We would kill him all over again today
Published in Backyard Church
Dec 31, 2023 (medium.com)
Here’s a modern take on what is probably Jesus’ most famous parable:
A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
A social justice activist happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side on his way to a march in support of Palestinian freedom.
So too, a conservative evangelical, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side on his way to a prayer meeting to pray for the peace of Israel.
But a Palestinian Muslim, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man in his own car, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out a pile of Israeli shekels and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
How does the above version of this parable make you feel? The way it makes you feel probably reveals your understanding of Jesus.
The more I consider the responses to not only what’s happening in the Middle East, but to what it means to be Christian, the more I’m convinced that Jesus is just too awkward and uncomfortable for many Christians to deal with.
We would kill him all over again if he came back today.
Recently, I was in a conversation with a Christian leader and I happened to mention how, for Jesus, everything boils down to the command to love our neighbor. His response to me was that that sounded more like ‘meta-Marxism’.
I was flabbergasted.
How is it that Christian leaders can be so lacking in understanding of who Jesus is and what he was about? I had to remind my friend that the one who said that the whole Law and Prophets is summed up in the command to do unto others wasn’t Karl Marx; it was Jesus of Nazareth.
Learning from our non-Christian friends
I regularly find that it’s those who don’t claim to follow Christ who have a better understanding of who Jesus is than those who warm the pews on a Sunday.
Why are secular people often more caring than Christians? I wonder if it’s because they don’t have the same baggage as many Christians do, not so many rules or set ways of doing things.
It shows the distance that many Christians are from the Gospel of Jesus.
This is where the story of the Good Samaritan is an affront to many Christians. We like to see it as a nice story of helping others when they’re in need. Buts it’s confronting when it’s seen as Jesus meant it, making the hated enemy the hero of the story. Would we give credit to the Good Palestinian Muslim? He’s just like the Good Samaritan. Jews absolutely hated Samaritans, and vice versa. To Jews, Samaritans believed all the wrong things and were just bad people. It’s the same for the attitude of many Christians towards Muslims. Many of us think Muslims believe all the wrong things and are destined for hell. But Jesus said to his Jewish hearers, “go and be like the Samaritan”. To say it was offensive is a massive understatement.
Jesus would say to us today, “go and be like the Good Palestinian Muslim”. Or the Good Secular Atheist. Or the Good Vladimir Putin. Or the Good Trans Woman.
We have much to learn from our non-Christian brothers and sisters. Christians don’t have a monopoly on truth. Truth can be expressed by anyone. All truth is God’s truth, whether it’s expressed by a Christian, a Muslim, an atheist or an agnostic. True Christlike humility means listening and being open to being changed. It isn’t being afraid of truth, whoever proclaims it.
The problem with many Christians is that our motives for doing good are all skewed. We think it’s about getting a reward in heaven when we die when it’s not about that at all. Is the atheist who does good things with no thought of an afterlife reward more moral than the person in church on a Sunday who does good things because of promise of reward when they die?
This is the problem with having our ultimate hope and destiny in an after-death reward. Often for the faithful church-goer, it’s not about love, but about what I will get. Another crown in heaven. Is the atheist’s motive more pure and therefore more Christlike?
Can you be good without God?
This also raises the old question of whether you can be good without God. I think it’s a moot point. I think everyone is made in the image of God, whether they’re a Christian, Muslim, atheist or whatever. We all have the fingerprint of the God of love, justice, compassion and mercy on us. That’s how God has made all of us. So, yes, you can be good without belief in God and committing your life to God. It’s just that I’m convinced that no one is without God. As St Paul said in Acts 17, God is not far from any one of us.
We often think it’s all about right belief, but for Jesus it’s about right action. We think that if you say the sinner’s prayer and ask Jesus into your heart as your Savior and Lord, you’re going straight to heaven when you die. But Jesus said almost 100 times in the gospels, “follow me” and he taught us to pray for heaven to come to earth.
I’m currently listening to the updated version of Philip Yancey’s classic book, What’s So Amazing About Grace? He laments the fact that there is so much of what he calls ungrace in the church. The Australian pastor, Rowland Croucher, used to tell a story of when he was preaching to a church congregation and said that the Pharisees were all Bible-believing, tithing, good people who regularly went to synagogue. As he said this, people in the congregation started squirming in their seats. Rowland asked one of them what was wrong. The person told him, “that’s us!”.
The Pharisees were well respected people in Jewish society. But Jesus called them sons of hell. What would he say to today’s church?
Having said all this, I believe that intentionally following Jesus is the best way to be good. But so many people are intentionally committed to living a way of love without consciously doing it out of a desire to emulate Jesus.
I remember the Australian Christian leader, Dave Andrews, telling a story once of a Hindu woman in India who was regularly beaten up by her husband. This poor woman would pray every night to a god of love to comfort her. When she told Dave that, he said, “that’s the God of Jesus”. The woman replied, “is that his name?”. She was praying to Jesus and surrendering to him but she just wasn’t consciously aware of it. We need to be open to seeing Christlikeness in those who don’t claim to follow Christ.
The U2 singer, Bono, once said that religion is what you have left when the Spirit has left the building. Jesus didn’t come to give us a new religion. He came to bring the reign of God, of love, justice, and peace, from heaven to earth. He calls us to love our neighbor, including our enemy.
For Jesus, for God, it’s all about love. Loving God is loving our neighbor. The two can’t be separated. The entire Law and the Prophets is about doing for others what we would want them to do for us. The Golden Rule. And if you prefer to get your theology from Paul instead of Jesus, then read Galatians 5:14.
Is Jesus too awkward for you? If he is, that might not be a bad thing. I heard it said once that everywhere Jesus went, he caused a crisis. He caused a crisis in the lives of the disciples, in those he called to follow him, and in the religious leaders. May he cause a crisis in our lives, and may we respond in full surrender to him.
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Written by Nils von Kalm
·Writer for Backyard Church
I am a writer from Melbourne, Australia with a passion for showing how I believe Christian faith is relevant to life. Connect at https://linktr.ee/nilsvonkalm