Readings for today: John 7-9
Good man. False teacher. Criminal. Blasphemer. Prophet. Messiah. Everywhere Jesus went, He caused division. People didn’t know what to make of Him. He defied human categories. He resisted worldly definition. He refused to be squeezed into a box or co-opted for any political, social, or personal agendas. Jesus was perfectly healthy and self-differentiated because He rested secure in His relationship with His Heavenly Father. He knew He came from God and to God He would return. He knew He was here to do His Father’s will and no other. He knew His purpose was to reveal His Father’s glory and that gave Him an otherworldly, even heavenly, authority that could not be denied. Humanity, however, hasn’t stopped trying to remake Him in our own image. We project on Him all our fears and anxieties and dreams and desires. The result is a caricature. A two-dimensional Jesus that bears no resemblance to the one revealed in Scripture.
I see it all the time especially in our current cultural moment. So many are trying to use Jesus to justify their political and social agendas. They cherry pick the verses about Jesus that support their position while conveniently ignoring or explaining away those that don’t fit their narrative. They use the words of Jesus like a club to shame those who don’t disagree with them. They treat Jesus like the ultimate trump card in any debate. They are always trying to claim Jesus is on their side. But here’s the hard truth. Jesus is on His own side. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him. He will not rest until every knee bows and every tongues confesses His Lordship over their lives and over the world. He is reigning even now at the right hand of the Father and those who come under His reign transfer their primary allegiance to Him. We belong to a heavenly Kingdom that transcends all the false binaries of our world.
This isn’t an easy road to walk. It makes us aliens and strangers in the kingdoms of this world. It makes us seditious on some level because we will always be working for King Jesus and not for our own clan, tribe, or nation. Just like Jesus defied all earthly categories and resisted human categorization so we will as well. We will find ourselves walking a narrow road between Right and Left, Conservative and Progressive, or any other political/social binaries you can think of. This is not a “middle way” for that suggests compromise and cowardice. This is not some kind of “third way” because that suggests it’s one of many human options. No, it’s a different way altogether. A heavenly way reflecting a heavenly Kingdom. As Jesus said when confronted by Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” As Jesus prayed to His Father about those who would follow Him, “They are not of the world just as I am not of the world.”
Readings for tomorrow: Luke 10, John 10, 11:1-54