For the rare bored reader who might have found this blog, I hope I can further develop my point from the previous post. I believe many of us Christians profess a belief in Christ and his teachings yet fall miserably short of the prescriptions he offers. Think about it, if Jesus ran for President, would you vote for him?
Extrapolating a bit from Matthew 5-7, Jesus would run on a radically anti-war plank. He would end all foreign wars and wouldn't stop there. He'd disband the military, convert attack helicopters to humanitarian ones, battleships to pleasure boats, and destroyers to fishing vessels. He might even disband the police and fire all the jailers, opening the prisons. After all, he came to "set the prisoners free".
You might have to stop driving your car, because after all it's warming the planet, and that's money that could be well spent feeding the hungry while you get a workout on a bicycle. But it wouldn't be "your" bicycle, because Jesus would have to put an end to this thing called "personal property". In a family everything is shared. You can forget about your debts because the IRS and banks would all be abolished. If you had a 401K, you won't be seeing it. When you get old, others would have to care for you.
And don't forgot all he would begin. There would be a new Marshall Plan, except only bigger, and this time the money would go to the poorest of the poor and of course directly to our enemies. Iraq, Iran, and North Korea could expect big paychecks. Hunger would be eliminated as the wealthy opened their storehouses to the needy. Wars would end as participating in warfare would be outlawed. And those who did would find nothing to fight for and no one to fight with, as anything they could want would be freely surrendered (it's not ours anyway). There would be free healthcare for all as doctors would have to volunteer their time and patients would be taken care of from the sickest to the most well. (Don't expect to get any lypo-suction done).
If this sounds far-fetched, it is. The fact is, although Jesus might do all these things if he became President, I hardly expect he'd get any votes (even in a country full of Christians). But that's besides the point, because Jesus didn't run for President and I doubt he would have even if he could have. Jesus rejected political means to establish and carry out his Kingdom. Instead, he left it to a band of ordinary radicals to carry out his plan of loving enemies, caring for the poor and the sick and the old and the parent-less, creating a new economy where wealth is freely shared, and starting a new society where the only law is the Supreme Law of Love.
Is this the Jesus we believe in? Do we really accept his master plan? Too many Christians believe in a "God of country" that pledges allegiance and salutes the flag, but does nothing to create the new society God laid out through Jesus. So my point is, if you take a step back and examine it, would you call Jesus' plan smart or maybe stupid? And if it's a good plan and in fact what he wants us all to do, what are you doing to make it happen? Do you really believe in Jesus?
1 comment:
You know Andy, I agree with you mostly, I really do. However, the whole commonality thing. I think many of us misunderstand that passage in Acts. I mean look at what people were doing, they didn't all own one another's property in common, otherwise no one would have been able to sell their property and give the money to the church without first asking permission to do so. Also, Barnabas is said to have sold a field, though not everything he owned. Annanias and Saphira sinned in saying that they were giving everything when they were not, not because they were holding some back but because they lied.
All of that aside, I think you're right, Jesus probably would do many of those things if were here today and for whatever reason, since it would be very unJesus like. The truth is though, Jesus spoke in a different age and to different people, we today need to look at how things are working now and how we can shape them to will of Jesus, not the other way around.
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