Way of Jesus - First Steps

If we are to take the message of Jesus to be more than just a "blue print" to get to heaven, then we must begin at the beginning of his public ministry: He was baptized.


In case you are unaware:


Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.  
AND
John the Baptist baptized people who repented. 
So
The first thing Jesus did in his public ministry was repent.  


"Wait! Wasn't Jesus without sin?  Was he not perfect?  What would he need to repent of?" 


Indeed, Christians have come to understand repentance as seeking forgiveness for sin.  However, it may be interesting to note a few Bible verses in which God repents in the King James Bible:

Genesis 6:6

And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Exodus 32:14

And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

Deuteronomy 32:36

For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants.

1 Samuel 15:11

It repenteth me [God] that I have set up Saul to be king.

1 Samuel 15:35

The Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.

2 Samuel 24:16

The Lord repented of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, it is enough: stay now thine hand.

1 Chronicles 21:15

The Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand.

Isaiah 38:1-5

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah ... said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. ... Thus saith the LORD ... I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

Jeremiah 15:6

I [God] am weary of repenting.

Jeremiah 18:8

I [God] will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

Jeremiah 26:3

That I [God]may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them.

Jeremiah 26:13

The Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.

Jeremiah 26:19

The Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them.

Jeremiah 42:10

For I [God] repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.

Amos 7:3, 6

The Lord repented for this.

Jonah 3:10

God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them.

It is not outside the realm of Jewish thinking that God repents, or that God becomes sorry for doing something or that God changes God's mind about something.  For God to repent is not so much seeking forgiveness (although that might be argued by some), but rather God practices "teshuvah". 

"Teshuvah" in the Jewish faith means to "return".  Time and time again, God returns to the promises God makes.  Time and time again, God calls people to return to the covenant.  Time and time again, God changes God's mind and returns to the original thought before things went sour.

So when Jesus seeks a baptism of repentance with John the Baptist, Jesus very much repents.  Jesus returns to something in his life that he had gone astray from or avoided.  Jesus was 30 years old before he began his ministry.  Was he finding ways to avoid the call on his life for a period of time?  Was Jesus sorry for scoring his mother at the wedding at Cana?  For whatever the reasons, Jesus seeks a baptism of repentance because he is returning to something that he knew all along.

He would lead people to a new way of living, but it would come at the cost of his own life.

If we want to begin to walk in the steps of Jesus and discover his alternate way of living, then we must first repent - we must first return to the source of our life.  We must return to God, we must return to Scripture, we must return to the community of faith.

We must stop going it alone.  We must stop buying into a myth that we are loan rangers.  We must return to our source and recognized that we must return to relationship with others and God.

Our way of following God begins the way it began with Jesus - repent and return.  

"Enemy Twins" - Individuals and Groups

James Alison has a little book that is one of my favorites entitled Faith Beyond Resentment in which he shares a bit of his story through the lens of Rene Girard (readers of this blog may recall I am a bit of a Girard fan).

In the second chapter of this book, Alison writes about how we are trapped in a pattern of creating distance between ourselves and others.  There are two parts and the first part goes like this:

The "we" deems any "I" that is a threat to the "we". The "I is turned into 

"one of them" and is seen as an enemy.  

What he is getting at is that in a group there are things that make the collection of people a "group".  For instance, religion is something that makes a group of people a "we".  When a "we" encounter someone who defines themselves in a way that is even slightly different to the "we" that person becomes an "I".  When there is an "I" in the middle of a "we" that means there is a threat to the status quo, the "we" deem the "I" as dangerous/rebel/heretic/conservative/liberal or some other label that makes the "I" seem like "one of them".  So in religion when you hear someone talk about creationism, depending on what group you are in (that is what "we" you identify with) you may identify that creationist as part of your group (part of your "we") you will identify that creationist as "one of them" (an "I").

Part two is just the inverse of part one:

The "I" deems the "we" as a dangerous group that destroys individuals.  

The "we" is turned into a "they".  

What he is getting at here is that when a person is seen as an individual that is counter and dangerous to the group, the individual will then deem the group to be counter and dangerous to individuals.  

This two part way of seeing the world traps us in a pattern of behavior that leads to people being scapegoated from groups and at the same time leads to scapegoats claiming a position of a "sacred victim" in order to rally people to their cause and create a new group that is counter to the original group that deemed the individual as a danger.  

Enemy Twins?

Both the group and the individual are blaming the other for the tension in the world.  Alison calls this way of working in the world "enemy twins".  They are twins in that they are the same cycle.  They are enemies in that one is dealing with group dynamics and one is dealing with individual dynamics.

