The Myth of a Christian Religion Read online

  Surely, some would argue, the use of violence must be justified when people are being persecuted for doing good. Yet this is precisely what followers of Jesus are forbidden to do. Instead—contrary to Augustine—we are called to follow the example of Jesus.

  THE DISTINCTIVE MARK OF THE KINGDOM

  Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies was understandably shocking to his original audience—just as it is to us today. Jesus expected as much, which is why, after telling his audience to love their enemies he added that if we only love those who love us and do good to those who do good to us, we’re doing nothing more than what everyone naturally does (Luke 6:32 – 33). But his followers are to be set apart by the radically different way they love. The distinct mark of the reign of God is that God’s people love and do good to people who don’t love them and don’t treat them well—indeed, to people who hate them, mistreat them, and even threaten to kill them and their loved ones.

  To drive home the importance of this, Jesus says that if we love even our enemies, “then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” The parallel in Matthew has Jesus saying, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”

  Just as God is indiscriminately kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, and just as the Father causes the sun to shine and the rain to fall indiscriminately on the evil and the good, so followers of Jesus are to be distinguished by our ability to love indiscriminately. It makes no difference whether the person is a friend or a foe. And this, Jesus emphasizes, is the condition for our receiving a Kingdom reward and for our becoming “children of your Father in Heaven.” Our willingness to go against our fallen nature and love and serve enemies rather than resort to violence against them is the telltale sign that we are participants in the Kingdom of God.

  NO EXCEPTIONS!

  Notice this: there are no exception clauses found anywhere in the New Testament’s teaching about loving and doing good to enemies. Indeed, Jesus’ emphasis on the indiscriminate nature of the love rules out any possible exceptions. The sun doesn’t decide on whom it will and will not shine. The rain doesn’t decide on whom it will and will not fall. So too, Kingdom people are forbidden to decide who will and will not receive the love and good deeds we’re commanded to give.

  It’s also important to notice that both Jesus and Paul were speaking to people who lived under an often unjust and oppressive Roman rule. Such oppressors were among the “enemies” Jesus commanded his followers to love. Some of his followers would, before long, actually watch their children and spouses being put to death before being executed themselves. The “enemies” Jesus and Paul were talking about, therefore, included unjust, nationalistic, life-threatening enemies. Followers of Jesus are to love and seek to do good to even these sorts of enemies.

  FAITHFULNESS AND EFFECTIVENESS

  This teaching strikes many as ludicrous, impractical, unpatriotic, irresponsible, and possibly even immoral. “Surely Jesus expects us to take up arms against Muslim extremists to protect our country and families!” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard something like that response, I’d be a fairly wealthy man.

  The objection that the teaching on nonviolence is ludicrous, if not immoral, is nothing new. The nonviolent stance of the earliest Christians invited many of these same objections, as it has whenever Christians throughout history have embraced it.

  The New Testament’s teaching on nonviolence strikes many of us this way because we are so conditioned by our violent culture that we have trouble imagining any other response to a life-threatening enemy. We are blinded by the pervasive, long-standing assumption that violence is both “normal” and “necessary” to promote good and minimize evil.

  In reality, the belief that violence is “normal” and “necessary” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It confirms itself by bringing about the very violence it expects and deems necessary. If the practice of refusing violence and loving enemies was consistently put into practice, we’d learn that, over the long haul (and with great sacrifice), the nonviolent way of Jesus is far more effective in combating evil than the way of violence. For while the way of violence may appear to curb evil in the short run, it always—always—produces more violence in the long run. It’s self-perpetuating.

  But all of this is really beside the point, for Kingdom people are called to walk in obedience to the example and teachings of Jesus even when it seems to make no sense to do so.

  We’re called to be faithful to Jesus, not effective at protecting our lives or ridding the world of evil.

  To the world’s “normal” way of thinking, Jesus’ radical posture is indeed ludicrous, impractical, unpatriotic, irresponsible, and even immoral. And it may, in the short run, look like our refusal to participate in the merry-go-round of violence allows evil to win.

  We need to remember that this is exactly how matters looked on Good Friday, when the omnipotent God suffered at the hands of evil rather than use coercive force to extinguish it. But under the reign of the sovereign God, Good Friday never has the last word.

  Easter is coming.

  Our call is to trust that the foolishness of self-sacrificial love will overcome evil in the end. Our call is to manifest the beauty of a Savior who loves indiscriminately while revolting against all hatred and violence. This is the humble mustard seed revolution that will in the end transform the world.

  Viva la revolution!

  CHAPTER 9

  THE REVOLT

  AGAINST SOCIAL OPPRESSION

  Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class,

  and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.

  MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

  TALKING TO A QUEEN

  Several years ago, I had just ended the closing prayer for our church services when a middle-aged woman approached me. She was wearing a tattered, stained, dirty dress that hung like a loose tent over her morbidly obese body. Her hair was greasy and stringy. She reeked of cigarettes, was missing a front tooth, and her breath was so foul I had to discreetly lean back as she spoke to me. Her grammar was poor and her thought patterns—insofar as I could understand them—were simple. For several minutes she incoherently rambled on about a number of things, seemingly oblivious to the line of people behind her who also wanted to speak with me. My several attempts to help her get to her point, if she had one, fell on deaf ears.

  At some point I recognized a person in the line that had formed behind this woman to be the well-known president of a very important and influential ministry. I wanted to meet this man badly, especially since I had an idea about how my church could partner with his ministry. But this lady just kept going on and on! I tried to draw her attention to the fact that there was a line of people waiting behind her, but this seemed not to concern her in the least. I eventually interrupted the woman and told her I had to move on to talk to others, but she simply ignored me and kept talking.

  The line began to thin out as people grew tired of waiting, and my own impatience started to turn to anger. I was just about to decide to simply ignore this lady and begin talking to the ministry president who was at this point next in line when, for whatever reason, I suddenly recalled Jesus’ teaching that the way we treat “the least of these” is the way we treat him. This was immediately followed by a still small voice that whispered, “This lady is my precious daughter and radiant bride. Treat her like the Queen she is.”

  I instantly realized I’d bought into the cultural lie that people who look, smell, and talk like this lady are less important than people like the president of an influential ministry.

  I privately repented of my class judgment and gave the woman my full attention while praying blessings over her in my mind. Whether my blessing prayers helped or whether this lady just ran out of things to talk
about, she suddenly got to her point. She wanted money for gas to get home from church.

  When I finally managed to speak with the ministry president, far from being flustered from having to wait so long, he was impressed I gave this lady so much time and attention. I explained to him that what looked like virtuous behavior was actually the result of a divine chastisement. When the few folks who remained had been spoken to, I took the Queen and her two kids to a gas station and then out to eat at a local restaurant.

  Why did I instinctively judge this woman as being less important than the ministry president? It was because I put her in a different class than the president. I literally class-ified her. In doing this, I failed to carry out my central Kingdom duty of manifesting the truth that this woman has unsurpassable worth, for she was worth Jesus’ dying for. In my class-ification, this daughter of the King wasn’t even worth the same as the ministry president. The truth of who she was got suppressed in my class judgment.

  Of course, we who live in American claim to believe that “all people are created equal.” America is supposedly “the land of equal opportunity.” So we often pretend we don’t class-ify people. In fact, we have a long tradition of looking down on societies in which people are born into fixed classes, with some destined from birth to reign as royalty and others to be their servants. But our judgment is somewhat hypocritical, for the fact is that we who live in America have our own class system. We’re just less honest about it. Our judgments are so embedded in our usual way of looking at the world that we tend to not even notice them.

  WHICH LADY DO YOU NOTICE?

  Several years ago the ABC news show 20/20 reported on a sociological study of how perceived beauty affects the ways in which women are treated. The researchers placed two women in a crowded train station at the bottom of a long staircase with a large suitcase. Taking turns, each woman was to act like they were struggling to pull the suitcase up the stairs. The goal was to see how frequently people—especially men—offered to help each woman. The first woman was by customary Western social standards pretty and sexy while the second was average-looking and somewhat overweight.

  It took the pretty woman only a couple of seconds before a man offered to help her. It took the average-looking woman several minutes. It was painful to watch. The test was repeated many times, always with the same results. On top of this, the researchers measured the amount of eye contact and verbal exchanges made between the women and their helpers. Not surprisingly, the attention given to the average-looking overweight woman was a small fraction of the attention given to the pretty, sexy woman—and not just by men.

  What was even more amazing, however, was that all the helpers of the pretty woman were interviewed as soon as they completed their task and, without exception, each one claimed their decision to help had nothing to do with how this woman looked. They also interviewed a number of people who walked past the average- looking woman struggling to get the suitcase up the stairs, and, without exception, the people claimed they simply didn’t notice her.

  We tend to be unaware of the ways we instinctively class-ify people.

  HOW HE LIVED AND HOW HE DIED

  While it’s undeniable that we’re socially conditioned to class-ify people, this doesn’t mean we’re fated to do so. There is another, more beautiful, way of living and relating to people. It’s the way of Jesus.

  Jesus manifested the beauty of what it looks like when God reigns in one’s life by revolting against all of society’s class judgments. He didn’t do this by playing politics or by trying to get Caesar to make society fairer. He rather revolted against classism and warred against the Powers that fuel it by how he lived and by how he died.

