"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8)
I suspect that unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past several years, or that you almost never go online, you're very familiar with The Babylon Bee. I've gotta tell ya, I love The Babylon Bee. Admittedly, I was that kid in high school who devoured every issue of MAD Magazine. And, over fifty years later, I still love great satire! The folks who produce and distribute The Babylon Bee are pretty much all evangelical Christians. But before you judge or stereotype them, let me say, they're equal opportunity satirists! That's what makes the satire so good. I've got a hard cover book put out by The Babylon Bee that my son gave me a couple of years ago. It's a satire of evangelical Christian Discipleship books, and no kidding, it trashes "praise the Lord and pass the buck" televangelists who prey on the poor and little old ladies... who promote becoming filthy rich by almost any means, and who have nothing but disdain for hard working, humble, kind, generous, and sacrificial Christians. And when it comes to politics, sure The Babylon Bee leans Right, but both the Right and the Left are fair game for their satire.
This week they released a short and potentially explosive video entitled "Woke Jesus". It presents the "Jesus" of both the political left and religious left. That is, a politically correct, Marxist, revolutionary, secular, inclusive, diverse, highly pro-LGBTQ, highly pro-reproductive rights, entitled, loving and yet hateful, unbiblical, anti-Christian Jesus.
"They covered all that in just a few minutes?!"
Actually, they DID!
A friend of mine recently put something on Facebook saying he no longer likes the religious saying from the 1990s "W.W.J.D." - That is "What Would Jesus Do?" It comes from Charles Sheldon's nineteenth century novel, "In His Steps". That's a good book. And the idea of asking "What Would Jesus Do?" prior to making any major decision is a great idea. But my friend Brian doesn't like that saying anymore because the Jesus many of today's people are thinking about when they ask "W.W.J.D." is not the Jesus of the Bible. It's the Jesus The Babylon Bee presented this week.
I have some very WOKE friends and relatives who argue they admire and act like the real Jesus. That Jesus is actually the Jesus which the "Woke Jesus" video illustrates. I challenge such people to slowly read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John over maybe four or five months. Discover the Biblical Jesus. And, sometimes the Biblical Jesus will make you uncomfortable. He makes me uncomfortable. In Mark chapter 7, for instance, Jesus is rather rude to a foreign woman. He essentially calls her a "dog". He says he hasn't come to minister to people like her, or her daughter who is demon possessed - that he's come to minister to Jews. Now, the daughter is healed and set free of the demon. And he does give the woman what she wants; but it's one difficult portion of Scripture! Another tough portion of the Bible is Luke chapter 16 verses 1-13 and especially verse 8. That's the Parable of the Unjust Steward. For years, I would not preach on that Parable. It commends a shrewd guy who is an embezzler, a liar, and a manipulator. Honestly, it sounds like something Donald Trump would praise. But it's said by the Biblical Jesus. It took me years to truly understand that parable. The point of it is that although the steward is a horrible person, he does know how to make the most of people and opportunities available to him. And many times, godly Christian people don't know how to do that. Finally, there's John chapter 2 verses 13-16 where Jesus makes a whip and goes after the moneychangers in the Temple, flipping over their tables and driving them out. Sometimes we tell people they should have a "Christlike attitude". So what do we do with that one?
My main point is the Jesus of the Bible is nothing like the "Woke Jesus"! But if you think I'm being blasphemous and trashing Jesus, I'm not! The story of Jesus is summed up in John 3:16. No one ever loved you or me like Jesus. He paid the penalty for our sins on the cross. In fact, the physical suffering Jesus endured is a cake-walk compared to the spiritual suffering he endured for you and for me.
Watch "Woke Jesus". If you do a Search for it online, you should find it easily. Then, if you've never done so, take a few weeks and slowly read through all four gospels. And pray, "Jesus, please reveal yourself to me!"
He will!
And I'd love to have you share the link to this post. I think this is one of the most important things I've ever written!