Why this is important is because Christianity teaches a way of living life so that these "enemy twins" are no longer dominate in our world and in our lives.  There is a way of living and being in the world that overturns these twins and offers up a new life.

This way of living life is critical to the message of Jesus.  It is something that changed the world and continues to change lives.  However, for a number of reasons, many of us Christians are unaware of this way of Life that Jesus teaches about and relegate the teachings of Jesus to be about "getting to heaven" seasoned with a few moral teachings.

If we begin to grasp the depth of Jesus' teachings we begin to see that the "Way" Jesus talks about is by living the way that is beyond the enemy twin.  To be born again (or born from above) is to begin to see that the way of the enemy twin is not the way to salvation and wholeness.  To be a Christian is to be willing to embrace a life that is no longer willing to participate in scapegoating and blaming AND is no longer willing to take up the position of a victim in order to blame another group.

The Way of Jesus is a different posture in life, and that Way indeed leads to life and life abundant.

Future posts will address this alternate way of Jesus that we ought to rediscover as Christians in order to rediscover a Jesus that revolutionized the world.  

Temptation of the Body of Christ

What if the temptation narrative of Jesus as found in the gospel of Matthew could be interpreted not just as a personal, one-on-one, face to face temptation of Jesus and Satan?


If we are the body of Christ then could the temptation narrative be interpreted as what the corporate body of Christ.  That is to say, can we read the scripture as what temptations does the culture face?  (This is not a unique interpretation by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes we forget about reading the Bible as a community).


There are the three temptations:

1. Turning stones into bread
2. Throwing oneself off the top of the temple for angels to catch him
3. Global rule 

If these temptations are taken as things that temp American Christians then what would they look like?  I am sure there are many books on the subject (Godbearing by Dr. Elaine Robinson is one of these books), but I throw these ideas out there to consider.  


First we must notice that Satan offers seemingly reasonable solutions to the problems Jesus faced.  The same is true for today.  The Satanic force in the world is that force that offers "reasonable" solutions that are "logical" and even "common sense".  The hidden agenda of these solutions are that they always come at the destruction/explotation of something/someone else.  

The first temptation of turning stones into bread.  This is a "logical" solution to cure hunger, but it comes at the destruction of the rock.  While we cannot turn stones into personal fuel in the way of bread, we do look to the stones for collective energy - coal, oil, gas, etc.  At the writing of this post domestic oil production is at some of the highest levels it has even been at an yet the cost of oil is still very high.  We have an interconnected world and things in one part of the world affect other parts.  Thus to continue in with the "drill, baby, drill" doctrine, is not only misguided (as it has not lead to cheaper oil) but it also "fuels" a carbon addiction.  We are tempted to turn rocks into energy which is not evil, but one has to wonder at what cost do we keep drilling?  

In the second temptation, Satan offers Jesus a way to show people that he is the Son of God and should be followed by proving his connection to God.  Again, Satan offers a "logical" solution to Jesus seeking answer to how to get people to follow the Kingdom of God, but it comes at the exploitation of God.  When the director of the documentary "Inside Job" won the Oscar, he stood up and stated, "Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong."  There were many people who were tempted like Jesus to stand at the top of the temple and act with reckless abandonment.  Some chose to throw themselves off the top of the temple and free fall for their own personal gain while expecting others to catch them so they would not die.  Acting in such a way so that one is not held accountable to one's actions is throwing yourself off the temple expecting others to take care of you as you fall.  Are we tempted to act in such a way that we do not hold people accountable to their actions? 


Finally, Jesus stood with Satan and was told that the entire world would be his if Jesus worship Satan.  Jesus can become wealthy in the world by following an ambition and drive.  Satan offers a "logical" solution but it comes at the destruction of God by following ambition and not God.  There is nothing inherently bad about ambition however it can lead to a blindness to the rest of the world.  For instance, it has been recently reported that just 400 Americans have more wealth that ½ of all Americans combined, 155 million people.  Michale Moore said, “America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.”

Satan offers seemingly reasonable and logical solutions to problems but these solutions come with the destruction of something else or someone else.

What Christ comes to discover in the desert is that the way of God is offering seemingly unreasonable and illogical solutions to problems at the cost of your very self. 

Here is some of the logic of God:

Blessed are the meek, merciful and peacemakers

Workers are paid the same regardless their time in the field

Turn the other cheek.

Walk another mile.

Pray and love for your enemies.

Grace and forgiveness to all people

By denying himself and taking on the focused call of God, by following the logic of God:

Jesus becomes the bread of life.

Jesus becomes the temple we worship in.

Jesus becomes the King of creation.