Christianity without Christ?
A few years ago Donald Trump, Jr. remarked that turning the other cheek doesn’t work. I guess he believed that Jesus’ teaching on how his followers are to respond to vitriol and hate wouldn’t work very well in our rough and tumble world, and he probably would be right. Turning the other cheek, more than likely, will result in two sore cheeks, if not worse.
Sermon on the Mount by Fritz Kunz (1906)
I’m not surprised that someone has suggested that some of the teachings of Jesus don’t work in real life. There seem to be a lot of people—people in the church, mind you—who think that Jesus is a bleeding heart liberal, that his teachings are totally unrealistic. A number of years ago a professor of a major university showed her students a modern day version of the Sermon on the Mount and instructed them to write an essay on what they thought of it. The students responded that whoever wrote it must be delusional! My guess is, the people who first heard the Sermon on the Mount also thought it out-of-touch with the real world—love your enemies, really? Bless those who persecute you—are you kidding?
Russell Moore, editor of the conservative magazine Christianity Today, has written that Christianity is in crisis because people within the church have turned their backs on much of what Jesus taught because they believe his teachings to be impractical in a dog-eat-dog world.
Russell Moore, Christianity Today Editor
Moore blames what is happening within the church to Christians espousing a type of nationalism, that is, a political philosophy that supports America’s interests to the exclusion or even detriment of other nations. In a recent interview, Moore stated, “I think if we’re going to get past the blood and soil of nationalism or all of the other kinds of totalizing cultural identities, it’s going to require rethinking what the church is.”
Moore is concerned that people in the church today read some of the teachings of Jesus and identify him as weak, even a coward, a no-no in today’s culture of machismo. When Jesus speaks of caring for the poor, the sick and marginalized of this world, extremists reject these teachings as socialistic balderdash. In churches all across the country a new and more militant Messiah has been created who commands his followers to stand their ground and refuse to yield an inch. The cross, once a symbol of self-sacrifice, has been transformed into a metaphor for domination, power and control.
The church during the first couple of centuries after Jesus certainly didn’t understand the cross as a symbol of triumph over others. The early followers of Jesus did, indeed, turn the other cheek and suffered the consequences, sometimes brutally so. Turning the other cheek didn’t work then either, at least if one defines “work” as getting ahead or defeating one’s enemy. Followers of the Jesus Way willingly put the needs of others ahead of their own. Similar to today, the rich and powerful struggled with Jesus’ teachings because to them, they seemed anemic and ineffective.
Apostle Paul - Paris - St. Severin church
The Apostle Paul realized the absurdity of the Jesus Way when he wrote, “We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness” (I Cor. 1:23). Paul understood how ridiculous the Jesus Way must appear to people who are trying to get ahead, to folks who are just trying to survive in a cruel and frightening world. The “crucified Christ” was not just a story of one man’s death, but a reminder of what happens to all those who follow Jesus (Mk. 8: 34-35). The crucified Jesus continues to be both a stumbling block and foolishness to those whose primary goal is to climb the ladder of success, even if you have to climb over others to get there.
Perhaps the problem for many of us is that we’ve turned inward, thinking only of our own self-interests. Over the last century or so churches have become more culturally adaptive, sermons are psychologically geared to console and comfort, to instruct how people can be happier or more successful in marriage, business or child-rearing. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong in guiding people to a better life. That is an important part of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The Christian faith does teach us how to live a better and more fulfilling life.
But when our individual welfare becomes the primary focus, when preaching is concerned solely with the enhancement of our lives, then people’s ears can soon lose their spiritual sensitivity and will no longer be able to hear the words of Jesus. Sadly, in todays what’s-in-it-for-me culture, I’m afraid many churches have become spiritually deaf to the radical nature of Jesus’ teachings. Followers of Jesus are not called to save their lives; they are called to sacrifice their lives in service and care of others—for Christ’s sake.
Will Willimon
Will Willimon, a retired Methodist bishop, tells the story of a conversation he had once with a rabbi. I don’t remember the exact details of the story, but the rabbi and Willimon were discussing an issue that had something to do with when military force was justifiable. Both agreed that there are times when force is a necessary response to certain situations.
The rabbi was surprised that Willimon agreed with him. When Willimon asked the rabbi why he was surprised, the rabbi said, “Well, you’re a follower of Jesus, and you’ve got a cross on the top of your steeple.” The rabbi understood that the cross was a symbol of sacrificial love, and that symbol forever changed how Christians see the world.
The cross defines how a follower of Jesus lives in this world. Every decision, every act, every word is guided not by my will, but by Thy will be done. Otherwise, it’s Christianity without Christ.
