3 Ignorant Things Christians Say About Jesus

My pastor is fond of calling it the Ricky Bobby syndrome: "I like to imagine Jesus as a mischievous badger"..."I like to imagine Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt - it's like, I wanna be formal, but I'm here to party." And so too do we often try and mold our Lord to our liking; we say we love Him, and we may even mean it, but our fleshly hearts and minds often manipulate our perception of Him so that He betters fits our personal, political, or social agendas, making it easier to love Him. Three of the things most often cited as attributes of God, though not Biblically sound, include:

1. "Religion/lawyers/politicians/rich people killed Jesus!"
Roundabout 2012 there was a rather popular video on YouTube called "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus." It was a viral sensation, and was especially popular among those who like Jesus but also love to get hammered every other night and relish hating their exes for various offenses. It was also a popular share for non-Christians who felt they could use it to passive-aggressively spite their more obnoxious Christian friends. Many who touted the video's message had a bitter attitude about the notion that Jesus, though being rich in grace and mercy, could still disapprove of our sins and command us to repent, i.e., turn away from them: He says through Paul in Romans, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"
When we imply that it was a conspiracy of rich religious leaders that led to Jesus' death, we make Him not the Son of God who came to save us from our sins, but some unwitting martyr. This is a grave mistake: Jesus was not led as a lamb to the slaughter by the will of men but by divine pre-ordination of His Father. He says in John, "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father." And later, to Pilate, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above."

We mistake religion for rules - understandably so, as many of our own have portrayed it that way - therefore we think Jesus and rules are mutually exclusive, we mistake the Law He came to fulfill to mean rules that don't apply, rules, rules, rules. We think this because we find His commands are too far from our comfort zones. But He told us long ago, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

This is not to say Jesus is found or pleased through works. But He certainly desires for us to follow His commands, lovingly crafted and given for our own sake. Not so He will love us, but because He loves us. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

2. "Jesus was a rebel!"

Jesus was and is certainly a controversial and counter-cultural Figure, no matter what place in history one uses as context. No one who claims to be God is going to be without controversy. He indeed turned the world as it was known upside down. But we often distort this counter-cultural element, again to fit our own desires, into a character of sheer rebellion and in-your-face protest. "If Jesus were here, He'd tell [insert social enemy here] where they can stick their [insert policy here]!" "If Jesus were here, He'd be holding a protest sign with the rest of us at the [insert cause here] rally!" 

But this notion of a James Dean/Marlon Brando anti-establishment mouthpiece is Scripturally incorrect. He did not desire to be some voice of the disillusioned; He did not seek to be a trending socio-political hero. He often told those for whom He performed miracles and healings to tell no one about it, and even told His disciples on at least one occasion to "tell no one that He was the Christ" until He was glorified. He knew God's plan, that all of these things would be revealed and manifest to the world - He was not a publicity seeker for some grass-roots campaign. 

Matthew quotes the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah concerning Him: "He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law." Jesus did not come into the world simply to be a noisy inconvenience to the Pharisees, the establishment, and "the man," whoever that may be. His truth would shine forth throughout the world, by the glory of God, through His disciples given the task to proclaim that truth, but this proclamation did not come from the lusty cries of self-proclaimed rebels.

3. "God is Love!"

Being that God is such a complex and ominous God (why should we lower ourselves to worship only a god we can understand?), many of us try to do one of two things with our claims about Him: we either complicate Him with winding and lofty theological diatribes, or we oversimplify Him. The former can be confusing and a hindrance to the walk of believers - especially new believers - while the latter is just as dangerous in that it attempts to cram a mighty Savior into a compact box with attractive wrapping. Much like when we claim "Jesus hates religion," we try to compress Him into one characteristic like love because our flesh is weak and we can't accept that there are difficult and agonizing tasks He has given us to do; tasks that are not world-friendly, tasks that won't make us popular with progressive or conservative dogmatic in-crowds, tasks that kick down our boundaries and invade our comfort zones. By dumbing down the idea of God to simply "love," we not only impress those around us with our perceived compassion, but we free ourselves from duties that make ourselves and others uncomfortable, justified by the battle cry "but I have love!"
1 John is a book that stresses the importance of love in the Christian's walk; and indeed 1 John 4:8 says explicitly, "God is love.," But this does not mean love is His sole attribute, and it certainly doesn't mean God is merely the concept of love. Rather, He is the Source, Cause, and Creator of all pure forms of love. 

The truth is, Jesus, being God, is far too big to fit into our poorly constructed boxes, made by we who see only through a dim glass: He is not a hippie, a socialist, a conservative, a rebel, a moralist, a pacifist, right-wing, left-wing, Libertarian. He is God, and though He is complex and mysterious He so greatly desired a relationship with us limited human beings that He came to Earth in the flesh, to suffer as we do, to give Himself for our sins, so that we may abandon our worldly gods and have a relationship with Him - a personal relationship with a God whose attributes are unfathomable and who - unfathomably - wants to embrace and save such ignorant people as you and me.

