JESUS IS DEAD AND WE HAVE KILLED HIM

JESUS IS DEAD AND WE HAVE KILLED HIM

(An edited excerpt from my new book)

Jesus is dead and we – the church and modern American Christianity have killed him.  We have killed his person, his spirit and his teachings…

One of the facets of Jesus that tradition and dogma has wrung from the Gospels is Jesus’ humanity.  In Jesus, we are presented with a Savior who fully sympathized and empathized.  We have sanitized Jesus to some milquetoast palatable Savior, independent of whether he was real or myth.  In doing this, we have lost a Savior who wept, who experienced tremendous sorrow, who evidenced doubt and apathy.  We have hollowed out our Savior of emotion and made him less for it.  No longer is this Savior fully empathetic with our nature, our plight, our sins and our temptations, but this is a Savior without emotional equivocation.  How sad.

One of the saddest traits that Jesus loses when we sanitize him is anger.  We have morphed Jesus into an impotent warm-fuzzy, capable of platitudes, but incapable of angst and indignation and even rage when God is side-stepped, ignored or diminished.  We have killed that Jesus.

Substitutionary atonement is not license. We like to think that in the New Testament, post-Jesus, discussion of faith versus works, that faith is the ultimate test and redemption. That's a very modern American perspective.

We like to think that Jesus never addressed faith versus works, and that we can leave that debate to Peter and Paul. But that's not the case. The entire life of Jesus, as well as the concept of substitutionary atonement speaks to works and not faith alone.

Consider the very first sermon of Jesus… The very first words Jesus spoke in a teaching and preaching situation. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus doesn't begin his ministry with a sermon about belief, he begins with a sermon about works and behavior. Repent. Not repent of your beliefs or repent of your faith, but repent of your ways. Why repent? Because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. God's will is paramount. We are to behave a particular way. Behave…

Consider Jesus very last words. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Not forgive them their beliefs, not forgive them their faith, but forgive them their actions.

From Jesus very first sermon words to his last words on the cross, he was concerned about our behavior. Substitutionary atonement is not license. It doesn't mean that Jesus died, so your behavior, in some wildly relativistic fashion, is every bit as valid as the next person's behavior. It doesn't mean that Jesus was unconcerned about behavior; it means that our behavior needs to be forgiven. And that was Jesus first concern and last concern. The parable the sheep and goats demonstrates that. What will send us to heaven is the way we behave toward others. What will send us to hell is the way we behave toward others. At no other place in the gospel is Jesus quite so clear or definitive or direct regarding what it is that sends us to heaven or to hell.

It is not the gospel that tells us that Jesus was concerned with faith alone, because that's not the case. It is church tradition and our human nature. Consider modern America. Two of the primary political and social issues of our time are gun ownership and the acquisition of wealth without a requirement that the wealth be distributed. Nothing, nothing could be more antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Yet we believe that we can behave in a way that regards gun ownership and wealth acquisition as valid and good because Jesus forgives us, so my behavior and my motives are just as good as your behavior and your motives.

After all, we pretend, Jesus forgave us and forgives us and wasn't overly concerned about our behavior. That's how we have bastardized the concept of substitutionary atonement. Forgiveness is not license. I can't say that frequently enough. Forgiveness addresses behavior. We have to assume that Jesus was frequently angry with our behavior. The gospel writers tell us that, we see that on a couple occasions in the Gospels. Jesus was frequently frustrated. We see that throughout the Gospels and Jesus asks the question, “How long must I be with this perverse and unbelieving generation?" Jesus was frequently disappointed. When the disciples didn't get it, when they showed a lack of faith and nerve in the ship during the storm, when they failed to stay awake in Gethsemane…

Jesus was angry, Jesus was frustrated, and Jesus was disappointed. Not in lack of faith, but in the behavior of the disciples. His words were constant message and exhortation to behave differently. Behave… Not to think differently, not to feel differently, not to evidence a different faith, but to behave differently. The very fact that he begins his ministry with repent, and ends his life asking that we be forgiven of certain behaviors indicates the importance of behavior to the Christ.

No amount of discussion or debate will negate the fact that Jesus wanted us and wants us to behave differently and that throughout his ministry he was adamant, aggressive, forceful, demanding, supportive, and chastening in his efforts to direct our behavior.

It is sloppy theology, and self-serving wishful thinking to believe that being forgiven for our behavior, is the same thing as assuming that Jesus had no regard for how we behaved.

The disciples were called into accountability for their actions.  Humankind, from the moment of Jesus incarnation, was called into accountability for its actions.  It would be folly to assume that Jesus was ok with any instance of follower or non-follower to behave in a fashion that denied God or God’s reasonable and rightful place in our lives.  It would be similarly folly to assume that Jesus was a happy-go-lucky unconcerned fellow who didn’t really care about how his message was received.  In fact, we need to assume that he perceived himself as scattering seed.  Would he not care where that seed landed or how that seed fared?

Jesus got angry.  We have sanitized the Messiah and don’t generally willingly see that behavior.

Jesus withered a fig tree.

Jesus drove the money lenders from the temple with a whip of cords.

Jesus called the leaders of the church vipers.

Jesus called his best friend Satan.

Jesus called the Syrophonecian woman a dog.

But that Jesus no longer exists.  We have killed him, imagined him out of existence.  Replaced him with some really nice meme, that doesn’t offend, but also doesn’t prioritize a walk with God ABOVE EVERYTHING ELSE.

How I long for a resurrected Jesus who expects loving, committed, decent and meaningful behavior from us.  How I lament his demise.