The Christian Gadfly

I figured I better let everyone know what’s going on. I’m going through several changes, not the least of which is work related. There are also changes going on at church. Among them is that I have been asked to teach an adult elective on Sunday mornings. I have chosen to the Kingdom of Heaven as my subject, with Matthew as my primary text. As a result, I’m having to rethink what I’ve been posting here, incorporating it into the much broader subject I’ll be teaching.

As a result, I probably won’t be posting very frequently until I begin my teaching the beginning of September so I can concentrate on preparing for that. My plan then is to post the lessons here for each Sunday after they’re taught. The lessons will be rather long text, so I’ll most likely break them down into two or three installments each week.

That’s pretty much what’s going on. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

I found these words from Vintage Jesus by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears to be interesting:

JESUS OF POP CULTURE

On television, Jesus often appears on the long-running animation hits The Simpsons and South Park. Jesus also appears in the comedic sketches of vulgar comic Carlos Mencia’s hit show Mind of Mencia, which explores everything from what it would have been like for Jesus to be married to his involvement in a royal religious wrestling rumble with the founders of other major world religions. Dog the Bounty Hunter, the famous Christian bail bondsman, prays to Jesus on almost every episode of his hit television show, gathering his wife in her clear heels and the rest of their chain-smoking, mace-shooting, criminal-pursuing, mullet-wearing posse to ask Jesus to bless each manhunt.

In the world of fashion, Jesus appears on numerous T-shirts, including the popular “Jesus is my homeboy” shirt, worn by everyone from Madonna to Ashton Kutcher, Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt, and Pamela Anderson.

Roughly one hundred films have been made about Jesus, including top-grossing movies like The Passion of the Christ and The Da Vinci Code, along with the bizarre Canadian kungfu/horror/musical/comedy Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter (which pairs Jesus with Mexican wrestling hero El Santos to battle an army of vampires that can walk in the daylight). In the film Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, comedian Will Ferrell (as Ricky bobby) prays to an “8-pound, 6-ounce, newborn infant Jesus” in “golden, fleece diapers.”

There are even Jesus wrestling federations, such as Wrestling for Jesus, Ultimate Christian Wrestling, and The Christian Wrestling Foundation, with wrestlers named Zion and Satan and sponsors like auto parts stores and a tattoo parlor dedicated to redneck out-reach. Jesus even appears on a 110-foot, 750 pound hot-air balloon, a monster truck, and innumerable tattoos. In the world of poker, Phil Gordon said, “Even Jesus wouldn’t bet all of his chips on a Jack-three!”

Musically, everyone from rapper Kanye West to rockers The Killers, punk rockers Green Day, American Idol country-crooner Carrie Underwood, and the world’s top band, U2, are singing about Jesus. The Beatles’ frontman John Lennon even once said, “We’re more popular than Jesus now.”

Even homosexuals have their own spin on Jesus. The home-page for the pro-gay Metropolitan Community Churches is www.Jesus.com. The portrayal of Jesus as a gay man also appears in the book Jesus Acted Up by Robert Goss and in the play Corpus Christi by Terrence McNally.

In the world of sports, it seems every time someone scores a touchdown, hits a shot at the buzzer, throws a no-hitter, or knocks someone out, they thank their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, also affectionately referred to as “my Coach” and “The Big Guy Upstairs.” Gigi Becali, owner of the Romanian soccer club Steaua, reportedly even commissioned a copy of da Vinci’s Last Supper portrait, with himself as Jesus Christ. It also seems that Jesus is a real baseball fan – there are twelve major league and sixty-two minor league baseball players with the name “Jesus” somewhere in their names.

Jesus is now even on the radio hosting a call-in show. The baldheaded, tattooed, thirty-seven-year-old Neil Saavedra pretends to be Jesus Christ on his Sunday morning The Jesus Christ Show. The hit program is an exploration of what it would be like if Jesus lived in Los Angeles and hosted his own call-in advice show.

JESUS OF THE CULTS

It is fascinating how some people will boldly claim that all religions essentially teach the same thing. However, when it comes to Jesus, the cults and world religions in no way teach the same thing.

Liberal “Christians” and some of their Emergent offspring say Jesus was merely a good man, but they are not clear about his being the God-man. Jehovah’s Witnesses say that Jesus was merely Michael the archangel, a created being that became a man. Mormonism teaches that Jesus was not God but only a man who became one of many gods; it furthermore teaches that he was a polygamist and a half-brother of Lucifer. Unitarian Universalism teaches that Jesus was not God but rather essentially an incarnation of Mister Rogers, a great man to be respected solely for his teaching, love, justice, and healing. New Age guru Deepak Chopra told Larry King, “I see Christ as a state of consciousness we can all aspire to.” According to Scientology, Jesus is an “implant” forced upon a Thetan about a million years ago. I would explain that position more thoroughly but I have never smoke weed or done any drugs; subsequently, I apparently lack the imagination to understand a religion started by a science fiction writer that has unleashed Tom Crazy Cruise on the world as Billy Graham’s evil doppelganger. There is even a Canadian nudist-arsonist cult that thinks that the word “Jesus” in the Bible is a code word for hallucinogenic mushrooms that are to be eaten before getting naked and lighting things on fire.

JESUS OF THE OCCULT

Freemasonry, or the Masons, includes fourteen United States presidents, eighteen vice presidents, and five Supreme Court chief justices. Masonic lodge meetings include the reading of Scripture, but intentionally omit the name “Jesus.” Levi Dowling said Jesus underwent seven degrees of initiation (an occultic ceremony) in Egypt with the seventh degree making him the Christ. Edgar Cayce said Jesus only became the Christ in his thirtieth incarnation after shedding his bad karma.

