There’s a lot at stake in this election. Both sides of the political spectrum fear that if the other candidate wins, the results will be disastrous for the future of the United States. Something I have noticed is that both conservative and liberal Christians have been invoking Jesus as being on their side and wanting their candidate to win. I find this dynamic to be interesting. How can Jesus be backing both sides? Well, it comes down to the type of Jesus you believe in.
When you pass through the doors of a church, you are entering into a community where most of the people sitting in the pews have formed their own conclusions about what Christianity does and does not mean. There are people sitting in the pews who have been studying the Bible for decades. They’ve listened to hundreds or even thousands of sermons and have stitched together a very specific picture of who they envision Jesus to be.
Therefore, what most people are looking for when they come to church is confirmation of what they already believe to be true. They are looking for a pastor who talks about Jesus in ways that reflect the image in their mind. Pastors understand this reality. They know it’s important not to stray too much from the version of Jesus adopted by the members in their community. If they do, church members will become upset and leave.
If people leave, contributions decline and there will not be enough money to pay the pastor’s salary and keep the lights on. The dirty secret within most parishes is that pastors are beholden to the people in the pews. In certain instances, this dynamic can mean that the people with the most money define the type of Jesus you hear from the pulpit.
For instance, let’s say the pastor comes to a passage in the Bible where Jesus speaks negatively of wealth: “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mk. 10:43) Often, the pastor will either skip the passage entirely or try to explain away Jesus’ criticism of wealth as being related to people who are not generous with their money. Almost never will you hear the pastor blatantly say that Jesus perceives the accumulation of wealth as contradictory to loving God nor will they say their wealth compromises their relationship with God.
As you can imagine, this means Jesus is portrayed differently in every church you enter. Depending on the people who hold power and the issues that are important to them, Jesus is going to sound very different.
In some churches, Jesus hates homosexuals, while in others Jesus is very concerned about gay rights. In some churches, Jesus wants you to be rich, while in others Jesus only wants you to care for the poor. In some churches, Jesus is Arab, while in others he’s Swedish with brown hair and blue eyes. In some churches, Jesus is a radical liberal trying to overturn systems of injustice, while in others he’s a staunch conservative trying to maintain traditional family values.
In other words, Jesus is a reflection of the people sitting in the pews. Therefore, when everyone thinks that Jesus embodies their values and their opinions, how do we ever find the real Jesus? Well, the obvious answer provided by Christians is reading the Bible, but that’s not as straight forward as it might seem. Let me give you an example.
In Mark’s gospel, the first and earliest of the gospels in the New Testament, Jesus is portrayed as an itinerate preacher with no real education in the Torah. Mark seems to believe that Jesus gained all of his knowledge of the Bible when he is baptized by John the Baptist around the age of 30. Indeed, Mark portrays everyone who knew Jesus from a young age in Nazareth as being astounded that Jesus knows as much as he does about the scriptures: “On the Sabbath [Jesus] began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him?’” (Mk. 6:2)
However, by the time Luke writes his gospel, some 20 years later, Jesus is portrayed as a 12 year old boy in the Jerusalem Temple whose knowledge of the Torah rivals the most learned rabbis in Israel: “When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it….After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Lk. 2:43, 46-47)
Clearly, one of these portrayals is inaccurate. Jesus can’t be both a poor itinerate preacher of no education who surprises everyone by his knowledge at 30 years of age and a boy genius who knows everything about the Torah. We have to choose one over the other. For me, the closer the text was written to Jesus’ lifetime, the more accurate it will be. Hence, knowing that Mark is the earliest portrayal, we can see an evolution in thinking about the person of Jesus.
When Mark wrote about Jesus, he portrayed Jesus as he likely was—a poor, uneducated peasant. Over time, the Christian religion began to inflate Jesus into something more than an itinerate preacher. Thus, when Luke writes his gospel, Jesus becomes a fully trained rabbi who knows the teachings of Judaism better than anyone who has ever lived.
Could I be wrong? Absolutely. My interpretive framework, where I give earlier texts more credence, is subjective. I was not alive when these events occurred. Like everyone else, I’m constructing a version of Jesus based on the available information and my own biases.
The most important bias every Christian has to wrestle with is your view of the biblical authors. Were they just regular humans writing their version of events? Were they inspired by God? Or did God literally write these texts through the hands of the authors? Your answer to this question determines the lens through which you view these texts. For someone who adopts the lens that God wrote the Bible, the scriptures are perfect, inerrant documents. For me, the Bible is an imperfect text with hints of divine inspiration sprinkled throughout.
In other words, everyone is picking and choosing what they value as being important when they read the Bible. As a result, we can never truly know the real Jesus, which is why everyone can claim that Jesus is on their side. The difference between me and most Christians is that I openly admit this reality.
In this spirit, I would like to end with my version of Jesus. Like everyone else, he’s a Jesus who is found in the scriptures, but he’s also a Jesus who reflects my values. My Jesus cares about the poor and destitute (Mk.10:17-31). My Jesus lifts up the marginalized (Mt. 8:1-17) and wants to overturn systems of injustice (Mk. 11:15-19). My Jesus is a pacifist (Mt. 5:38-45) who preaches about a God of unconditional love (Lk. 15:11-32). My Jesus wants society to be fair and equitable where everyone has enough to eat, clothes on their back, a roof over their head (Mt. 25:31-40). My Jesus wants us to create God’s kingdom by being spiritually transformed into a person who is selfless, kind and generous to everyone we encounter (Mk. 8:24-36).
Oh yeah, before I forget: I want my Jesus to be reflected in the politicians I vote for, but my Jesus doesn’t care about the outcome of American elections. My Jesus isn't backing one candidate over another. Why? He’s been dead for 2000 years.
Tell me about your version of Jesus in the comments below.
Hi, Alex - I love what you’re doing, love the books.
My version of Jesus would definitely put him on the campaign trail, probably with Rev Barber and his Poor People’s crusade.
I’ve been Christian ( not necessarily A Christian) 84 years and studied American born theology (LDS, Jehovah’s Witnesses, 7th Day Adventists, etc) in grad school. Pretty amazing that Christianity with all its hundreds of interpretations is still around. Sorry to see it used as a weapon - nothing new there though. It seems to me Christian nationalism is already splintering in the struggle for power.
This post. 100 percent. Also yes, ain't no way Jesus would be voting for anybody here.