The Anti-Jesus Question

The Lord has been rocking my boat for the past few weeks and I am going to attempt to gather some of these thoughts and give them enough order and structure to make sense. If I fail at doing that I'm sorry. Bear with me and join in the conversation.

I've recently been thinking about some of the things that Jesus was "against," and therefore some of the things that were against Him. I've had a lot of help, so don't think that I'm coming up with all this on my own. Some of the books that have contributed to this discussion I'm having with the Lord are Jesus Wants To Save Christians by Rob Bell and Don Golden, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment by Robert Farrar Capon, and The Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre, as well as some messages by Ronnie Walker of FBC Belleview.

Some of the things that were "anti-Jesus" were the evil one, the Roman empire, and the Jewish kingdom. The evil one is obvious. Even before Jesus entered the public spotlight He was tempted by the evil one to take the easy route, opt out of God's plan, and corrupt Himself in the process. One of His chosen disciples was lured away by the evil one and betrayed Jesus into torture, humiliation, and death for just a few coins. Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."

Jesus was also against the Roman empire. I doubt I can do justice to this discussion in this short summary, but everything about Jesus was anti-empire. Caesar was the incarnation of power through intimidation, fear, and domination. Jesus was the incarnation of power through humility, love, and submission. The Jewish people were waiting for a Messiah who would come and destroy their captors and restore Israel to an eternal empire, conquering the rest of the world. Jesus was the Messiah who entered the world in a manger, and conquered the world through His own death. He told His disciples, "You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and their men of high positions exercise power over them. But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life —a ransom for many."

Jesus wasn't anti-kingdom, but He sure was against the established religious kingdom of the Jews. Some of Jesus' harshest language is directed at the religious leaders of His people. He flipped tables and chased people with whips. He did things (like heal on the sabbath) and said things (like call God "my Father") just to aggravate the religious leaders. In fact, in one passage in Matthew, Jesus called the religious leaders hypocrites, sons of hell, blind guides, dirty dishes, whitewashed tombs, descendants of murderers, and snakes. That's harsh.

But Jesus subjected himself to the temptations from the evil one, to the laws of the empire, and to execution at the hands of the religious leaders. He was subject to them, but He was also sanctified, set apart, sacred in spite of them and within them. He was subject to them, and yet totally subverting them at the same time.

And that is where we live. Subject to temptations and attacks from the evil one, to the laws and culture of the empire, and to the hypocrisy and blindness of religious institutions. None of us are exempt from these forces around us. We can try to ignore them, but that changes nothing. The real question is one of whether we are going to follow Jesus, or whether we are going to follow an anti-Jesus. If we submit where Jesus subverted... if we live this life subject to, but not set apart from... we are choosing an anti-Jesus over the real Jesus.

If we find ourselves constantly giving in to temptation, over and over, again and again, we have chosen the evil one, an anti-Jesus. If we love our country, our economy, and American Idol more than Jesus, we have chosen the empire, an anti-Jesus. If we are so busy doing things at a church building that we don't have time to spend with our families or with our neighbors who don't know Jesus, we have chosen the religious kingdom, an anti-Jesus.

Maybe this doesn't rock your boat as much as it does mine. My boat is being ravaged by this storm and is just about to be swamped and I'm trying to wake Jesus to calm the storm, but I realized He is out there walking on the water and beckoning me to come with Him. Will I follow? Will you?

Shiloh