It seems to me that some Christians don't really follow Jesus. I have seen bizarre and disgraceful renditions of a white "Jesus" who somehow hates Gays and loves guns, who is wrapped in an American flag and voted for Trump, who despises immigrants and endorses capitalism, who opposes publicly-funded healthcare and vaccines. The Jesus of some appears to be just a name for the sponsor of the White Christian America they mistake for Christianity.
None of that expresses the Jesus we find in the gospels, who famously (among other things) fed, healed, and liberated people purely on the basis on need and all for free, criticized the wealthy, welcomed the outcast and strangers (ie. migrants), and advocated forgiveness and non-violence. That Jesus was arrested and executed by the State (ie. police), acting on behalf of the political, economic, and religious establishment.
At the same time, there are also Christians at the other end of the ideological spectrum who seem to do basically the same thing: invent a Jesus different from the one in the gospels in order to serve their political and social biases and goals.
For instance, they apply arbitrary scientific criteria to invent a "historical Jesus" distinct from the Jesus of the gospels, and thereby decide that he "didn't really say" words that the gospels indicate he did. In the process, they have to cut many pieces out of the gospels, and get rid of almost the whole gospel of John. Their theory is that the Church (even though it was founded by people who knew Jesus personally) misunderstood and deliberately corrupted and misinterpreted his original teachings, and that by their own methodology (developed and perfected in German secular universities in the 19th century) only they, at a remove of 2000 years, somehow finally manage to recover the real and pure historical Jesus.
Unsurprisingly, their new "Jesus" appears designed to offend or disturb the people they disagree with. For instance, he is non-apocalyptic and he does not make any claims to divinity. Coincidentally, these are things they didn't like about Christianity to begin with. And, of course, he doesn't do anything that sophisticated Modern people would consider "supernatural."
It is important to note at this point that these two false "Jesuses" are not equivalent! The arrogant, AR-15 wielding, redneck "Jesus" of the right is hateful, bigoted, and violent, and therefore far more egregious than the vague hippie philosopher "Jesus" of the left, who is basically harmless and easily ignored (which is the point). But while one approach ignores or radically reframes the Jesus of the text; the other attacks the integrity of the text itself. Which is worse, I wonder?
If we are going to follow Jesus we must decide whether we are going to follow the actual Jesus as attested in the New Testament, as inconvenient, annoying, and difficult as that may be), or some other "Jesus" that allows us to remain stuck in our comfort zone, legitimating our own fear, anger, desire, ratifying everything we already believe, know, and follow. If we just invent a "Jesus" that suits us -- no matter how sophisticated our methodology -- then what we are really obeying is our own ego. We're using "Jesus" as an excuse and blessing to do as we please.
Let's be clear here. The only Jesus that matters to people truly seeking to follow him is the one found in the New Testament. Following means obedience. It means setting our individual egocentric agenda aside, which takes a lot of strenuous spiritual work. In short, the actual Jesus of the New Testament is about transformation. Indeed, it is to avoid the demands of this Jesus that we dream up less threatening ones to worship.
How do we know if the Jesus we follow is the real one? Hint: It's not the one who vindicates us. The real Jesus calls on us to change, and not just in a technical or even adaptive way. "When Christ calls someone he bids them come and die," is how Bonhoeffer put it. We have to lose our selves. If we are privileged and powerful we need to let that all go. At the same time, if we are broken and enslaved, then that identity is what he calls on us to relinquish. If the Jesus of Scripture isn't sticking in our face a fundamental existential challenge, we are probably not encountering him at all. He comes to turn our lives, and the world, upside down.
The point is that we start to emerge with his mind and in his Image. We have to resonate with the Jesus we are given in Scripture. Conformity to him is all that matters, personally and in terms of the whole world. We begin living in what he called the Kingdom of God, a complex of relationships and practices distinct from what we want or are used to.
But this depends on not following any "Jesus" other than the one in the New Testament.
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