“The New Testament clearly portrays Jesus, his family, and, with few exceptions, everyone he encountered throughout his life as impoverished and oppressed, exploited by the religious establishment, brutalized by their Roman colonizers. That this was his setting in life is undeniable. Yet from the picture of Jesus painted by the traditional, mainstream Church, we are supposed to believe that he was little if at all touched by the realities around him; that the direction of his message and ministry was not influenced by the deplorable conditions in which his people lived. Instead, we are told that his was only a narrowly spiritual, otherworldly message that, with few exceptions, was exclusively focused on citizenship in heaven. Moreover, we are to believe that Jesus had no interest in the economic and political issues of his day. In other words, this belief hold that although Jesus might have had empathy for the suffering of his people, he just did not want to get involved.”
(Source: The Politics of Jesus, pg. 76-77)
In other words, we’d rather believe in a Jesus that was never political and never took sides, especially with the poor and outcast of his society. We’d rather believe in a more respectable Jesus that acts more like the Pharisees of his time.
The problem with this Jesus that we would rather believe in is that he isn’t biblical at all. He’s a figment of our imagination – no different than other imaginary beliefs about Jesus.
It’s time to wake up from the dream Jesus. It’s time to recognize that this dream Jesus is just plain empty and pathetic, demanding nothing from his followers, telling them to put down their cross, and telling people to just be nice people who don’t disturb the false peace that exists. That Jesus is a lie. That Jesus wouldn’t have been killed by the Roman empire. That Jesus wouldn’t have had any followers either. And we shouldn’t follow fake Jesus either.
Fake Jesus doesn’t save anyone. Fake Jesus doesn’t impact anyone’s life. Fake Jesus is a waste of time and energy.
Laced up Lutheran 
“Fake Jesus”… wow!
We have come a long way since “fake news” I think.
But I hear ya.
I think it is well established in academia that we all have a tendency to remake Jesus in our own image rather than being renewed and reformed into his. It is a tendency we must acknowledge and address honestly. Even you and I face this phenom.
That said, I also think it is worthy to note that the politics of the first century and those of today do not line up neatly. The ISSUES of that day and this were not all the same, and of those which are, the liberal and conservative approaches to handling them often do not line up with today.
In political atmosphere like ours, where tribalizms and a statement or stance on one point automatically pigeon holes you in a number of others, this observation is vital.
But then there is Jesus’s own politics which may have sympathies (or seemingly so) with what we might call conservative at one point and with what we might call liberal at another, yet cannot and should not be reduced to either. Jesus came to prophetically take the crown of God. His throne is a cross. His coronation is a crucifixion! We proclaim this everytime we eat the meal.
I am quite sure Jesus is not a liberal. Especially where abortion is concerned. And yet he never makes a speech or a protest against abortion. He never supports a supreme court justice who opposes abortion. These are all fairly standard conservative reactions to a very liberal (in contemporary terms) issue that I am sure Jesus does not support.
Jesus certainly does not support the Second Amendment “right” to bear arms. Yet he does tell his disciples to bring a couple of swords to his revolution. Hmmm… I could really get theological at this point, but its just a comment on a blog and not a college lecture or paper, so I will just point it out and leave it mysterious. But Jesus does insist his followers take up crosses and follow.
A cross???
Yes. Just when your deepest impulse is to take up a gun, Jesus insists you take up a cross. That will get you killed. WILL… get you killed. And it DID get him killed.
But in God’s politics, death does not have the last word. However, killing just might.
I could go right down the list of ISSUES doing this kind of thing. But I am sure you have been there/done that enough that I don’t need to do it for you. This is enough, I hope, to demonstrate that Jesus’s politics look and feel different.
This sets up people like you and me for a new pitfall, I think.
It is entirely correct to say Jesus IS political. It is entirely correct to point out that he is not what we would call a “conservative” – certainly not by today’s standards for that term.
However, getting that point across, which is entirely appropriate, has the effect (if we are not very careful) of suggesting he was liberal then. And that sets up people for a kneejerk reaction against the very important message you highlight.
