DON’T BE FOOLED…2.5.09
by SteveI ran across a quote today from one of my old professors at Duke. His name is D. Moody Smith, G.W. Ivy Professor Emeritus of New Testament, widely regarded as one of the foremost Jesus scholars, and an expert on the Gospel of John. Dr. Smith, in characteristic fashion, stated boldly:
The idea has become axiomatic: Jesus sells. This is especially true in books and movies. Don’t be fooled, though. The Jesus of the marketplace rarely resembles the Jesus whose teaching and example believers have tried to follow through the ages.
Dr. Smith is right on target. Jesus does sell, and that readily marketable Jesus, so ubiquitous in our culture, is the one far too many of us have bought into. The Jesus of health, wealth, and prosperity hawked by contemporary and popular Christianity, bears little resemblance to the Jesus of the New Testament. That Jesus, if we were to read and study the gospels carefully rather than carelessly, is the one whose way is self-sacrifice, going the extra mile, turning the other cheek, and loving one’s enemies.
Popular Christianity has zoomed in on Jesus’ death and resurrection, and paid little or no attention to his life and teaching. Case in point: The Apostle’s Creed. Did you ever notice that the creed talks about his conception, his birth, then jumps right to his death and resurrection, as if there were nothing in between?
Progressive Christianity is trying to point out that the essence of Christianity is following the way of Jesus, about listening to what he said, about focusing on what was important to him. When we start to do that, perhaps we’ll look more like him.
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