Jon Meacham, managing editor for Newsweek magazine wrote a cover story entitled, “Who really killed Jesus?” editorializing what they described as Mel Gibson’s troubling movie, “The Passion of the Christ.” Troubling are the words of Meacham when he states, “Though countless believers take it as the immutable word of God, Scripture is not always a faithful record of historical events; the Bible is the product of human authors who were writing in particular times and places with particular points to make and visions to advance.”
On an almost daily basis the onslaught seems to have begun and one is left to wonder what is going on in America. It is not just about the Passion they have dug in to express hostile feelings toward Christianity, the very fabric of our faith has been beaten upon, hammered away at and condemned by not only the media but the liberals in our society. I am left to wonder if the secular media is really trying to continue with the message that America doesn’t need God anymore.
All the clamor over a movie which seems from all reports to portray the Gospel narratives of the crucifixion centers on a quote from the crowd in Matthew 27 where Pilate sentenced Jesus but told the people he was innocent of this Man, Jesus, blood, and in verse 25 the multitudes responded, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
The media has perpetuated the claim the film contains anti-Semitism because some have claimed the Jews killed Jesus. Said Gibson to the critics, "This film collectively blames humanity [for] the death of Jesus. Now there are no exemptions there. All right? I’m the first on the line for culpability. I did it. Christ died for all men for all times."
Obviously there is something more at work in this swirling debate than just a line in a film. In fact, it has become a growing problem which predates the film, and has nothing to do with being anti-Semitic, it really has to do with a nation becoming anti-Christian.
On September 11, 2001, America took a corporate pause and prayed. Since World War II there has been a continual erosion of Christianity in this nation. Tragedy draws people into prayer, into realizing there is a power Higher than ourselves, a power we know personally as Jesus Christ. Once again people gathered and sang “God bless America” from the steps of Congress, to the playing fields of America’s favorite pastime, baseball and churches became a gathering place for people to come for prayer and healing as something so far out of our control, the action of terrorists, brought planes crashing into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. America fell to her knees and cried out to God in prayer and repentance. But it was only a pause, and then back to business as normal in regard to spirituality. Lost in this embrace was a true understanding of what god we prayed to.
In reality, America never really went back, it moved forward. Forward from a secular society to a pluralistic one. From a society that once embraced the One True God, and His Son Jesus Christ, to one that is not really sure what it embraces. Reflect back to the prayer gatherings that took place after 9 11 and it becomes even more evident of a shift. Who gathered to pray at national prayer gathers from the other Washington to Washington state? Was there not a Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew? That is what you do when you are attempting to be politically correct. What god do we worship in America? The god of Islam? The god of Hindu’s? The god of the New Age? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their Son through the linage, Jesus Christ the sole Savior of the world? What has been happening, embraced by the media, carried on the shoulder of the liberal agenda is a call to worship God, just not Jesus Christ. And we need to recognize this fact in our gathering of believers. How often have you heard in gathers prayer done in the name of Jesus Christ? Society has asked us to deny Christ for the greater religious cause of unity. It is not just about cutting a line out of a movie, it is about revising history, rewriting the Bible, ignoring truth to develop plurality. It is about widening the road instead of honoring the words of Christ who say the way is narrow. And if you don’t, you will be called narrow minded, bigoted, anti-Semitic. I will confess to being narrow as Christ said the way is, but to be called bigoted, and anti-Semitic is to be accused falsely for we have been commanded to love one another, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Love commands us to throw a life ring to a drowning person but the world would rather kill the message and the messenger than face the stark reality they are without hope without Christ.
America has made a major shift, a shift from secularism to paganism. Some cringe to think we are a pagan nation, one originally founded on Judeo-Christian principles, now swinging to the far end of its foundation. Make no mistake, it has happened.
The term paganism means a society with a multiplicity of gods and a high level of publicity permitted spirituality but no central moral authority and no central moral accountability, and no one god reigns supreme. Viewing this, doesn’t that sound like the current condition in America?
What is going on in America? Society is asking the Christian community to give up its traditions that have been a dividing line between right and wrong, between being Biblical and pagan. This is not an issue of politics. It is not about political parties. It is about God being God. It is about Jesus being the Way the Truth and the Light, about being the only way mankind can have access to God the Father.
Reading the article in Newsweek and the suggestions of its author at how to make the movie more appealing by omitting factual events in the life of Christ, this article is not about a line in a movie as much has it is the truth of Christ in our society. Like Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness, twisting Scripture to serve the agenda of darkness, so we find things have not changed in the way Scripture is twisted today. Meacham closes the article with the account of Jesus in the Garden after Peter had cut off the servants ear, writing: “"Put up thy sword," making real the New Testament commandment to love one another as he loved us, even unto death—a commandment whose roots stretch back to the 19th chapter of Leviticus: "... you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord." Amid the clash over Gibson’s film and the debates about the nature of God, whether you believe Jesus to be the savior of mankind or to have been an interesting first-century figure who left behind an inspiring moral philosophy, perhaps we can at least agree on this image of Jesus of Nazareth: confronted by violence, he chose peace; by hate, love; by sin, forgiveness—a powerful example for us all, whoever our gods may be.”
