The Politicaly Correct Jesus

It has been an interesting week on Facebook.  This is Holy Week-- a very sacred time in the life of Christians.  As I have been reading through my FB feed I have seen all manner of postings from my liberal friends about Jesus. My thoughts have ranged from, "Awww, that's sweet. They really are trying to embrace Jesus" all the way to "Bless your heart...." (Yes, I am from the SOUTH and that term MEANS SOMETHING!)

Here is the meme that fell in the "Aww that's sweet, they are trying to embrace Jesus" camp:

But the problem with FB is theology is that it is about as sound as Cracker Jack Theology!

It seems the politically correct crowd needs to somehow make Jesus conform to their idea of what He should be. So they will celebrate the idea of Jesus eating theives and prostitutes, and he most definitely DID! But what they fail to embrace was the message he gave those people when he spent that quality time with them.  He loved them enough to address their sin issues and tell them to not to stay that way.  Yes, this is where they will take back Jesus's "politically correct" card!  Jesus dared to tell those he loved about the sin in their life and told them to stop living that way! Yes, He had the audacity to tell them to change their lifestyle and follow Him...to go and sin no more. Yes, he called out their sin and told them to follow Him.

The next sign of FB Theology this week fell into the "Well, bless your heart..." camp:

This gets the best "cherry picking" of scripture-out-of-context award I have ever seen! But it is definitely popular with the politically correct Jesus followers.

These liberal thinkers seem to think that Jesus was all love and butterflies and fully accepting of any choice a person might make...as if LOVE = acceptance (no questions asked).

I think in honor of Holy Week, as we approach Resurrection Sunday, maybe it is time to actually look at the things Jesus actually did say. To do anything else actually makes a mockery of his sacrificial death and cheapens the grace that was given at so great a cost-- His own blood.

Jesus said of himself in Luke 20 (quoting the prophetic psalmist in Psalm 118:22) that he was the scandalon (root word scandal) and rock that would make men stumble. "The stone the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone."

In Luke 20 Jesus says "Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed".  Jesus left no option of being unaffected by his life. There are only 2 options presented. Fall on Him and be broken (so that he may restore you whole and healed) *OR* His judment will fall and it will crush the souls of those who do not receive Him.

Let's face it-- JESUS was OFFENSIVE!

In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."  Yes-- that excluded anyone who wanted to get to Heaven by way of Islam, Hinduism, any other religion or philosophy. Jesus said He was the ONLY way to Heaven. 

It seems the Politically Correct Jesus lovers are discussed in 2 Timothy 4:3-4:
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

Jesus warned very clearly (in Matthew 7:21-23):
"Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers!'

There are few passages of scriptures that make me shudder the way this one does when I read it.  Jesus states there are many people who are fully convinced they are in relationship with Him and doing the work of the ministry-- but states it plainly-- "I never knew you...".  That makes me shudder to the core of my being! I think it rattles me so badly because I know people like this-- many of them are followers of the "politically correct Jesus" who is NOT the Jesus of scripture. And on that day-- when they meet the real Jesus face to face many will hear "depart from me, I never knew you."

Jesus takes this relationship thing with Him SERIOUSLY. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. SIN was a huge deal to Jesus!  He layed His life down and shed His own blood to to free you from that SIN.  But unfortunately we live in a society where there is no such thing as SIN anymore.

Repentance is a necessary part of the salvation experience. Jesus said in Luke 13:3, "unless you repent, you will perish." In a society where there is no acknowledgement of sin-- there would be nothing to repent of-- because the politically correct Jesus as sold by liberals seems to say that a loving God would never let anyone go to Hell so it must be that in the end- everyone gets into Heaven because God is love. 

But if we watch closely the Jesus of the Bible-- His love was somewhat different.  Jesus confronted the confused religious teacher at night and told him that regardless of his adherance to the law that he must be born-again.  Jesus told the woman caught in the act of adultery to "go and sin no more" after he addressed the self-righteous sinners who held the rocks and were ready to stone her to death and made them all aware that HE was aware of the sin in their lives.  Jesus LOVED people enough to confront the sin in their life. He loved them enough to not let them stay there without some kind of provocation to encourage them to CHANGE THEIR LIFESTYLE and follow Him.

Ultimately, at the end of the day-- I think the main problem with the politically-correct-Jesus-crowd is that they like a "little Jesus" they can fit in their pocket and pull Him out at Easter and Christmas and feel all is ok with the world with themselves.

I think the harder truth for this liberal crowd to embrace is that Jesus did not say he was just a great philosophical teacher-- He said he was the Son of God. He said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father."  These were the bold statements He made that led to His his trial and crucifixion. (All part of God's plan for the salvation of mankind.) So if Jesus says that He is the Son of God people have to respond to that.  They can either accept that and surrender their lives to follow Him, or they can reject that He is who He says He was.  He was either a liar, a lunatic, or he was the Messiah, the Son of God, Lord of all.

And if one comes to the conclusion and believes that He really is the Son of God-- then we have to admit that God gets to make the rules.That will require change on our part-- not perfection-- just a heart willing to be changed by the power of God.  To repent-- we must get to a place where we can agree with God that what He says is SIN is sin. And when we surrender to Him, His Holy Spirit gives us power to walk out of our sin.

I have great concern for the liberal politically correct crowd. It breaks my heart. If they truly believe there is no sin then there is no need of repentence in their eyes, and without repentence there can be no salvation.  Repentence may not happen in an instant, but once Christ is received you are given the power of the Holy Spirit to help you walk out your own soul's salvation. If one has no desire to repent you have to wonder which "Jesus" they met-- the Biblical Jesus or the Politically Correct Jesus?  Only one is the true Son of God with the ability to offer salvation.

So the question remains--- what is one to do about the Biblical Jesus, the rock of offence, the Scandalon??

What will you do with Jesus?