Christ Vs Christians

The definition of “Christian” apparently is a big subject. Many Out of the box Christians, or “free Believers” or whatever you want to call them have taken a liking to the idea of not calling one’s self a “Christian” anymore. Without fail every time I’ve seen anyone say something to the affect of, “I’m not a Christian anymore; I’m going to follow Jesus.”  A Christian comes along and lets us know “Christian” means follower of Christ and you can’t follow Christ without using the name “Christian” because it means follower of Christ. Whatever. I’m not sure if they think they are enlightening us and showing us how stupid we are for using the wrong words, or if they truly don’t get the point we are trying to make. It’s kind of a play on words. We know what “Christian” means, but “Christian” has changed meanings over the years to mean something other than “Follower of Christ”. Since so many Christians act a certain way Christians are perceived to be a certain way and some wish to differentiate between the stereotype that has become “Christian” and “Follower of Christ” as it were. It is a “taking back” of the original meaning in a sense. 2000 years ago people saw these other people acting like Christ did and called them, “Christians”. Now people see others acting like “Christians” act and call them Christians. Others like me want to be seen as acting like Christ, not Christians. And believe me they are different. I know some will protest but to me Christians and Jesus often don’t look alike at all. Christians seem to think that if they believe all the right theology that they are Christians. This is like a white American professor knowing everything there is to know about Africans and their life. Or a travel agent knowing the ins and outs about a country but has never been there.  Christians read the Bible and believe it, but don’t necessarily go there or become it. They don’t become something simply because they know about it. You can know about Jesus and not become like him. Christians can read that and say “Amen!” I’ve heard the old sermon illustration, “You can live in a garage but that don’t make you a car!” They will see that and agree wholeheartedly yet they don’t ever apply it to themselves. Jesus could point a finger straight at them and yell, “Pharisees! Hypocrites! White washed tombs!” and they would nod in agreement thinking, “That’s telling them Jesus… How dare they be so arrogant and judgmental?” Those same kinds of people will read my accusations and accuse me of being arrogant and judgmental. Now I just don’t care. My hope is someone will read my writings and it will “strike a chord” as it were. It will resonate with them and maybe they will be free as well. If you read these things and you think I’m a heretic then my writings are not for you I guess. But as it is in many of my writings, I digress.

Religion

When I read about the historical Christ He is doing everything but what the established religious institutions wanted. Christians made up their own religious construct, and then call whoever doesn’t line up with the new order a heretic, even if the heretic is trying to be more like Jesus. If Jesus were here I think he’d be accused of being a heretic too…Christians seem to think because they are being religious for Jesus that they are doing it right. They don’t see that being religious in general goes against what Christ represents. Christ came as “Emmanuel”, God with us. Not bringing us to Christ. The incarnation was about God coming to us to reconcile Himself to us. Not us following a bunch of rules to make us righteous for God to love us. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” We don’t have to try and make it to God, God comes to us. That is religion, and that is what Christ came to demolish. Some Christians don’t seem to make the connection. Just because they are different made up rules than the ancient Jews had, doesn’t make them any less made up.

Sins and the Sinners who sin them…

How do Christians treat sin, or sinners for that matter? They will say, “the Bible says it is a sin so the sinner must be condemned”. They “call a sin a sin” and that settles it. It is odd how they can take the Bible and apply it however they want. I might agree with them on what is a sin, but not how to handle it. If there were a spider on someone would you smack them in the face with a baseball bat till the spider was dead, or would you gently flick it off? If someone had cancer would you stab at them and dig it out with a knife till it was gone or would you carefully and methodically use chemotherapy over an extended period of time until they were healthy? Would you yell at someone and tell them they will burn in hell for all eternity if they don’t straighten up and fly right or would you become their friend and confidant until they respect you enough to listen to your heart? How did Jesus handle sin and the sinner? In the prodigal son He tells us of a father that loves a son even when he screws up. Even when he leaves the family and wishes for his father dead he loves him and waits for him to return. The father doesn’t love the son only after he repents and returns, he loves him continuously and unconditionally. Love precedes the repentance. Not the other way around. Christians might say, “Christ takes you as you are” but they don’t mean it. They say, “He loves you as you are but He also loves you too much to leave you as you are.” Then they proceed to browbeat them until they straighten up. They use manipulation and guilt till they are “righteous” like them. Jesus met the woman caught in adultery. According to the law she should have been stoned. Even according to Jesus own “rule” of, “cast the first stone” she could have been killed. Jesus didn’t sin and He stillHeH

didn’t condemn her.  He showed he love after she had sinned and offered forgiveness. We don’t even know if she took him up on the offer. She left, but who knows if she actually, “went and sinned no more.”? Jesus gives us the choice in the hope that we will realize the love He has for us and comes back. When Adam and Eve sinned God could have started over by killing them and trying again until humans “got it right”. Instead he lets us go in our sin and loves us until we get the chance to “come back”. He waits until He can greet the lost son with tears in His eyes. He comes running so we won’t have to hurt a second longer than we have to. Christians want to make sure you realize what you’ve done before you get the party. Force you to understand the greatness of your sin before God will love you again. And that’s the people that make it in! The others such as the homosexuals are picketed and hated. Even if Christians say they don’t hate. Love looks like hatred when you are telling them they will burn in hell for all eternity. When Jesus showed love it looks like forgiveness and compassion.  What if Christ treated you, the sinner, like most Christians treat sinners they think are below them? We would have never made it in. We were the loser on the outside of the club until someone had compassion and signed us in. They saw your potential and let you into the group, and after you’re in you tell others how they aren’t good enough to be in the group like you. You guard the doors to the clubhouse so no riffraff get in. All the while you are still no better than you were before you got in. You still smell of sulfur. You are the borrower whose debt are forgiven yet does not forgive the debts owed to you.

The Rules

The Pharisees followed “the oral torah” which boils down to traditions people made up. They may or may not have been bad traditions, but you cannot lift a tradition up above all else. You can’t make a tradition a rule. Traditions are there to enjoy something, not to inflict another rule on people. When a tradition becomes a burden it should be changed or discarded. Christians have traditions filling their churches and burden others with their execution. They “tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” They inflict these rules until they are known for it and people never want to go to them. Jesus takes heavy burdens off of people.

Unpredictable

I know not all Christians are Pharisees but I think there are more than most Christians think. I pray more Christians would see the radical Jesus in the Bible and be inspired. Again.  The Jesus we see in the church has been made up. Jesus is not the tame, rule follower they would like you to see.  Jesus is wild. Jesus cannot be tamed. Jesus never did anything they expected. He spit in eyes, he calmed seas, and he forgave sins. People tried to kill Him for the things he preached, yet He escaped. Christ could have gotten away from His executioners but instead he turns around and sacrifices himself and asks for them to be forgiven. He died and came back.  He always did the unexpected. Christians are predictable, Christ was not. I want to be unpredictable. I want to forgive when I shouldn’t. I want to love when I should hate. I want to bless when I should judge. I want to live when I should die. I want to die when I should live…

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~ by kameronmessmer on June 16, 2009.