JESUS OF THE RELIGIONS

Baha’is say that Jesus was a manifestation of God and a prophet but inferior to Muhammad and Baha’u’llah. Buddhism teaches that Jesus was not God but rather an enlightened man like the Buddha. Hinduism, with its many views of Jesus, does not consider him to be the only God, but most likely a wise man or incarnation of God much like Krishna. Islam teaches that Jesus was merely a man and a prophet who is inferior to Muhammad. Speaking at an event hosted by the Muslim Student Association at the University of North Texas, Council on American-Islamic Relations vice president Eric Meek told students, “If Jesus were here, he’d be a Muslim.” The Dalai Lama said, “[Jesus] was either a fully enlightened being, or a bodhisvatta [a being who aids others to enlightenment’ of a very high spiritual realization.”  Indian Hindu leader Mahatma Gandhi said, “I cannot ascribe exclusive divinity to Jesus. He is as divine as Krishna or Rama or Muhammad or Zoroaster.”

JESUS OF THE FAMOUS AND INFAMOUS

The famous and infamous also have much to say about Jesus, including:

·        President Thomas Jefferson: “Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God … “

·        Prince Philip: “[Jesus] might be described as an underprivileged, working-class victim of political and religious persecution.”

·        Fidel Castro: “I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure [Jesus Christ].”

·        Mikhail Gorbachev: “Jesus was the first socialist, the first to seek a better life for mankind.”

·        Martin Luther King Jr.: “Jesus Christ was an extremist for love, truth and goodness.”

One of the greatest mistakes Christians tend to make is to think of the Kingdom of God in terms of a physical kingdom. While it is true that there will come a time when Jesus will reign over all Creation, the key word here is “reign.” When Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven (God) is at hand,” He was not speaking of a specific, geographic kingdom, but the rule and reign of God. This reign of God is not something we have to wait for. It is at hand, it is now. His reign is manifested through His subjects, us, Christians, the Church.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5.14-16, ESV)

Jesus said to His disciples, and by extension to us, “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” Who hasn’t heard a rousing sermon challenging us to go out and be salt and light.  We’ve already discussed the aspect of salt, so now we turn to light. As with salt, life would not exist without light. I’m sure there are a few who will argue this point, stating that there are many forms of life on this planet that live in total darkness, and they would be correct up to a point, but even those life forms are in many ways dependent on the nutrients that come from sources that live in the light.

I’m sure that more than a few of you are waiting for me to spring some kind of theological surprise here, or at least a different interpretive twist, and I hope you won’t be disappointed, but for the most part, the general interpretations of these verses have been at least more accurate than many of the others. There is, however, some additional color and flavor that is worth bringing out. In order to do this I hope you will grant me the license to paraphrase verses 14 and 15.

“You are the light of the world. You would no more light a lamp and hide it under a basket than a city built on a hill could hide itself. it is obvious that when you light a lamp, you place it on a stand so that it can light up the whole room.”

Jesus, in effect, is setting His disciples up. he begins this rapid fire statement with something so obvious to anyone, that thinking otherwise would be impossible. Jesus is making a dramatic transition in focus from the rather generalized statements ov verses 3 - 12, and is about to launch into some very specific life applications concerning the Kingdom, beginning in verse seventeen. But first, His disciples have to get past verse sixteen.

Without any warning, Jesus jumps from the obviously ridiculous thoughts contained in verses 14 and 15, then body slams them by immediately telling them to let their own light shine before others. This is rather an interesting thing for Him to say, particularly since it is so early in His ministry and, at least as far as we can tell, His disciples haven’t received a whole lot of instruction yet. I can almost picture the looks on the disciple’s faces as Jesus told them this, and that the the world should see their good works so they can give glory to the Father. What in the world is He babbling about?

The answer to that really begins in verse seventeen which I’ll discuss in a later post, but I would point out that the idea of the disciples having a light that can shine forth indicates they have something different than everyone else around them, or their light wouldn’t be distinguishable. It is that different sort of light that Jesus is really talking about in the rest of His Sermon on the Mount.

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” (Matthew 5.11-12, ESV)

There are many subtleties in the interpretations of these verses. Salt has many uses and they’ve all been the focus of one interpretation or another. Once again, before I launch into my own discussion, it would be beneficial to remind everyone of some of the background information that could be key to our understanding. First of all, Jesus was speaking directly to His disciples. This small group of men was fairly representative of the “out” crowd. Fishermen, zealots, loathsome tax collectors, and such, no one would have mistaken them for the religious elite, the leaders of the nation.

Now, there are some who tell us that Jesus, in His use of salt here, meant the seasoning ability of the mineral. In other words, just as salt brings out the best of the flavor of food, the disciples, and we by extension, would bring out the good in the world by virtue of our presence and activities. That is a somewhat difficult position to take as it isn’t something we find anywhere else in the New Testament that such a meaning was understood, particularly by Paul.

Another often offered interpretation is the property of salt to preserve things. Put enough salt on just about anything and it can be preserved for a very long time. The trouble is, that much salt kills. Sure, something is being preserved, but it isn’t death. Plus, as far as keeping evil at bay, the only reference concerning this is that it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that is doing that, not us.

That really leaves us with the one option that makes the most sense of all. Salt is a necessity of life. No salt, no life. In effect, Jesus is telling the disciples that they are the salt of the earth. It is them, and those like them, who make everything work, who are the real backbone of the land and of the nation. The powers that be may think the whole universe revolves around them, but if it wasn’t for the farmers, the fishermen, the craftsmen, etc., those powers would shrivel up and wither away. This is another instance of Jesus turning the understood order upside down.