“On the Cross, Jesus sided with the marginalized, the oppressed and the despised. The resurrection was God’s affirmation of this choice, and in “rising” from the tomb, Jesus offered hope, possibility, love, and welcome.
SO said Professor Susan Shaw at a conference last year to “welcoming and affirming” gay and transgender Baptist churches. So tell a thousand other things that I saw, taking pieces of truth about Jesus and trying to fashion him whole from that. “Jesus’ mission was above all a question of love, especially towards the least among us. If he were alive today, he would open his arms to everyone. You’ve never met someone who was so insistent on doing things their own way, while also being known for having a great love for others.
This is the kind of distorted version you get when you take part of the truth about Jesus and treat it as the whole truth about Him. “Affirmative” churches are not the first to do this. Many people in the Gospels thought they had seen everything they needed from Jesus when they had only seen part of Him. It wasn’t just his enemies. His friends, his followers and even his family made the mistake.
Married: “Jesus, you are our son. How could you treat us like this?
Men of Nazareth: “Jesus, you are the son of Joseph. That makes you one of us, our hometown boy! »
Satan: “Jesus, you are the Son of God. You could jump off the roof of the temple without getting hurt. Scripture even says so!
Crowds: “Jesus, you are the king, so what are you waiting for? Let’s go! Freedom!”
Rock : “Jesus, you are our Messiah. How could you think of letting yourself be killed on a cross?
Pharisees: “Jesus, it’s the Sabbath. Behave!
No more Pharisees: “Jesus, you claim to be a man of God. How can you dine with sinners?
Half the reason is wrong
If you have read the Gospels, you are quite familiar with these incidents. Have you noticed that they all start out perfectly true? Even the Devil succeeded in the first half!
Marie’s story is particularly interesting. This is in Luke 2:41-49, where Jesus stays in Jerusalem while Joseph and Mary return home to Nazareth. They finally find him in the temple. Mary asks: “My son, why have you treated us like this? …Your father and I were looking for you. Jesus responds: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?
It’s subtle but you’ll see it if you look: they were his parents. It’s true, but not true enough. Joseph was his adoptive father, God was his real father.
The second event occurred in Nazareth, the scene recorded in Luke 4:16-30. Jesus reads and teaches from Scripture, and “All spoke well of him…And they said, “Is this not the son of Joseph? » » Jesus said (paraphrased): “No one recognizes a prophet for who he is in his hometown. So rather than comply with your “hometown boy” plans for me, I’m going to go ahead and remind you how much God loves the Gentiles.
It is true that he grew up in Nazareth. That’s not true enough, though: he wasn’t going to belong to them. They tried to throw him off a cliff for this. The devil’s words to Jesus were true, but not true enough. Jesus responded with a firm and scriptural no of his own. Peter was right that Jesus was the Christ – but not enough. He wanted Jesus to be safe from death, but Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan!” »
Loving, not accommodating
They saw something true about Jesus, all right. Their mistake was to make the whole truth about it. Read the Gospels and see how consistently and persistently He insisted on being who He was, not who someone else wanted Him to be. You can bet many people have walked away from Him scowling and muttering, “Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn!” I wish this man would cooperate for a change.
Jesus did not come to cooperate. He didn’t become who people wanted him to be. God doesn’t need us to tell him who he should be. Jesus came to start a spiritual revolution in his name, fulfilled his way, according to his word and his principles, by his grace, through faith, including repentance. This is who He was, this was His message and His mission, and He refused to turn from it.
You’ve never met someone who loves others so much, but is so insistent on doing things their own way.
You’ve never met someone who loves others so much, but is so insistent on doing things their own way. The two traits contrast so much with each other that you would think no one could do it. Jesus did it. This is another way in which He is astonishingly unique.
He readily adapted to the needs of others, but only up to a certain limit. He never moved an inch on his identity, his mission, his message or his authority.
Taking his name in vain
My last example in the list above (“No more Pharisees”) is particularly interesting in this perspective. The Pharisees of his time said to him in fact: “Enough of being so lenient towards sinners. We must have standards! » Today’s progressives turn that on its head: “Enough of having these standards. Jesus accepted sinners, so if you want to be a Christian, you must accept sinners! Both build their ethics on half-truths. Both are wrong.
It is true that Jesus accepted sinners, but building an ethical system based on your favorite parts of Jesus’ message is like building a “Jesus” who automatically approves of your own beliefs. Why not instead take advantage of Matthew 21, where Jesus pronounces woe after woe to the Pharisees. It’s a simple answer: no one says that the Jesus of Matthew 21 is what Jesus actually looks like, because no one wants a Jesus like that.
Progressives in particular are crafting a “Jesus” to their liking, drawing on the messages of “love” and “affirmation” that they prefer. They end up preaching their own opinions with Jesus’ name on them. Isn’t this taking his name in vain?
You cannot talk about His welcome for sinners without including the context, which always had to do with repentance. You cannot say that He welcomes everyone without remembering that He welcomes us only on His terms, and that His terms cannot be changed.
See the real Jesus
We are all prone to seeing less than the full truth about who Jesus was and is. The best protection against this is to study it carefully. Read the Gospels, reread them, and reread them again. Jesus Himself showed us, over and over again, how He would be just who He was, all of Him, in all of His grace, all of His truth, all of His Kingship, all of the reality that He is the Judge, and all the rest of Him I do not have space to mention here.
The best way to guard against this mistake is to listen to voices from different places and times. They may not see Jesus for who He is, because, as CS Lewis once pointed out, we all make mistakes, but they made different mistakes. Look for the truth in what they say.
Progressive Christians claim that the only right way to follow Jesus is to welcome sinners as he did. If only they welcomed them as he did, with an invitation to follow him in faith and repentance!
Don’t let them shame you with their false virtue, their message that they alone are right about Jesus. Don’t settle for less than all of Him.
Tom Gilson (@TomGilsonAuthor) is editor-in-chief at The flow and author or editor of six books, including the highly acclaimed Too good to be fake: how the incomparable character of Jesus reveals his reality.
