By Jaymi Firestone
As Christians, we need to stop forcing the Bible into our own judgments. Instead, we need to humbly and prayerfully open our minds in the hope that God will reveal Himself more deeply to us through His word.
That’s a dangerous and scary proposition for sure, but there is so much freedom and life in no longer molding Jesus to our own liking. Instead of molding Him into what we think He is, it’s letting Jesus just be who He is… a perfect person who makes it difficult for any of us to put Him into our little Christian box.
When I was trying to earn Jesus’ love by being “good,” I missed the real Jesus. The Jesus who wants us to love and serve Him, not for what He gives, but for who He is: unpredictable, radical, and amazing.
Jesus came to abolish religion.
Think about it.
If religion was so great, why has it caused so many wars, told single moms God doesn’t love them because they’ve been divorced, or built huge churches but failed to feed the poor?
If you know anything about Jesus, you know that’s not why He came to earth, or how He lived.
Gahndi said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
We aren’t called to be the church-going, default Christians that religion teaches. We are called to be sinful, struggling, real Christ followers.
The grace God offers isn’t there for the “good” Christians, but for the real ones who follow Christ’s example. The ones of us who have failed, who struggle, who sin. That’s because Jesus didn’t die for the version of us who is cleaned up and put together. He wouldn’t have had to die if we had it all together. He wouldn’t have needed to. He died because we don’t have it all together!
Let’s be real, the religious people in Jesus’ time on this earth look a whole lot like the people we see in our churches today. The things Jesus fought against in the temples, He could easily fight today in our American churches. It’s no wonder the world hates “Christians” when you actually put it in perspective.
We complain about religious persecution and being mistreated by the non-believers of this world, but being mistreated is probably not just because we believe in God. The reality is it’s more than likely because we are seen as prideful, arrogant, and judgmental jerks who look nothing like the real Jesus.
If you’ve actually spent any time studying who Jesus actually was in His lifetime on earth, you’d realize He was a radical man teaching a radical message. His first miracle was turning water into wine! Wine that most “good” Christians consider sinful. He flipped over tables in the temple without even flinching. He ignored all racial, social, and gender boundaries society had created. He associated with the hated, the sinful, the unclean.
Jesus just preached the truth, and loved the sinners around Him.
Bottom line, and as real as I can be right now…the reason so many of us aren’t happy or satisfied with our Christianity is because it isn’t actually Christianity.
We have religion, but we don’t have Jesus. Religion is safe. Jesus wasn’t safe.
His words, His life, His cross were anything but safe. He didn’t walk the earth making everyone feel good. He called sinners sons of the devil. He was homeless. He told disciples to actually follow Him not just sign their attendance cards for His weekly sermon. He told people to take up their cross and follow Him. He told them to carry the one thing that could cause the most torturous pain, and meant it.
Do you ever read stories in the New Testament about the Pharisees and realize sadly you act more like them than you do Jesus? That’s what religion has done to us, and it’s what religion did to them back in Jesus’ time.
Religion says do, Jesus says done.
Religion is man searching for God. Jesus is God searching for man.
Religion is pursuing God by our moral efforts. Jesus is God pursuing us despite our moral efforts.
Religious people kill for what they believe. Jesus followers die for what they believe.
Jefferson Bethke
Jesus’ message isn’t declaring what we need to do, but to declare what He has already done.
Jesus performed miracles and He lived a life worth E! TV reporting. He fed thousands of people with a few loaves of bread and a couple fish. He healed the sick. He made lame people walk and caused blind men to see. He was becoming well-Known and people kept wanting more. He didn’t revel in the attention though. He did the opposite and told His followers that whoever would lose their life for His sake would be saved.
If He wanted to build a church like the Joel Olsteen’s of the world, He could have. It would’ve been a Church for the books I’m sure! Instead, He told people to carry a symbol of torture and pain with them every single day. Jesus opposed the strict, methodical traditions of the Pharisees and also opposed fake, watered-down religion.
He knew His miracles were awesome, but He made it clear that following Him is hard and the cost is great. The road to the joy on the other side is paved with pain, but He makes it clear that it’s worth it in the end.
Jesus died the most painful death you can imagine to provide us with grace, but that grace comes with a cost. Being a Christian doesn’t mean we punch our card on Sunday morning, and can act how we want the rest of the week. Being a Christian means we live a life like Jesus. Radical, bold, and unafraid of what we face around us.
He never said the road would be easy. He just said it would be worth it.
Are you in or are you going to continue living like the Pharisees He despised?
