Jesus M & M

A Christian foundation in Kansas plans to spend $100 million to burnish the Jesus brand. The He Gets Us campaign is designed to generate a movement of Christians who want to put Jesus in a better light - to close the wide gap between the story of the real Jesus and the public perception of his followers. One of the campaign architects said its purpose was to Reclaim the name of Jesus from those who abuse it to judge, harm and divide people.

Apparently, while many Americans like Jesus, they are justifiably skeptical of his followers. Public opinion polls taken by campaign organizers focused on four groups of Americans: non-Christians, the spiritually open, Jesus followers, and engaged Christians. The surveys revealed that two-thirds of the respondents in the first three groups agreed with the statement that followers of Jesus say one thing but do not follow those things in practice.

The campaign hopes to reintroduce Jesus to an increasingly secularized American society as a man who experienced life in much the same way as the rest of us. He was mistreated, judged unfairly, and lived homeless and meagerly. He was labeled an outsider and a rebel, rejected and despised, and wrongfully put to death. Its website posits lots of probing questions: How did Jesus deal with injustice? How would Jesus be judged today? Did Jesus struggle to be a good role model? Was Jesus ever lonely? What would Jesus think of teen moms? Can I judge without being judgmental?

All of this effort to remake the Son of God into someone more palatable suggests Christendom has created a Jesus the world can’t seem to recognize in the Gospels. More pointedly, the proposition is that the Christian Right has fashioned a Savior who is not so much humble and huggy as he is bold and boisterous. He’s an over-the-top prophet who vigorously challenges religious authorities, kicks out the profane from the Temple, doesn’t shy away from calling out sin when he sees it, and spends a fair amount of time expounding the perils of perdition.

Thus, the campaign aims to free the story of Jesus from hypocrites and extremists by accentuating the tolerating, forgiving, and welcoming side of Jesus by reminding the world that at the commencement of his ministry he was first identified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What could be cuddlier and more pacifying than a baby lamb?

I think I’d call this the Jesus M&M campaign: Jesus Meek and Mild.

This is the Jesus who is a best friend forever. He doesn’t get mad or disappointed. He overlooks everything. He gives me anything I want and takes nothing for himself. He expects little from me because he knows better than I that sin weighs me down and channels my life. It doesn’t bother him that I seldom admit I’m wrong even though I know he’s always right. He’s constantly taking me in, forgiving me time and time again without any judgment. I can even go for years without talking to him and he just shrugs it off like it’s no big deal. If he has any advice about how I should live, he keeps it to himself. It’s enough for him that I like him and consider him a good guy. He knows I’m really busy and doesn’t get in my way.

Jesus gets me! He is exactly what I need and want in a God. Furthermore, he’s the most inclusive man in the world. No one is turned away! His contingent is the true rainbow coalition. No man or woman, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religion, or philosophical worldview, will ever be excluded from communion with him.

This wonderful man is the bearer of only good news. Anything he said or taught that falls outside of agreeable and acceptable is dismissed. Any admonitions about needing to change how to think or live are discounted. Anything from him that even hints as something demanding is readily considered bogus. Gentle Jesus doesn’t demand. He only invites. And no more talk about eternal damnation, either. No Savior would ever send anyone to a never-ending torture chamber. That hellfire and brimstone stuff is an allegory, albeit vivid and concerning, but nonetheless nothing more than metaphor wrapped in myth and covered with the story equivalent of bland, fluffy, meaningless meringue.

This gauzy, gooey Messiah is a caricature of the real Man. He expressed exasperation with his closest followers, even sharply rebuking the chief among them. He was astonished at their utter unbelief and their uncanny inability to grasp even the simplest messages. He was brought to tears when they questioned his judgment. In the darkest night of his life he was stunned to see his best friends asleep, seemingly unaware of the gravity of the hour and the horror that awaited him.

When this Messiah returns, he will come as a warrior and not as a lovable lamb. Paul reminds the brothers and sisters in the church at Thessalonica that God will afflict those who have afflicted them at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels, taking vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will pay the penalty of eternal destruction from the Lord’s presence and from His glorious strength in that day when He comes to be glorified by His saints and to be admired by all those who have believed. (2 Thes 1:7-10 HCSB)

The whole world is in love with the love of Jesus but gives no thought to his righteous judgment. The world is transfixed either by Baby Jesus in the manger or Forgiving Jesus on the cross, but recoils from the Jesus the apostle John saw while banished to the island of Patmos. In his vision he saw a Man whose eyes were like flames of fire, whose body glowed like molten bronze, whose voice was like thunder, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. John wrote that when he saw this Man, he was so overcome with fear that he fell at his feet like a dead man. So much for asking this guy for some cotton candy!

