Silencing Jesus

Silencing Jesus--February 20, 2018

[Jesus said:] "And if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile." [Matthew 5:40-41]

You often hear church-going folks (or the people who play church-going folks on Facebook, who get riled up about respectable religious subjects) lamenting that Jesus is losing influence in the wider culture... and that that's what's so wrong with society today.  

I could not agree more on that point--we could all stand to listen more closely, follow more daringly, and walk more faithfully in the way of Jesus (assuming, of course, that we are actually talking about the real, living Jesus and not an idol of our own invention that we have slapped a "Hello--my name is Jesus" nametag onto).  

But here's the thing.  I find that often, it's not "those scary secularists" or "the government" or the "pundits of political correctness" or people of other faiths (or no faith) who are really stifling Jesus' influence.  It's not any of the usual boogeymen of the day who I am most worried about silencing Jesus.  It's us.  It's religious folk who wear the name of Jesus but do not want to actually listen to the things he says, who are doing our damnedest so that we won't have to take Jesus seriously, because we know if we do, we will not like what he is saying.

Kierkegaard had this brilliant, harsh insight once, too.  He wrote:

“The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything else except pledging yourself to act accordingly. ‘My God,’ you will say, ‘if I do that, my whole life will be ruined.’ Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”

In particular, we in this time and place don't want to listen to Jesus when he talks about deliberately choosing to give up our rights for the sake of others.  We--especially we Americans, who are taught from toddlerhood to see life in terms of "rights" we must fight for and defend, or else someone will take them from us--we really don't know what to do when Jesus just comes out and says things that boil down to, "Don't insist on getting what you have a right to... be willing to give yourself, your time, your labor, and your rights up for the sake of someone else."  That doesn't compute to American-made ears, so we pretend that he didn't say it... or we look for ways to water down, ignore, or soft-pedal Jesus' words.

Seriously, over the years, I don't know how many times I have heard or read someone chugging along in a discussion of the Sermon on the Mount, and then they'll come to verse like this about going the extra mile or not fighting tooth and nail for everything you think you are "entitled" to, and they'll stop and say, "But obviously, this doesn't apply to us today..." or "Jesus surely only meant spiritual things here--not that he would ever actually cost us money, or time, or labor..." or "This might have applied back during the Roman Empire when soldiers could compel a peasant to walk a Roman mile and carry their pack along the way, but it doesn't apply today!"  I have heard Jesus' words ignored, skipped over, emptied of their meaning, or twisted inside out to mean the opposite of Jesus' clear sense--sometimes you even get voices who say things like, "Maybe Jesus' hearers in Israel were supposed to turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile, but here in America Jesus wants us to fight for our rights and defend 'em against all those people who are trying to take them away from us!"  

Well, I don't know what to call that, but it ain't Jesus' way.  It becomes really its own religion, a religion that uses Jesus' name like a franchise uses a corporate logo, but has none of Jesus' actual substance.  And in that counterfeit religion, what matters most is the creed, "Nobody can make me let go of my rights, and I sure as hell won't give them up for the sake of someone else!"  And the prophets of this message--who are all around, on televangelist programs, hawking books that confuse nostalgia for devotion, and especially on places like Facebook--angrily insist that they are all fed up with hearing they should give up their comfortable feeling of security for the sake of someone else.  Lately I have even seen it framed as an attack on the young, phrased like, "Where do these millennials get the nerve to tell us grown-ups...", because honestly, it is always easier to pretend that the message you don't like is coming from someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.

But... what if it's Jesus?

See, rather than automatically silencing Jesus or assuming that he couldn't or wouldn't say something that would compel me to give up what I have a "right" to, instead of assuming that Jesus' words don't apply, or are impractical, or can't be taken seriously because it would be hard, what if we began by asking, "What would it look like to dare to do this in my life?"

Could we dare that today?  Would we--we religious folk--dare to listen to Jesus on his own terms, even if it meant giving up, not simply our "rights", but the belief we have been taught that keeping our "rights" are the most important thing in the world?  Could we dare to let Jesus turn our thinking around, so that we do come to see the lives of others as worthy of us giving something up for?  Could we dare to let ourselves be inconvenienced, to put the needs of others above our own, to quit fussing over whether we look "weak" or "foolish" when we intentionally put the well-being of others before our wish lists?  And could we do it, not just for people we love, or like, or who are like us, but for people we haven't met... or people we resent?  Because that is getting close to what Jesus is conjuring up when he talks about walking a mile beyond what someone else can compel you to do. 

Jesus doesn't say, "Walk an extra mile when it's your kid because that's being a good responsible parent," and he doesn't say, "Give up your coat when the news crew is watching so that your act of kindness will get some internet buzz and maybe someone will give you a reward."  The Roman soldiers who could compel people to walk a mile with their packs weren't the beloved friendly local town police officer--they were the occupying foreign army!  And Jesus dares us not to be ruled by fear or hatred toward even the enemy occupying force, but rather to be led by him.  And the way of Jesus doesn't stop and whine, "But it's my right NOT to carry this!" And the way of Jesus doesn't say, "No one can make me do this!" but rather can say back to the Roman centurion, "I'm not doing this because YOU say so, but because Jesus has called me to."  It strips the power away from the oppressor, but also refuses to feed the beasts of fear and hatred.  And it is downright revolutionary.

But we will only hear those words in their own power if we are willing to stop silencing Jesus.  

So maybe today it's worth asking, Where are the places in my life where I have been so hung up on clinging to "my way" that I am unable to walk the way of Jesus?  And where have I put Jesus on "mute" in my life that I need to let his voice be heard?

Lord Jesus, speak, and make us to listen.  Grant us the courage and faith to surrender ourselves to you and your way.