Every now and again, I receive a comment from a reader that makes me stop dead in my tracks.
Today was one of those days.
Recently, I wrote an article criticizing Republican politician Lauren Boebert for wearing an open-carry pistol to speak at a Texas Christian Youth Summit. I humbly suggested that having a gun strapped to your hip is, perhaps, not a very good example for impressionable children and that, you know… Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, who Lauren Boebert claims to represent, might not actually be in favor of unrestricted and unregulated gun ownership.
However, it turns out that I was wrong about Jesus.
Jesus was not interested in peace after all.
It turns out that Jesus was actually interested in war and, therefore, Jesus is fine with guns. In fact, if he’d had a few more guns, he could have achieved his real mission — to lead a revolution against his Roman oppressors and drive them out, presumably through a military uprising.
Here’s the offending comment:
Where to begin?
Creating God in our own image
Imagine for a moment that you were the kind of Christian who so strongly believed in the second amendment right of every American citizen to bear arms that you had to re-create Jesus to be something other than what he was in order to provide some kind of Biblical justification for your political position.
If Jesus doesn’t agree with you, just change Jesus.
Simple, right?
According to my reader, my image of Christ is not accepted by all. When he speaks about my image of Christ, he is talking about a gentle, humble, and peaceful man who came to announce the favor of God over all humanity. My image of Jesus is one of him weeping at the death of a friend, allowing children to sit on his knee while he blesses them, healing the sick, touching the outcast, and forgiving the sinner.
That’s my Jesus.
I happen to believe that’s a pretty Biblically orthodox view of Jesus.
However, my reader, in his attempt to justify why a politician should be free to wear a pistol when speaking with a group of children, explains that Jesus was actually a revolutionary in the sense that he intended to drive out the Romans by military conquest.
I don’t find any evidence to support that idea.
In fact, I find plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Let’s take a look at some of it.
Jesus was not a military leader
“Blessed are the peacemakers
For they will be called children of God.”
These were some of the first words of Jesus in his public ministry. It doesn’t sound like the kind of thing a military leader would say to inspire an uprising.
Make no mistake, just like the reader who commented on my article, the people in Jesus’s day wanted Jesus to be a military leader. Tired of living beneath the yoke of their Roman oppressor, they longed for a savior who would restore the nation to its former glory. And just like my reader, their motivation was one of political interest.
They wanted Jesus to be that revolutionary.
In fact, in John 6, the people were so impressed by Jesus’ teaching and miracles that they were convinced that he was “The One” and wanted to make him their King — by force if necessary. If Jesus wanted to be a military leader, surely this was his shot.
But, the Bible records that Jesus knew what the people were trying to do, and so he quietly withdrew to a secret place.
He had no desire for political power. He had not come to lead an uprising, but many of the people — indeed his own disciples — couldn’t see past their own desire for political liberty to understand what God was really doing through Christ.
In fact, Judas Iscariot became so impatient with Jesus that he sought to force Jesus’s hand. Make no mistake; when Judas betrayed Jesus, he was trying to force Jesus into a corner where he would finally rise up and fight.
When Judas came for Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, along with the Teachers of the Law and their posse, Peter took up a sword to defend Jesus and sliced off the ear of a temple guard.
But Jesus rebuked him and told him to put away his sword, saying, “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.” And then Jesus heals the injured man’s ear. Then he willingly goes with the authorities to his death. It sure doesn’t sound like the actions of a man who wanted to fight.
When Judas realized that his plan to force Jesus into action had failed and that Jesus would be condemned to death, he was wracked with guilt and hung himself in the night.
Yet, even after his death and resurrection, his remaining disciples still clung to the idea that Jesus might finally lead an uprising and drive out the Romans. In Acts 1:9, they say to him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
If you wanted to start a revolution, rising from the dead would be a pretty good way to attract a following for your cause, don’t you think? But Jesus said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”
In other words, Jesus gave a hard “No!”
On this, we agree…
I can agree with my reader on one point.
Jesus was a revolutionary.
Jesus was a savior.
But he was not the kind of revolutionary that the people of his day were expecting or even wanting. Just like Jesus’s disciples and the people in Jesus’s day, my reader wants Jesus’s revolution to be a revolution of power.
But Jesus’s revolution was a revolution of love.
Oh, how disappointing for those who wish to rise up, topple governments and conquer nations! The only conquest that Jesus Christ is interested in is the conquest of each man over his own heart.
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This post was previously published on Backyard Church.
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