Faith Matters | The Jesus the Capitol rioters celebrated is not the Jesus of the gospels
I’m no political commentator. I’m not any sort of commentator, though honestly I could see myself filling in for an NFL broadcast. I’d just say, as Troy Aikman often does, “They really like so and so at linebacker here,” and “They want to be the more physical team today.”
But as a pastor, I don’t want to completely refrain from commentary regarding the ways our faith shapes our politics, or more realistically, how our politics shape our faith.
We didn’t “get past” 9/11, nor did anyone think we should. I don’t think we should try to get past 1/6 too quickly. In the words of Ricky Bobby’s sidekick, “That ... just … happened.”
How did we get here? One of the sadder images shared on social media is one of religious zealots claiming their territory for Jesus by erecting a cross in an eerily Iwo Jima-esque way. And just to leave no room for doubt regarding religious motivation and justification, some even brought “Jesus Saves” signs. That is not how Jesus saves nor what he saves people from or for.
While no doubt this Jesus has been preached in American churches, this Jesus bears no resemblance to the Jesus of the gospels. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus uses the word “Satan” only three times, and one is reserved for his disciple Peter who tried to talk Jesus out of the cross (Matthew 16). Peter didn’t’ get it, and Jesus had to remind him again not pick up arms to defend Him or advance His kingdom (John 18). Apparently this sentiment — force over sacrificial love as a means to advance the cause — ran rampant through other hotheaded disciples wanting to call down heavenly fire, aka “air support” upon on a Samaritan village which didn’t roll out the red carpet out for them (Luke 9). Jesus sure knew how to pick them!
But since any healthy progress requires slow, honest reflection, can we admit that the way of the cross, has often lost out to the way of force among Jesus’ followers, various times throughout church history? Somehow Jesus has ended up endorsing conquest, domestic violence, slavery, segregation, and any particular cause close to one’s heart. Instead of the cross as a symbol of triumph over death, sin, and injustice, it has eventually become a means to get what folks ultimately want. We stopped asking Jesus what he wanted.
Martin Luther King Jr, who came from a long line of prophetic voices within the church, challenged us all to start asking Jesus questions again. Never mind that many white preachers like me told him there was a time and a place for such questions, they just really never gave him a time or place. But because he chose the way of the cross, not the way of force, he has a much wider audience today.
I would propose going back to the gospels, and looking at who this Jesus really is, and who we really are in the story. This is why the simplistic interpretative grid, “What would Jesus do,” often only muddies the waters. No you shouldn’t overturn tables in the temple, for you are not Jesus! We assume alignment with Jesus, and as a result his harshest challenges are reserved for “the bad guys.” So who are we?
After spending time in a Russian gulag, Alexander Solzhenitsyn claimed, “the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts.”
If this is the case, we will reread the gospels much differently. Bad guys who pick up on grace, don’t pick up stones as quickly.
After the president tweeted that his evangelical detractor Russell Moore was “a nasty guy with a bad heart,” Moore graciously owned the insult: “I am a nasty guy with no heart, which is why I need forgiveness of sins and redemption through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We sing worse things about ourselves in our hymns on Sunday mornings. We are a wretch and in need of God’s grace.”
The role of the local church family remains unchanged despite the unrest in our nation. We continue to celebrate this wonderful story of God’s grace, no matter how often it has been corrupted by Jesus’ own people. Let us call out the counterfeit Jesus wherever we see Him, and own the counterfeit Jesus others may see in us.
Faith Matters is written by members of the Bradenton area clerical community. Geoff Henderson is pastor of Harbor Community Church (harborcommunitychurch.org) in Bradenton. You can reach him at geoff@harborcommunitychurch.org.