A Normative Jesus
The Response
There is an old joke about a guy who took a hit of cocaine. He then declared “I feel like a new man”. The first thing this new man wanted was another hit of cocaine. If only coming to faith provoked that kind of response.
For those of us that claim the mantle of Christianity, or better yet proclaim ourselves “followers of Jesus” the manner of our response is crucial. Not because we need to do good things to get God to love us. God already loves us, that is why He sent His Son. Our faith, a faith that is wholly from God, has already set us free, and we need not worry about an eternal relationship with God. That said, there is still the question of “what do we do now?”.
To suggest that we do nothing and just let it rest with a statement that “I believe” is to fall into the trap that Dietrich Bonhoeffer identified as “cheap grace”. A lengthy quote is in order:
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Bonhoeffer points us toward the incarnate Jesus to discover what it is that we should do in response to God’s gifts of Grace upon Grace. Jesus is our exemplar, and our template for what it looks like to live a fully human life. Where do we find the insight that Jesus has given us by way of His earthly life? The obvious first answer is Scripture. Our belief in the Resurrection brings us in faith to this book and should find us using it to learn of the life and teachings of our Lord. You need not be a biblical scholar to gain insight from this source. God is not trying to fool His people, the teachings, especially in the New Testament are clear. I would argue that their clarity is what makes them so frightening. We can see what we are supposed to do, and how we are to treat one another, and that terrifies us. While I have long been disabused of the notion that Jesus offers us a detailed rulebook in the New Testament, I have just as long been of the mind that Jesus does offer us an ethic of who we are be and how we are to act.
The Pushback
Of course, there are those who would disagree that Jesus offers us an ethic for our conduct in this world. They would also disagree that Jesus has anything political to offer. For an explanation of these pushbacks I am heavily dependent upon the thought of the late theologian John Howard Yoder and his seminal work The Politics of Jesus. For those that may be aware of this man and his work, he was quite credibly accused of a years long pattern of sexual harassment at his various postings in his academic career. So much so, that even though he died in 1997 these charges were being hashed out as late as at least 2015. That said, the problematic nature of the man does not detract from the quality of his theology.
The pushback takes many avenues. There are those that claim that Jesus offered an “interim” ethic which Jesus thought would be a brief time period. This implies that because the “world is passing away” and that Jesus had no real concern for societal survival that we need not view Jesus as giving us an ethic. In short they are claiming that Jesus is of no help for us in the long run.
Another tack taken by these folks is that Jesus was a simple rural figure engaged in a “face to face” ministry and never intended to speak to the problems of a complex society. Alongside this claim is that Jesus and His followers lived in a world where they had no control and had to be content with being a passive minority.
Another main tack taken by those objecting to a Jesus ethic is that His message was ahistorical by definition. This is a clear attempt to “spiritualize” Jesus. He was dealing with spiritual matters not social concerns. He was not seeking obedience but atonement, and therefore His message was simply spiritually symbolic.
What all these objections have in common is what Bonhoeffer was pointing to. We get to “follow” Jesus without it really costing us anything or in any way putting ourselves out, much less at risk. They conveniently excuse us from really doing anything at all, which should strike us all as disturbing.
Pushing Back on the Pushback
The notion that Jesus offers us an “interim” ethic is risible. Yes, the world was “passing away” (this is why we can confidently worship God not Caesar), but not even Jesus knew when. He claimed that the end would be like a thief arriving, that is unannounced (Matthew 24:43). Jesus recognizes that this “interim” can be quite a long time. Also, if Jesus has no concern for the survival of society, then why did He put so much emphasis on helping the least of these. Why was it so important to Him to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the imprisoned, tend to the sick, and bury the dead. These are all things you do here and now, things that manifestly help society, and its members survive. All of this was to be done as best we could until He arrives again, no matter how long that is to be.
As for the notion that Jesus is a rural simpleton, that too fails upon examination. Jesus was intimately aware of the wider world about Him and spoke in those terms frequently. He used terms like hypocrites (a Greek term), He spoke in agricultural metaphors as well as more urban one’s (see Matthew 7:24-27 regarding foolish builders). He went toe to toe with the Roman Empire, a complex society if there ever was one. As a resident of an area occupied by a great power Jesus was clearly aware of the complicated world around Him.
As for living in a world where they had little control, Jesus knew that ultimate control was with God. Our role is to simply trust God and do the best we can wherever we are. Yes, what Jesus advocated and lived out seemed passive, but in reality was a stark challenge to the power structure of this world. This is one of the chief reasons they murdered Him. It is sad that self-identified believers would fall for the pagan notion that Jesus’ “passivity” meant He was not aiming at radical change. It is the inversion of values that Jesus offers that is at the core of His message.
The idea of Jesus as only a spiritual leader is also erroneous. As I noted above His care and concern for those in need right now cuts against this idea. Yes He spoke of spiritual things and had an eschatological message. I am not sure why it is so difficult for so many to grasp that He can be delivering both messages at the same time. It is a clear part of Christian theology that Jesus is both God and man, so he can be both spiritual and concerned with the world at the same time.
It Begins and Ends with Jesus
All ethics for the Christian must begin and end with Jesus. As one review of Yoder’s work put it
Therefore, any ethic that turns its focus from Christ to Caesar has traded the cross for the sword. Christian ethics must begin and end with Christ; Jesus must be normative for ethics to be distinctively Christian, for his life and teachings do not reflect the avoidance of politics but are themselves inherently political. Our politics are not of this world – our politics are The Politics of Jesus.
In the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus gave us He asks for “God’s will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. This is a clear command to focus on what God would have us do in this world for the inbreaking of the Kingdom here. Also, it is always right now that Jesus calls us, best exemplified by telling the man to leave his dead father in the field and follow Jesus right now (Matthew 8:22).
In the end, as Yoder asked in his book, What other norm is there? Indeed, what other norm could there possibly be. Yoder concludes his opening chapter with the trenchant observation that if Jesus is not normatively human, then what was the point of the incarnation. God could have chosen any number of ways to communicate His desires for humanity. Yet, He chose to send His Son to become human and experience all that we experience as humans. In the process God through Jesus shows us how to live a fully human life. This fully human life is deeply political, opposed to earthly power structures, committed to the least of these in this world, and absolutely opposed to violence of any kind.
All of this is uncomfortable to be sure, and I fully understand why many wish to run away from it and spiritualize Jesus and cheapen the Grace God has given us. That must not be our response to the Gospel. It is difficult to follow Jesus, but we have no recourse if in fact the Gospel has penetrated our hearts.
Once we have gotten to the point where we admit that Jesus and His life are normative for us it is immeasurably easier to then show how that means a life of nonviolence. As the weeks go on I will endeavor to show that this is exactly what Scripture gives us in the earthly ministry of Jesus.
Praise Be to God
