Has America Rejected the Wrong Jesus?

Since I was very young I have read the Bible and heard it preached... a lot.  All of my life, I have been struck by the many incongruities between what people say about Jesus, and what the Bible says about him.  Watching movies as a kid, I saw Heaven pictured as a place of clouds and light where we float around in endless boredom.   I saw paintings of Jesus on the wall that portrayed him as a gentle, almost effeminate man hugging children.  Is heaven boring?  If so, I would not want to go there.  Is Jesus unmanly? If so, I would not want to be like him.  (That is of course, assuming we have a good definition of what it is to be “manly” - showing virtuous strength, but not vulgarity).  

You see, the thing that makes Jesus a singular object of wonder, is a combination of disparate attributes.  

He is not merely gentle, he is also immensely powerful.  He is God and man, justice and mercy, laughter and sorrow in equal measures.  Yet, the Jesus that I think many people have grown accustomed to falls into a couple of very unappealing categories:  either he is an emotionless unblinking (kind of weak) saint with almost no personality (as he is painted in some movies), or he is my “best friend forever,” an unbearably trite caricature of a childhood imaginary friend.  Neither of these pictures inspires my undying devotion... or even passing respect.  

There are also inaccurate pictures of Jesus painted by religion in its various forms: from the hyper-focus on ritual embodied by certain denominational traditions, to the “health and wealth gospel” of the modern era replete with televangelists asking for money and the fairly frequent church leader caught in egregious sin falling spectacularly from the pinnacle of his carrier with some scandal or other.  With regard to ritual, I am not saying that meaningful ceremonies are, in themselves, bad provided they retain their meaning and are linked to a sincere expression of faith. Nevertheless, America looks on with boredom, suspicion and disgust at many of these manifestations.  For the casual observer, it is difficult to separate the varied sins of the Church from the character of Christ. As Paul said in Romans 2:23-24, “You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law.  For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’” 

Americans grew up associating Jesus with the uncomfortable process of putting on their “Sunday Best” combing their hair, and sitting through two or three hours of talking when they would rather be out doing something fun.  

This has only become harder as younger generations are exposed to entertainment in the form of video games and movies that shorten their attention spans. What’s more, the push to dress up made people feel like they had to have it all together in order to come to church, and they felt like they might be judged for being anything less than presentable.  

I am not going to lie, I have felt all of these things.  

I have felt boredom, I have fallen asleep in church, I have been depressed by the monotony, turned off by the superficial “hello, how are you?” Uncertain if getting together to sing a few pop-rock worship songs is really doing justice to an Almighty Transcendent being.  And at the end of the day, I have often wondered if I should invite someone else to share these unpleasant experiences with me.

I think what the world is looking for right now is Truth.  So, before we share our faith, we should ask ourselves, do we actually believe it?  Are we genuine?   Americans are getting offered some new sales pitch 1,000 times a day, they don’t want to be bothered with anything that is boring and disingenuous.  The good news is that we have just now entered a time where we really cannot be that way anymore!  This nation is slipping down a dark slope into the abyss, and I think many of us know that.  So, we can use the shear terror of the present to spur us into real action.  

I think that action starts with us - Individually and as families.

We cannot influence the world until we first influence ourselves and our families.  We should make a commitment to pray every day, and if we are married, we should pray with our spouses.  We should become students of the Bible, and not be satisfied with superficial knowledge, or anything that waters it down.  We cannot get by if we only read the Bible when we are in church.  If you get into the Bible for real, it is not a boring document, it is wonderful!   If we start to honestly live like we believe the Bible, then people will sense our integrity - that although we are not perfect, we are honest and try to keep our word.  

Then, when we do reach out to the world, we should speak the Truth in Love.  

We simply cannot afford to speak the Truth in condemnation anymore (but we also cannot withhold the truth to spare people’s feelings).  Wherever the truth is spoken, it will be offensive; however, we can speak it eloquently - with diligence, authenticity and passion. And when people are acquainted with Jesus, the True Jesus - awesome beyond measure, omnipotent - with power to create a trillion, trillion suns - and yet able sigh with enjoyment at the flight of a single sparrow... then perhaps Americans will accept Him.  I’m not convinced that they really understood the Jesus they thought they were rejecting.

One last thought: I hope that when genuine Christians gather, we will begin to find ways to embody the true spirit of Jesus so that our worship will not be boring or superficial.

This is one reason I have been creating epic music and video directed at presenting Jesus in his glory and highlighting points from the Bible.  I want people to experience that the Bible is exciting, and that Jesus is indescribably worthy of our adoration. I think when we encounter Transcendent Reality, our response should be unadulterated awe, because Jesus is beyond glorious!  (I hope we can do this in our churches sometime before public worship becomes illegal).  God, please help us in this.  We need to be genuine, give us a picture of who you really are so that we can share your wonders with this fallen world, and in this fallen country.  Please work through us so that America will see the real Jesus... and believe in him.  Amen.

~Joshua