Hello, my friends,

I’m sure many of you saw the backlash online over several things this last week during the Olympics. If your experience was like mine, many of the posts you saw were from people claiming to be Christian. From the outrage over the opening ceremonies to the controversy over boxing, we saw many who claim to follow Jesus post such hurtful and mean-spirited things. Today I want to think with you about some of the things that this kind of outrage tells us about our collective Christian reputation right now and ponder the words of Jesus as we think about how we might move forward.

But first, here are some resources to consider:

​-The Scourge of Moral Narcissism by Sharon McMahon. This short article is honestly one of the best things I've read lately. It clearly and skillfully describes the driving force behind our current moment in both religion and politics. I highly recommend taking a few minutes to read it. You will not be disappointed.

I also wanted to share a few articles I have written in the past that expand on a few topics relating to our current moment that I won't be able to cover here.

​-Resisting Reactionary Christianity. In this article, I tell my own personal journey of resisting being a reactionary Christian myself.

​-Why Changing Your Mind Is Good News. In this article, I explore how repentance in the Bible is directly connected to a willingness to have our mind changed and how we Christians could model that posture better.

​-Symbolic Christianity vs Substantive Christianity. In this article, I explore the difference in what I call symbolic Christianity and substantive Christianity and how they both frame our current cultural moment.

-What did Jesus mean by "do not judge"? In this article, I take a deep dive into what Jesus meant when he told his disciples not to judge. I personally learned so much from doing the Greek study for this article.
​

Okay, onto today's content.
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First, Let’s look at Luke 9:51-56.

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​“As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village.”

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The first time I read this passage, I remember thinking, “wow, that’s a really extreme reaction from James and John.” Notice how they both took such offense at how the Samaritans rejected Jesus? In fact, they were so offended that they wanted to "call down fire from heaven to destroy them." That's quite an extreme response, wouldn't you say?

This should cause us to ask why they responded with such outrage.

Biblical Context

As you may know, there was deep animosity between Samaritans and Jews of that time for many reasons, much of which stemmed from conflicting views on history and theological beliefs.

Many Jewish people at that time believed that Samaritans were not pure Israelites because they intermarried with non-Israelites after the Assyrian invasion. Samaritans also read the Torah, but combined it along with their own set of ancient scriptures. They also built their own temple on a mountain and practiced many of the same rituals as the Jewish people did in that time, but in their own unique way.

However, Samaritans pushed back on these claims and claimed that their lineage predated the Assyrian invasion and that they are in fact descendants of the tribes of Israel. They believed their differences between them and Israelites had more to do with differing priestly lineage, theology, and worship than anything else. Interestingly, modern genetic testing supports the ancient Samaritan view of history, that they are true descendants of Israel.

The Samaritan belief that the rightful temple is on Mount Gerizim and not in Jerusalem is why our passage tells us that the Samaritan village wouldn't receive Jesus, because "he was heading towards Jerusalem.”

This fierce animosity between Samaritans and Israelites of that time was not just theological but had political and racial implications, as well as who could share in the exclusive rights to the center of worship (temple) and the land of Israel.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus clearly doesn’t share this animosity towards the Samaritans that many others did, including some of his own disciples as we just saw. In fact, Jesus seems to be openly trying to heal and bridge this division in his ministry.

We see Jesus freely talking to a Samaritan woman at the well, which was the place that many of Israel’s patriarchs met their spouses (Jacob’s well). Jesus also uses a Samaritan as the hero in one of his most famous parables trying to illustrate what it looks like to be a good neighbor as well as trying to break those false stereotypes among his people and bring about reconciliation.

I think this is why we get a rather upset Jesus in the passage we read today. The Greek word we translate into the English word for “rebuke” in his response to James and John paints that picture well for us.

The Greek

The Greek word is the verb ἐπιτιμάω, which means, to chide, rebuke, reprove, or censure severely. It means "to warn by instructing,” which can mean "rebuke" but its fundamental sense in our passage is "warning to prevent something from going wrong.”

Warning to prevent something from going wrong. This is so powerful. Jesus is warning his disciples sternly to not let their zeal for him get the better of them. Jesus is warning them not let their grievance or beliefs against the Samaritans to boil over into hostility and even violence against them, like "calling down fire." This just isn't the way of Jesus.

Many others in that region had already decided to follow Jesus, yet the disciple’s outrage could make them and many others change their mind. James and John would risk compromising the entire reputation of Jesus’ ministry based on how offended they were by a few people in a single village.

Jesus was literally heading to Jerusalem, ultimately to take up his cross out of love for the whole world, yet James and John were still operating in an “us vs them” mentality, rather than an “us for them” mentality.

I think this kind of outrage exhibited by James and John hits right at the heart of what we have been seeing from many who claim to follow Jesus since the Olympic Games began.

Christian Outrage

Social media exploded with Christian outrage over what was wrongly thought to be a mockery of the Lord’s Supper during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. During this time, I read some of the most hostile, arrogant, and demonizing words this week from people who claim to follow Jesus towards people they don’t even know.

So many didn’t even take the time to try to understand the cultural context of the people we were watching. Rather, so many of us Christians just jumped to conclusions and made it all about us and our religion. It truly broke my heart.

This outrage then evolved into disparaging and prejudicial claims about female athletes, from rugby, and gymnastics, to boxing. Again, the rhetoric I saw online from those who claim to follow Jesus truly broke my heart.

What began as outrageous claims by people with huge social media platforms and many in the media turned into viral defensiveness and animosity from many Christians. All towards people they don’t even know!

This was then compounded even more when information was given that disproved many of the outrageous claims being made, yet rather than accepting it, there was often a decision to double down and push more suspicious claims about how "they were just trying to cover their tracks."