5 comments:
The video: https://youtu.be/tyXLLF-L8_0?si=Ha4HyNpz7Jwu0Z32
And it's not just the "woke" who have the wrong idea of Jesus. Many Evangelicals do too. We infantilize him at Christmas, we reduce him in song to the same three or four metaphors, and we neglect so much of what he said in taught in favor of pushing the "died, saved, rose" gospel message (which is primary of course, but we "ought not to leave the other things undone"). We overlook that as he came at the time primarily first to Jews, he presupposed an audience who knew and sought God and had been told the rules. Now we pretend the rules don't exist. We love to rail about how the progressives are too sexually permissive, and yet we conveniently have become far too permissive about divorce and remarriage compared to what Jesus said. As a kid, I used to feel the same way, and thought churches too legalistic for holding to this standard, but now I think maybe we've let it go too far. Yes, God can call someone to ministry who has baggage, but you deal with that on a case-by-case basis. We should be preaching a lot stronger against remarrying, at least when a spouse still lives. And I know that will offend some. Or we have a lot of hangups about language. But Jesus used colorful metaphors that one might call insults to describe his detractors. Not saying we shouldn't watch what we say, but tell me fundamentally what the real difference is between calling someone a "brood of vipers" vs a "son of a bitch", because right now the only difference I see is the choice of animal. It would seem then it's the situation and intent of the usage that matters more than the choice of words, perhaps. The difference is that Jesus always spoke in truth, not in flippance and desire to attack.
I could ramble on further, but there are lots of assumptions and presuppositions we all find ourselves holding about Jesus because it's easier to hold onto a teddy bear idea of him than confront who he actually is, says, and and stands for. One last one to call out, because it drives me crazy, is the "but of course JESUS could do that because he was GOD!. But I'm HUMAN, so of course I'm not capable of that!" That's just a cop-out lie that we allow to fester in churches even when paying lip service to the truth. Jesus was fully human, did everything in the power of the Holy Spirit, that same Spirit available to every believer. God doesn't expect anything of us that he wouldn't do himself. "human" is not synonymous with "weak" or "failure" or "less-than". We are specially designed in the image of God, and in Christ are renewed creations who no longer have to live by sin. What's holding us back isn't that we're not Jesus, but that we stop trying to be like him.
Bob
The Babylon Bee jumped the shark about 4-5 years ago.
The Babylon Bee used be an equal opportunity offender and was quite witty in its satire. But ever since Dillon took over it has become a MAGA-cult,Trump worshiping, populist (which is not conservative by the way) bunch of skubalon that is nowhere near funny and witty. To borrow from a BB satire piece back when it was good, Dillon is competing with Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham to sit at either the left or right hand of Trump (his true Lord and Savior). Which by the way, is a reference to a BB article back when it didn't suck.
Sure they poke fun at the woke Jesus (which is fine), but they hardly do something like this anymore:
https://babylonbee.com/news/james-dobson-claims-ancient-god-cthulhu-baby-christian
If you don't know who Cthulhu is, I am sure your son can tell you.
Or this one:
https://babylonbee.com/news/franklin-graham-pushes-through-crowd-in-attempt-to-touch-hem-of-trumps-garment
Babylon Bee is like Family Guy. The first few seasons were great, then it crashed and burned for the most part.
Or this one:
https://babylonbee.com/news/first-baptist-dallas-members-melt-golden-jewelry-towering-donald-trump-statue
What is ironic (and disturbing) is that there REALLY was a golden idol of Trump at the so-called CPAC convention a few years ago (conservative it is NOT and should be renamed the T(for Trump)PAC). This was made AFTER the Babylon Bee article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFQyfe6NH7Y
"And yea verily, 4 of 5 of Evangelical Christians in the US genuflected deeply and worshiped him, and offering praises, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, pledging their everlasting fealty and devotion."
But then Trump did say he could shoot someone and his supporters would still follow him. I bet if Trump offered all his MAGA followers a flavored beverage enhanced with a "special" ingredient in the jungles of a South American country, they would happily chug away. Though if that happened, I certainly would not shed a tear for them.
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