  In first-century Jewish culture, disabled people were often seen as being cursed by God and were therefore often treated as misfits and outcasts. Most had to survive by begging on the street. People with skin diseases were considered unclean and untouchable. Condemned criminals and impoverished people were generally looked down upon as scumbags. Certain kinds of sinners were deemed to constitute an untouchable class. Women were on the whole considered second-class citizens and were generally viewed as property owned by men.

  Jesus revolted against this classism by touching lepers, healing the sick, treating beggars as equals, treating women with respect, identifying with the poor, and befriending those judged as the worst sinners. In fact, Jesus taught his followers that how they treat these sorts of people is how they treat him (Matthew 25:35 – 36, 42 – 43). In he end, Jesus ascribed unsurpassable worth to each and every one of these marginalized people by giving his life for them.

  In living and dying this way, Jesus revolted against every social judgment that oppresses people and revolted against the Powers that fuel this oppression. We who have committed ourselves to following Jesus are commissioned and empowered to do the same.

  PROCLAIMING THE YEAR OF JUBILEE

  To appreciate how central abolishing class distinctions was to the ministry of Jesus, we need only examine the sermon that launched his ministry. In Luke 4, we find Jesus visiting his hometown synagogue. At one point Jesus stood up and read from Isaiah 61.

  The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

  because he has anointed me

  to proclaim good news to the poor.

  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

  and recovery of sight for the blind,

  to set the oppressed free,

  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

  Jesus then shocked his fellow towns people by announcing, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

  Most scholars agree this passage refers to the “year of Jubilee” in the Old Testament. Every fifty years all debts were to be cancelled, all land lost through indebtedness was to be restored, and all slaves and prisoners were to be set free. It was, in short, a year in which all inequalities, and thus all class distinctions, were to be abolished.

  This was obviously good news to lower class folks—the poor, the enslaved, the lame, the imprisoned, and the oppressed—but bad news to upper class folks who benefited from these social inequalities. It’s not too surprising that we have no historical record of this divine command ever being obeyed in ancient Israel.

  In this inaugural address, Jesus presented himself as the bringer of this “year of Jubilee.” He clearly interpreted the “year” figuratively as referring to the new epoch he was inaugurating with his ministry. He announced that the revolution he came to unleash would be centered on erasing all debts and reversing all class judgments. This is why Jesus taught his followers to not expect repayment when we lend to others, even our enemies. It’s why he taught that we’re to offer thieves who stole from us more than they took. We’re to live in “the year of Jubilee” and, as ludicrous and impractical as it may appear, this is what it looks like.

  In the Kingdom, all class judgments are to be erased. We’re to make no distinction between rich and poor, male or female, Jew or Gentile, free or slave, good citizen or criminal, able-bodied person or disabled person, holy or unholy. Our lives are to manifest the truth that where God reigns, all class-ifications that assign people pre-established social values are rendered null and void. Where God reigns, people are to be defined solely by what God did for them by dying on Calvary, not by their social class.

  Luke goes on to tell us that the towns people were both amazed at Jesus’ “gracious words” and understandably surprised that he applied this teaching to himself. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they wondered. But then they turned against him—to the point where they wanted him dead.

  A closer look at the passage reveals why this happened, and it tells us a great deal about the classless Kingdom Jesus came to establish. Two points are worth mentioning.

  AN EPOCH FREE OF JUDGMENT

  First, it’s significant that Jesus stopped reading and put the scroll down right after he read “the year of the Lord’s favor.” Had he read the very next line in Isaiah, he would have
added “and the day of vengeance of our God.” This omission wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by his first-century Jewish audience, and it undoubtedly contributed to their offense.

  Most first-century Jews were looking for a Messiah who would reveal “the Lord’s favor” toward them but also bring vengeance on their enemies. In fact, the vengeance they expected God to bring on their enemies was a central aspect of the favor they expected the Lord to show them. Their good news was centered on the bad news they anticipated for their enemies. For them, therefore, the punch line of the Isaiah passage was “the day of vengeance of our God.” Jesus left this punch line out!

  His refusal to apply this clause to describe his own ministry reveals that Jesus didn’t view his coming or the movement he came to establish as having anything to do with divine judgment.

  Whatever God will do at the end of the age, in this present Jubilee epoch God’s favor is toward everyone—even toward the enemies of those who consider themselves God’s favored people. In this present “year of Jubilee,” God’s reign is marked by unconditional acceptance and favor, not rejection and vengeance. In this year of the Lord’s favor, all social distinctions, including the fundamental distinction between friends and enemies, are to be abolished.