. Worship God with all your heart. Be zealous of casting off man-made religion and picking up the mantle of truth. Pray and meditate as often as possible. Develop a personal relationship with God. Let God to the talking when you are together. Grow in the Spirit. Grow. Grow. Then one day the essence of sin will become very, very apparent. And you will come to know yourself very, very well.

When you encounter sin as Jesus describes it, there is no great sense of remorse, guilt, sorrow, bitterness, or fear.  Men have imposed these human responses as normal reactions to man-made impressions of sin. I've encountered that wall of sin in my spirit. I was amazed at the breadth and depth of it. My petty moral "sins" were totally overtaken by the magnitude of all that stood between me and my God. Those silly "sins of omission and comission" that once annoyed me like a swarm of marsh mosquitoes became mere freckles on the face of the sin that God saw fit to expose.

It isn't a fearsome position, because I am convinced that God won't let anyone go there until they understand the overwhelming power of the Gospel. Like Satan, our genuine sin is broad and powerful opponent. But like Satan, our sin is defeated by a truly Holy God.  When you manage to touch the hem of His garment, he will let you see your sin. And when you see your sin, you can deal with it. And when you deal with your sin, you can touch the face of God — and live to tell about it.

It Isn't About Compromise or "Middle Ground"

One of the hallmarks of postmodern thinking is the lack of duality. Modernist thinking demands dualistinc thinking -- the creation of extremes and conversations that encourage compromise between the two extremes. The popular media, for example, classifies every living person as conservative, liberal, or moderate.  Modernist thinking, with this insistence upon creating dualistic structures, qute naturally generates stereotypes and all the emotional and intellectual baggage that inevitably accompany them.

Postmodern thinking, on the other hand [forgive the dualistic reference], eschews extremes.  Extremes create boundaries.  And with no extremes, there can be no boundaries and no so-called "middle ground"   There are no stereotypes. There are experiences and impressions won from personal as well as shared understandings, but those are merely springboards to all that we can possibly perceive and understand about the cosmos (including people).

Modernists read the Bible and attempt to screw their thinking down to the table, and condemn the soul of all who fail to do exactly the same.  Postmodernist read the Bible, and let it spill all over the place; inviting others to lap at it wherever they choose, knowing that a tiny sip of Truth is no different from gulping down the entire essence of God.