I cannot control other people’s reactions, but I can show some sensitivity to them and help them – at least offer sensitivity and help. And I can thus say very clearly that this does NOT mean Jesus is a hippie a liberal and that he is not a Hillary Clinton voter. I didn’t say that, and neither did you, though the modern mindset ushers people to that conclusion based on the things we did say.
Nevertheless, Jesus does in fact call us to be our brother’s keeper, and liberals tend to take that ideal seriously even though they also tend to belittle the God/Jesus who champion the ideal.
Thus, one thing is clear to me. The ideas and judgments I hold AND even deeper, the feelings and sense of security I hold deep in my heart have a LOT to sort out as I become renewed and reformed in the image of Jesus rather than trying to squeeze Jesus into the ideas and judgments I hold on other grounds. And this means that politics, among OTHER sources, take SOME basis in my heart – in my loves and fears as well as my intellectual analyses. And Jesus wants to do business with ME way down deep in there! And that will have a huge impact on the politics we all chew on at the table and the marketplace of ideas.
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BTW, I hope its okay and wanted that we actually DISCUSS such matters in the blog-O-sphere.
I could just LIKE your post and move on, but it prompts more thoughtful reaction in me, reaction I hope you will respond to and perhaps other readers too.
However, I am not sure of the etiquette. After all, usually there is little response or none by most readers (certainly on my blog, and it seems on those of most blogs I read too).
Great post.
Thanx for sharing…
X
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X. Thanks for your comments. Part of the discussion that is missing, but you refer to is that the politics of Jesus time is different from our own. Too often, politics is equated with partisanship. The two are very different. And that applies to ideological beliefs too, I think. Jesus was political in a sense that is far different from our own ways of thinking about it – I’m pretty sure about that. I don’t think Jesus would be a registered Republican or Democrat. That would be like Jesus taking sides with either Rome or the Temple authorities. He didn’t see either of these political powers as legitimate, but rather as exploitive and oppressive. I’m not saying that Republicans and Democrats are exploitive or oppressive. I am saying that Jesus wouldn’t be a part of either one though because he wasn’t interested in fighting over who had power between the parties in power. Rather, he was establishing a completely different way of ordering things – a new politics. Politics, at its core, is a group coming together, who have a common interest, and deciding how decisions will be made and carried out. Politics then is about power. Jesus stood with the oppressed and exploited – those without power in the world he lived in. We have an obligation to do the same if we are to truly be followers of Jesus.
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“I cannot control other people’s reactions, but I can show some sensitivity to them and help them – at least offer sensitivity and help. And I can thus say very clearly that this does NOT mean Jesus is a hippie a liberal and that he is not a Hillary Clinton voter. I didn’t say that, and neither did you, though the modern mindset ushers people to that conclusion based on the things we did say.
Nevertheless, Jesus does in fact call us to be our brother’s keeper, and liberals tend to take that ideal seriously even though they also tend to belittle the God/Jesus who champion the ideal.”
Your conservative bias is exposed in these paragraphs. However, it just illustrates that we can and have used theology, the Bible, to justify who WE are or what we want others to believe.
Pity, you make some good points but when you point out Hillary and do not mention the current occupant you lose my belief in your credibility.
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Joe, speaking on X’s behalf for a moment, I’ll say I don’t think X fits all that well in the partisan spectrum. I’ve read plenty of his blog posts and found him to be a mix, like he mentions in his comments. He’s conservative on some things, and liberal on others – especially when it comes to dealing with homelessness. I feel pretty confident in saying he’s not a Trumper, just as he wasn’t a Clinton supporter either.
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I think this reaction goes to my point. (Btw, Thanx for it, and I wish you would tell my conservative friends I am conservative, because they call me liberal, but I am sure I am not that.)
We are talking about pushing buttons, alright. And the half of my thoughts presented in a statement or the half statement or even just the thought on one or two issues is enough to begin pigeon holing and THAT shuts down the discussion a LOT of the time.
Yet, I think Jesus cares about politics.
Monarchy does not mean no politics. But it often means they are bloody. And Jesus’ politics were that.
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