We should always love our neighbor, we should always seek peace, we should choose love over hatred and be willing to offer forgiveness, but not at the expense of compromise. In that same chapter, the laws concerning idol worship are discussed and violators are to be cut off, it also says you should judge your neighbor fairly, it concludes the chapter by stating “You shall thus observe all My statues, and all My ordinances, and do them: I am the Lord.”
In a Newsweek article by Mark Starr, reporting on the halftime exposure of Janet Jackson, he wrote, “Still, I’m not one who thinks a little halftime breast-baring or any of the rest of the vulgarity is a threat to Western civilization as we know it. In truth, vulgarity is Western civilization as we know it. Just by watching mainstream TV, my teenage daughter and her pals have seen more naked breasts than I did through an entire adolescence of trying to sneak glimpses at my dad’s hidden Playboys.”
Newsweek has wrapped itself in Scripture that supports their viewpoint, and exposes itself were they deem it fits. The secular media is calling for the church to give up its believes in order to embrace a post-modern culture, secularism, plurality, and the acceptance of all belief’s and faith. In order to do that, not only Mel Gibson, but all of us who call ourselves Christians will have to deny our distinction in Christ, and in doing so, void our identity with Jesus Christ because Christian means Christ like.
Someone said to me after the Presidents state of the union address, why did he waste time speaking about marriage. When the foundation is cracked, it lets all kinds of stuff in from the outside. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) has proposed a constitutional amendment which states, "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." I support such an amendment because it is Biblical and I have to wonder what is going on in America that would cause people not to support it.
Unless we start a sacred revolution, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we will see the crack in the foundation widen and people swept away and it won’t end in violation of just biblical principle. Today we teach in our schools situational ethics, what may be right for one, may not be right for another. You can have it your way and I can have it mine, and we are both right in our own sight. In reality, if that were true, than why is Gary Ridgeway sitting in jail in Washington, the most prolific mass murderer in our states history, or for that matter why do we have prisons at all for every perpetrator was doing what they thought was right for them.
So what is the solution? What can we take from this place with the knowledge we have of how our society has been making an increasingly loud demand to all everything in except Christianity, and become part of a sacred revolution to turn it around?
We need to be like the men of Issachar. 1 Chronicles 12:32 says of them, “and of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what to do.”
What should we do? Live the life of Christ, put into practice all of His teachings, observe whatever thing He has commanded us.
The sermon Jesus gave on the Mount provides us with keen insight in how we should live and react to the pagan society in which we live. Starting at Matthew chapter 5 and continuing through chapter 7, Jesus instructs and encourages us to a greater degree of living, one that lead to the discipling of nations. In chapter 5, following the blessed are passages, Jesus states in verse 13, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Jesus said engage your world, don’t become disengaged from it. Let your light shine, be a seasoning to the world. The early church understood this, they lived in a pagan culture where their was a multiplicity of gods. In a land where Rome said Caesar is the ultimate god but the voice of Christianity refused to be silent proclaiming Jesus Christ is Lord of all despite the personal cost to themselves. In fact, do you know who first called them Christians? It wasn’t done through a poll or a think tank, in fact, extrabiblical writings show it as those hostile to the faith in Christ first coined the term for believers and all them Christian in Antioch. Standing for what they believed and knew to be true, Christians eventually overcame the paganism of the culture by being the salt and light Jesus commands and Constantine, the leader of Rome came to accept faith in Christ, becoming a Christian.
What can we do to get America back? We can join a sacred revolution by returning to the teachings of the early church, by getting back to the Bible, by walking through the book of Acts and living like they did in their pagan culture.
What do I find as I read of the early church? People who were marked by their centrality of Jesus Christ. We have a lot of work to do in house before we can penetrate outside the house. We have done a good job of putting ourselves first over Jesus. When we forsake the gathering together on Sunday, we put ourselves first. When we complain about the music, we put ourselves first. When we say the pastor did not speak to me today, we put ourselves first forgetting that God might have been speaking to someone else in the room and your gathering brought synergy into the room for God to work through. When we do what we want to do without regard to how others might perceive us, we put ourselves first. What ever made something think this was all about them? Church is all about Jesus, it is for Him, to Him, and all about Him and if the world is saying Jesus is not welcome to its party, we need to make it very clear, He is welcome to ours.