How can we claim to be a people of “truth” when we let misinformation drive our response?

What I couldn't stop thinking about was that “being right” about something isn’t our main objective as followers of Jesus. Loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves is our main objective.

The reality is, every single human being we’ve seen on our screen involved in the Olympics is created in God’s image. Every single one of them would have been invited by Jesus to sit and eat with him.

Yet so much of the outrage from Christians expressed otherwise.

On top of this, we have yet to see this kind of viral Christian outrage on social media over kids going to school hungry, racial injustice, systemic poverty in our nation, or towards a political movement that is openly co-opting Christianity for the sake of its own political control.

Even though Jesus himself said, “whatever you do for the least among you, you do for me.”

Much like James and John, it seems as though we prioritize our own offense towards others rather than actually loving others as Jesus called us to do. Much like James and John, we seem to make the message of Jesus all about ourselves rather than who Jesus has called us to serve and to love.

What This Does To Our Reputation

I’m honestly so weary of this public reputation we have gained for ourselves. Not just because of how it paints a picture of how we Christians seem to lack cultural awareness, make everything about ourselves, and are easily offended, but most importantly, how weak it makes the message of Jesus we claim to believe look to the rest of the world.

I just don’t think we Christians realize how fragile we make ourselves look when we act as if a single act of artistic expression poses an existential threat to our faith as if God is offended by all the exact same things we are.

I just don’t think we Christians realize how we make it sound like Christianity or even the Bible itself cannot stand on the truth of its own merits by how frantic and outraged we become at the mere suggestion of opposing beliefs or criticism.

I just don’t think we Christians realize how fragile we make ourselves look when we act like we need an authoritarian president and government to ensure and enforce our own interests over everyone else as if God is not powerful enough for us alone.

I just don’t think we Christians realize how fragile we make ourselves look when we allow fear, suspicion, and outrage to dictate our public behavior rather than faith, hope, and love.

If we truly believe our Christian faith is built on the strong foundation of the truth of Jesus, why are we not acting like it?

The reality is, as a pastor, this is one of the biggest reasons I hear from people who simply find it hard to remain in the church. We Christians claim to have such a strong foundation in God, yet we consistently act so fearful and combative towards the world. Acting as if Jesus called us to conquer the world rather than love it as he did.

Our public behavior simply doesn’t match up with what we claim to believe.

Instead of presenting a strong, confident, and loving posture to the world, what we see is fear, suspicion, ignorance, and animosity about people who we don’t even know.

We declare to the world that we love our beliefs about people more than we ever actually love people.

If you noticed, the consistent theme in each one of these “controversies” includes people many have already decided not to love. So then they confuse outrage and animosity as valid evidence as to why they should be condemned and opposed.

Much like how James and John felt about the Samaritans.

We will believe the most outrageous myths and lies about people we’ve already decided not to love.

Is this what we want our reputation to be in the world?

I don’t believe it should be at all.

Why would we need to “call down fire from heaven” on those who offend us when we literally have “God with us” in Jesus?

Suspicion isn’t a fruit of the Spirit.

When we Christians become convinced that the world is out to get us, we will see an enemy in anyone who doesn’t believe like we do, as if they are part of a greater plot to destroy us.

When we Christians become convinced that the world is out to get us, we will begin to see our religion as a war against our world.

When we Christians become convinced that the world is out to get us, we will begin to see the world as being filled with enemies to conquer rather than neighbors to love.

When we Christians become convinced that the world is out to get us, we will become susceptible to the message of authoritarians and fear mongers who tell us “the world is out to get you and here is the list of your enemies. Support and elect me and I’ll save you from them and defend the Christian faith.”

This theology of fear and suspicion has culminated in a false persecution complex within much of western Christianity, where we have been trained to see enormous threats to our faith in particular groups of people. A theology of suspicion that is easily stoked by those who wish to control who and what we support as Christians.

This is why it is so crucial to remember the resounding message of God, which is said hundreds of times in the Bible, “do not be afraid!”

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” - 2 Timothy 1:7

Suspicion is not a fruit of the Spirit. Constant suspicion is also incredibly exhausting and taxing on our mental health and our soul. Not to mention our relationships. We simply are not meant to live in constant suspicion and animosity.

When fear controls us Christians rather than love, we will believe the most outrageous things about those who we consider our enemies.

When we believe these false narratives, we are liable to support and justify the most merciless policies and actions in order to conquer our “enemies.”

We will do this all without considering the reality that those who are stoking our fear, anger, and animosity towards others in the name of “defending the faith,” are actually the ones who benefit the most from our frantic alarmism, all while the vulnerable suffer the most from the misuse of power.

Scapegoating others is one of the greatest tactics of authoritarians who are trying to secure and maintain their own power. Once they are able to convince us to despise and demonize other groups of people, that is when they have succeeded in maintaining their own power over us.

Scapegoating others is also a huge distraction from confronting the actual problems that face our world today and finding good solutions to those problems.

This is why we must allow love to truly cast out our fear. Love refuses to believe myths and half-truths about others. Love refuses to scapegoat others. Love refuses to hoard all the power for itself. Love refuses to hate, even its enemies.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” -Galatians 5:22-23

This is why I believe Jesus would rebuke many of his followers today for the same reason he rebuked James and John. Jesus would rebuke us for allowing our offense and outrage towards the very people he came to love to overtake us and compromise our witness for him in the world.

The reality is, our collective reputation is synonymous with how we make Jesus known to the world.

Along with rebuke, I believe Jesus would remind us that “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

Love should be our reputation.

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