Why does the milquetoast perception of Jesus persist? How does the King of Kings and Lord of Lords command little bearing upon how human beings live their lives and plan their futures? How has Jesus become morally irrelevant?

The debasement of Jesus’ judicial role in human affairs – the idea that he has nothing to say about human behavior that bends to the immoral or ungodly – must spring from the delusion that God’s moral law is a modern-day conundrum so outdated it cannot possibly be true or real. In the Old Testament, God goes on and on about arcane rules concerning crop rotation, blended fabrics, forbidden foods, and hygiene. Then he finds forty or more legal infractions for which death is the most suitable penalty. A veritable heap of ceremonial, civil, and criminal statutes litters the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy leaving the reader with contempt for both law and God. In the New Testament, whatever Paul writes in his letters about living rightly gets overshadowed by the kindness and softness of the Good Shepherd.

The plain truth is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t really have any bearing on how average, everyday Americans live. Sure, Christ drops some interesting stories and his miracles are attention grabbing. Yet, the overall thrust of his life and message is Come and follow me if you have time and if it doesn’t interfere with anything you want your life to be. Becoming his disciple is all voluntary, of course, but once I choose to walk a bit with him he becomes this list of optional add-ons. Discipleship is a smorgasbord of spiritual engagement all dependent on what I want to do with this guy. I can go vegan and leave all the meat alone. I can go with milk and honey – just two things to take and they’re easy to swallow and digest. Or I can go pescatarian and impress the Lord with choosing to eat what he probably eats every day. If I’m not at all concerned about weight gain, I can take some of this and a little of that and pile it on. After all, it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet so I’ll fill up today and then won’t need to come back for a few days, weeks, months, or years – or maybe never if I find better food at a better price someplace else.

The hard truth is that the entire human race stands before the Grand Fork of the Great Highway. One highway veers to the left and is wide and smooth. It’s a comfortable, quiet ride with fresh asphalt and picturesque views. In fact, it’s so broad there’s no need to apply yellow striping paint on the cliff edge because there’s so little danger of getting that close to catastrophe. Speed limits are unnecessary because everyone uses their best judgment on how to navigate the ups and downs so that spinouts and crashes aren’t expected, but if they do occur they’re ignored so the traffic can keep moving.

The other highway swerves to the right. It is so narrow and uneven that everyone slows down before they turn onto it. The view of the countryside is cluttered with road signs that warn of soft shoulders, hairpin curves, steep grades, speed bumps, and potholes. Turnoffs and rest stops are frequent so travelers can be refreshed, and there are even turn-arounds so the tired and timid can return to the Grand Fork and take the other highway, best known for its consumer-tested slogan No Killjoys Allowed.

The wide highway is the path of self-interest and leads to disillusionment. The narrow highway is the path of self-sacrifice and leads to fulfillment. Jesus said most of the world was heading down the wide path, oblivious to the obvious dangers of driving blind with eyes wide open. Not only was the world choosing to prefer the wide path, it was also choosing to despise the narrow path. It was having nothing to do with this so-called Traffic Cop who dared to tell it that driving under the influence of delusion is a crime against sanity.

The first adjective Jesus used to describe his essential character was the word gentle. In his first coming he is revealed as a kind, compassionate, loving Messiah. Yet, in his very last exchange in the last book of the Bible he says I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me to repay each person according to what he has done. In his second coming he is revealed as a king and judge. This meek and mild Jesus, full of no-cost marshmallow treats for anyone who will at a minimum agree that he’s the Son of God and is marginally important, has never been anything other than a myth. The real Jesus tells me to let the dead bury the dead and follow Me…sell everything you own and give it to the poor and follow Me…take up your cross and follow Me. The real Jesus is free to hold but expensive to keep. There’s no entrance fee to follow him but the cost of discipleship is deadly to self and self-centeredness.

Contemporary American Christianity knows little about the high cost of following Christ. At the Grand Fork of the Great Highway self-styled American Christians position massive earthmoving machines at the center of the fork to build a third highway between the other two. This highway will be a combination of the best of both worlds – the best this world has to offer (freedom and indulgence) with the best Christ has to offer (forgiveness and immortality) – so that no one has to be in that uncomfortable position of choosing one over the other.

The difference between He gets us and He gets us – no strings attached is that one is a half-truth. Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life not I am another way, some of the truth, and part of the life. See the difference?

The destiny of the universe is a footstool in front of a throne. At that moment in time there will be one last opportunity for me to tell Jesus he was wrong about the highway that deviated to the left, or that he was wrong about right and wrong, or that he was wrong about life in general. All he will say is You never got me.