The Privilege of Sorrow: A Conversation With God About Suicide

Recently I wrote to someone, "hold onto your sorrows. Treasure them. Not the debilitating stuff, the depression, but the grief that moves you to help someone, to change something, to keep something, to relate to a friend you cherish or even a stranger you despise. Grief is good."
The Bible agrees: "Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better" (Ecclesiastes 7:3).

Good advice as it may have been, it was obscenely hypocritical to come from me that one's sorrows must be used for good - for much of this year (2018) I've consciously and desperately wanted to die.

Blanket statements about mental health issues are a great hindrance to proper mental health education. One of those blanket statements is "suicide is selfish." However, I've seen this combated by another blanket statement: "suicide is not selfish - the person just wants the pain to end." What people making these ignorant statements don't realize is that both can be true: in my case, my desire for death stems from not only grief, but also from self-pity, vanity, and cowardice. I don't speak for anyone else's desire for death, but in my case, my desire to die is partly selfish. The lesson here being, for all you keyboard counselors who think a shared social media post is proper mental health education, it's counterproductive to try and fight one ignorant generalization with another.

Job wails in the book bearing his name, "My days have passed, my plans are shattered. Yet the desires of my heart turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near. If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness, if I say to corruption, 'You are my father,' and to the worm, 'My mother' or 'My sister,' where then is my hope - who can see any hope for me? Will it go down to the gates of death? Will we descend together into the dust?" 

And so my heart has felt for much of the past ten months.

Today I found out a friend of mine is slowly killing herself with drugs. It saddened me to dizziness. Sorrow that literally makes you dizzy, hurts you physically, is a strangely noble feeling; you feel like you're doing right simply by being sad, simply by the fact that you feel enough for another living person that their pain gives you pain (maybe a bit self-righteous, but still slightly noble).
I prayed to God that He would save her life. "Please don't let her die," I prayed. Sometimes, though we wait for and yearn for Him to speak to us, it can be a frightening blow to one's ego and self-assuredness when God answers us.

The Holy Spirit replied (not audibly, but you know what I mean), "From where did you gather the gall to ask Me to lead someone to life? Do you not pray to Me to take you away? To let you fade away and die? To be shot down by some mass shooter's bullet so your friends will hate themselves for 'forgetting you?'"

"I know," I replied sheepishly (not audibly, but you know what I mean), "but I want her to live. Just because I don't want to live doesn't mean she shouldn't want to live."

"For what? One of the things about which you cry to Me is the hideousness of the world: the idolatry, the violence, the depravity, the apathy. All of these things you to mention to Me when you ask Me to take you out of it. Why, then, do you want her to stay and suffer through it while you're taken to Abraham's Bosom?"

There's no sense in lying to God or using lawyer language to evade His questions. So I had to be honest and answer, "because I'm selfish. Because I'm a coward. I don't have the strength to fight anymore. I don't have the strength to do this. I can't beat it. I can't beat the awful things I think and do."

"I've beaten them for you. You tell others about it all the time, about the cross at Golgotha. You've no ignorance of My blood spilled, My body broken for you. You know that you were buried with Me in death and raised with Me in resurrection. I told you beforehand: 'In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer - I have overcome the world.'"

"I'm too far gone, Lord. I'm of no use anymore. I've rendered myself useless."

"Who are you to tell Me what use you are? Was it not I who formed you, who fashioned your days, who numbered them when there were none? Am I not the One who has given you a purpose? Did I put you here by accident? Did I put you here to die? Is this your great commission - to pray for death?"

"No, Lord. 'When there was no ear to hear, You sang to me.'"

"Remember, I told you: 'Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.'"

Chris Cook - "Wrestling God"

I had no response. My argument was crushed. God continued,

"You wrote to others to use their sorrow for good. You say well. But beware of hypocrisy; I do not desire hypocrisy for you - you cannot tell these things to others while you yourself crawl under the earth. You cannot encourage others in the abundant life I give while you yourself wallow in death and misery. You cannot tell others how I save while you yourself long for the crematorium."

I felt a peace wash over me as God continued - again, not audibly, but you know what I mean,

"Choose life and you will have the right to pray that your friend will do the same. You were grateful to feel sorrow for her. To feel sorrow for her means you have love for her. There are many wicked people who feel nothing for those like her. Be glad you have a heart so heavy. The devil comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly."

And so it was that I learned it's a privilege to feel sorrow. It's a privilege to be alive and to hurt for others in pain. That's what those feelings that break our hearts are - they're life. Without them we'd be catatonic creatures, an argument in favor of the lie that we're an accidental cosmic sneeze that became slime that became walking corpses in suits.

I thank God I'm alive. And I thank God for my sorrow.

Our Names on the Palms of God's Hands

The book I'm writing takes place mostly in prison. While doing some research, I was making notes about the electric chair and, forgetting the existence of paper, scribbled on my hand the name of the most recent person in the US to be executed via electrocution: Robert Gleason. Seeing this killer's name on the palm of my hand reminded me of God's words to wayward Israel in Isaiah 49:16: "I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands." This vicious criminal's name on my hand reminded me that the names of you and me, who have done atrocious things against God, were inscribed in His palms by the nails on the cross: He paid for our crimes via capital punishment, though being innocent, and remembers each of our names, "inscribed on the palms of His hands."