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How Many Jesuses Do You Know?
As has been the topic of many chapters in McLaren's A Generous Orthodxy, there are many distortions of the true, whole, historic and real Jesus as well as His Message. McLaren details the various facets that people focus on with their Jesus. This is helpful to understand how people of diverse faith understand Jesus and the message that he brought 2000 years ago.
What we really are after though is a realization of the true historic Jesus, the message that he brought 2000 years ago and how the listeners would have heard it then. That must be the primary goal as we seek to follow Jesus and be true to His Message. A recent article in the USA Today focuses on this very issue of different Jesuses and primarily a juxtaposition of Jesus here is America and the Jesus that was encountered by the writer as he visited Sicily.
[Jesus] used to bring people together and give them hope. He wouldn't have his people get in your face and tell you to fight gay rights or you'll burn in hell. That's not what he was about. That's not the Jesus who made folks such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson rich and famous. He was a different guy from the 21st-century American Jesus Christ.
The writer clearly is disappointed with how Jesus is portrayed in 21st Century America and particularly from the conservative right. He goes on to reflect on the Jesus that he met on his travels to Sicily:
When I recently visited Sicily, Italy, the old Jesus was all over the place. His statue was on the counter at the restaurant and the coffee house. His image was on the wall at the clothing store and in the hotel lobby. And there was a huge painting of him on the side of an apartment building.Sometimes he was with his mom and dad, and sometimes he was sitting with his pals - the apostles. Mostly he was hanging from the cross. Whatever he was up to, it was all about religion.
I could reflect on the kind of Jesus that the writer expected but I won't. Instead, I would like to pursue a critique from within. As someone who is associated with the conservative right in America and a Jesus follower, I believe that the problem is not the message of Jesus that we try to convey but instead the delivery of the message.
We have spent much time learning from the Rabbi Jesus about the message that is Good News that we forgot to also learn from him about how to convey this message.
When was the last time you heard a pastor, friend, relative, or some other Christian in any setting that was trying to make a point use a parable? When was the last time you heard a cogent argument delivered in a way that cut to the chase but did so in a way that was not "preachy"?
I am increasingly convinced that we must not only convey the Gospel of Jesus that we find in the Text to a dying world but we must learn from Jesus in how he encountered the people that he gave the Gospel to.
I will leave you with this parable:
There were two guys who were having a couple beers one night. One guy had recently learned about this deal to make a great amount of money with very little effort. The other guy was in a financial quagmire and had come to drink his cares away.As they chatted about meaningless things in life, the guy involved making a fortune told the other guy, "You know, your financial life is a mess. You are in so much debt, you are always keeping up with the Joneses and you just lost your job because you were asking for a raise for the second time this week from your boss to cover your financial mess."
"You probably want to know why I have my life in order. I learned of this deal where I can make a boatload of money doing these real estate deals. That is what you need. You need a deal like I have got."
The fellow who is in the midst of financial turmoil retorted, "Thank but no thanks. I have everything under control."
To those who have ears to hear, let them hear.
