Jesus Doesn't Care If You're a Christian
"I got saved." "We are Christians." "I love Jesus."
I used to think Jesus cared about religious proclamations. I thought he celebrated in Heaven with God the Father and the Spirit every time someone "got saved" and "became a Christian." The kind of celebrating we all do when a foxy couple gets married, or when a man in his mid-sixties finally retires after 40 grueling years at the same brainless job.
That was years ago when I thought that. Now, I envision Jesus paying little attention to our religious proclamations. Goodbye to my images of celebratory high fives exchanged between he and the rest of the Trinity when some lost soul prays the sinner's prayer. "But why doesn't Jesus care?" you ask. "It sure sounds like most of the Church is saying that's his number one concern." Yes they are saying that, but the masses are often wrong. Jesus doesn't care if you're a Christian because "being a Christian" is a made-up label.
All labels are made-up. Such labels that shape the roles we play: Father, employee, volunteer, addict, artist, and so many more. We adopt these labels because they help us navigate through life with a sense of meaning and order. They help keep us from going insane by telling us what to do with our day. Although labels are beneficial, they are without substance. Labels do not contain what is real, they are just just words that point to reality-- words that may or may not be followed up by supporting actions. Jesus cares more about actions than words. He cares about actions because they are what establish Heaven on Earth. Jesus never proclaimed, "I have come so that all would call themselves Christians." Rather, "Love as I have loved." Then he showed us what that love looks like.
Jesus doesn't care if you're a Christian because he didn't come to start the Christian religion. In fact, he often had harsh words for the hypocritical religious leaders and their adherents who followed Judaism too strictly. Jesus was not anti-religion, but he did criticize those who elevated religion above humanity. He did not come to dispose of religion but to expose religious hypocrisy, loose religious bondage, and include those from religious exclusion: sinners, slaves, women, and the lower class to name a few. Jesus was on a mission to cleanup the mess religion made.
Jesus practiced unconditional love while religion held conditions. He embodied radical grace when religion forgot how. Consequently, Jesus and the religious rarely saw eye to eye. Jesus had no time for their shenanigans, and vice versa. This begs the question, would it be any different in 2019? If Jesus didn't want people converting to Christianity 2,000 years ago why would he want that today?
What Jesus would want is for us to keep the main thing the main thing. Those main things he modeled for us, like loving unconditionally and embodying radical grace. He taught us how to personify these main things when we show kindness to the unkind, and help the helpless. Jesus cares deeply about these main things, but he doesn't care if we adopt the Christian label because made-up labels don't matter to him....loving actions do.
Jesus doesn't care if you call yourself a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Agnostic, or even Atheist; but he does care how you treat other people. He cares how you respond to the embarrassed server when she tells you she messed up your order....he cares how you talk about people when they aren't around.
So my theology has changed quite drastically. Back then, I thought Christian converts were at the top of Jesus' list. And now, it has become much simpler. I feel the warmth from Jesus' radiating smile when I hold the door for a man in a wheelchair, or when I pick up that piece of trash in the parking lot. Such loving actions are the "main things" that Jesus cares about, not a religious label.
Meaningless, meaningless, meaningless.
-King Solomon
I used to think Jesus cared about religious proclamations. I thought he celebrated in Heaven with God the Father and the Spirit every time someone "got saved" and "became a Christian." The kind of celebrating we all do when a foxy couple gets married, or when a man in his mid-sixties finally retires after 40 grueling years at the same brainless job.
That was years ago when I thought that. Now, I envision Jesus paying little attention to our religious proclamations. Goodbye to my images of celebratory high fives exchanged between he and the rest of the Trinity when some lost soul prays the sinner's prayer. "But why doesn't Jesus care?" you ask. "It sure sounds like most of the Church is saying that's his number one concern." Yes they are saying that, but the masses are often wrong. Jesus doesn't care if you're a Christian because "being a Christian" is a made-up label.
All labels are made-up. Such labels that shape the roles we play: Father, employee, volunteer, addict, artist, and so many more. We adopt these labels because they help us navigate through life with a sense of meaning and order. They help keep us from going insane by telling us what to do with our day. Although labels are beneficial, they are without substance. Labels do not contain what is real, they are just just words that point to reality-- words that may or may not be followed up by supporting actions. Jesus cares more about actions than words. He cares about actions because they are what establish Heaven on Earth. Jesus never proclaimed, "I have come so that all would call themselves Christians." Rather, "Love as I have loved." Then he showed us what that love looks like.
Jesus doesn't care if you're a Christian because he didn't come to start the Christian religion. In fact, he often had harsh words for the hypocritical religious leaders and their adherents who followed Judaism too strictly. Jesus was not anti-religion, but he did criticize those who elevated religion above humanity. He did not come to dispose of religion but to expose religious hypocrisy, loose religious bondage, and include those from religious exclusion: sinners, slaves, women, and the lower class to name a few. Jesus was on a mission to cleanup the mess religion made.
Jesus practiced unconditional love while religion held conditions. He embodied radical grace when religion forgot how. Consequently, Jesus and the religious rarely saw eye to eye. Jesus had no time for their shenanigans, and vice versa. This begs the question, would it be any different in 2019? If Jesus didn't want people converting to Christianity 2,000 years ago why would he want that today?
What Jesus would want is for us to keep the main thing the main thing. Those main things he modeled for us, like loving unconditionally and embodying radical grace. He taught us how to personify these main things when we show kindness to the unkind, and help the helpless. Jesus cares deeply about these main things, but he doesn't care if we adopt the Christian label because made-up labels don't matter to him....loving actions do.
Jesus doesn't care if you call yourself a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Agnostic, or even Atheist; but he does care how you treat other people. He cares how you respond to the embarrassed server when she tells you she messed up your order....he cares how you talk about people when they aren't around.
So my theology has changed quite drastically. Back then, I thought Christian converts were at the top of Jesus' list. And now, it has become much simpler. I feel the warmth from Jesus' radiating smile when I hold the door for a man in a wheelchair, or when I pick up that piece of trash in the parking lot. Such loving actions are the "main things" that Jesus cares about, not a religious label.
So true. Christianity as we know it is a religion. Church as we know it is a building and an organization. Following Jesus does not need either christianity nor church. Loving God and loving one another is something we do everyday and everywhere. My theology has changed quite a bit from the many years growing up in the institutional church. I have taken off the label of christian and prefer to just follow Jesus by loving others.
ReplyDeleteI like your thoughts, thanks for sharing. I'm assuming you grew up in Conservative Evangelicalism also?
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