If we are going to be salt and light, we need to be clear about Jesus. What the Bible says is right whether we like that part of it or not. Jesus was not some figurative person, He was the real deal. His teaching is in context and we need to keep from taking it out of context. We cannot be like Newsweek and use what we like and discard the rest. It is all or nothing. It cannot be both ways. Jesus Christ is the resurrection, He is the Savior, He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Paul said in Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Paul also instructed Timothy telling him 13What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. 14Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you--guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. (2 Timothy 1:13-14)
Time and again the church has demonstrated when it stands against the cultural shift, when it is willing to pay the price, sometimes as high as martyrdom, when it does not let the world intimidate it but it becomes the salt and light, the doors of revival are thrown open and the Kingdom of God becomes populated with saints. To do this, you have to stand firm in what you know. You also have to let go of things you want for the greater good of being salt and light. What offends those around me I need to curtail in community so others can know Christ as I know Him. That is hard for those in Pentecost because we want to express ourselves and even will go as far as to demand that right to do so, not realizing we might have closed a door for someone else who may not have shared our exuberance and not come back into community. Anything that takes the focus off Jesus and puts the spotlight on self.
There is so much more I could say. Let me conclude with this, we need to come together as community. Jesus had zero tolerance for religious people. He gave a wide berth for people with needs. Community is a place where needs can be met. To be part of a sacred revolution is to go back to the Sermon on the Mount and fully incorporate the teachings of Christ into our lifestyle. I have opportunities that come up frequently to get involved in protests, rights movements, etc. I have been involved in the past in a pro-life stand that brought me an up close understanding of the judicial system. I am pro-life and encourage those called to be involved in various movements to answer God’s call personally to them. I have no regrets for my involvement.
God has been speaking to me about being involved in a sacred revolution which stops fighting society and starts meeting needs. God has said we are not of this world, but we live in this world. The Sermon on the Mount starting right off with the Blessed are verses, speaks of a society that needs Christians to step up to the plate and meet needs, and as we are going, people will come to know Christ as He should be known.
I close with this story of Henri Nouwen. Henri was a Catholic priest who has much to teach to most of us concerning how to speak into society. His fellow psychology students thought initially that he wanted to cultivate important people. "We misunderstood," recalls one. "We didn’t notice that he was as interested in the janitor or groundskeeper as he was in the important people we were watching." He wrote more than 30 books,taught at Harvard, Notre Dame and Yale, and was in demand around the world as a speaker and teacher but found his greatest joy at L’Arche Daybreak community in Toronto. L’Arche is an international network of communities founded by a Canadian, Jean Vanier, where people with developmental disabilities and their friends live together.
Many members of L’Arche do not read, and Henri’s restless spirit wanted a home where his reputation would mean nothing. He found it: Everyone at Daybreak was interested in a brilliant 55-year-old priest who was unable to make a sandwich; who totalled a new car driving it away from the dealership; who spoke with his giant hands flailing and his whole gangly body quivering with his desire to communicate.
Just as Daybreak loved Henri, he grew to love Daybreak. He developed a deep friendship with Adam Arnett (1961-1996), a man who never spoke a word, who taught Henri to slow down (briefly!), to be physically present, and to trust love that could grow without words. Henri rarely accepted a speaking engagement without taking a member of the community to speak with him. "People won’t remember of a word I said," he reflected, "but they’ll remember that Bill van Buren and I stood here as friends and equals and spoke together."
In his book, Out of Solitude, he wrote "To care means first of all to empty our own cup and to allow the other to come close to us. It means to take away the many barriers which prevent us from entering into communion with the other. When we dare to care, then we discover that nothing human is foreign to us, but that all the hatred and love, cruelty and compassion, fear and joy can be found in our own hearts. When we dare to care, we have to confess that when others kill, I could have killed too. When others torture, I could have done the same. . . .
By the honest recognition and confession of our human sameness we can participate in the care of God who came, not to the powerful but powerless, not to be different but the same, not to take our pain away but to share it. Through this participation we can open our hearts to each other and form a new community."
In caring for one of the residents, author Philip Yancey said of Henri who teaches us in the process of his life at L’Arche, “ Physical touch, affection, and the messiness of caring for an uncoordinated person did not come easily. But [Nouwen] had learned to love Adam, truly to love him. In the process he had learned what it must be like for God to love us -- spiritually uncoordinated, retarded, able to respond with what must seem to God like inarticulate grunts and groans. Indeed working with Adam had taught him the humility and ’emptiness’ achieved by desert monks only after much discipline."
What is going on in America? We need a sacred revolution that has us engaging our culture as salt and light, evangelizing it to the truth of Jesus Christ, unwavering in our conviction and our voice. Investing in people’s lives like Henri did, humbling ourselves to realize we serve a greater good than ourselves, and inviting others to take part in knowing Christ as we know him, to stop fighting and start meeting the needs of a pagan world so they can truly see Christ in us, the hope of glory.
