Let's be Honest, Messiah is a Tough Calling

It will soon be two thousand years since the days of Jesus’ ministry teaching and preaching among the peasants of Galilee, Judea and Samaria. Another fifty years and we’ll reach two thousand since the books of the New Testament began to appear. It’s a good time to stop and ask, has Christianity made a difference, and how should we expect our faith to impact the world over the next two thousand years.

Debating what might have been different if Jesus never lived makes an interesting parlor game. I’ve played it in Bible Study classes. Most believers assume Christianity has had a significant and positive influence but others think the good done under the guise of Christian love would have happened anyway -- that people motivated by altruism would have assembled under some secular banner. On the flip side, the religion haters point to the wars and atrocities perpetrated in the name of our faith and the others.

Let’s deal with the haters first. Take Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great. Heard him speak? He’s a hater by nature. If he didn’t have God to dump on, he’d target Bambi. Fact is, our wars and atrocities would have happened regardless of religion. Power and wealth are the motivations for war and oppression. Religion is just an excuse.

On the other hand, you have the hospitals built, the orphans cared for, the children educated under the auspices of various Christian groups. Good work indeed. But would it have happened anyway, under some non-religious motivation? Believe it or not, some atheists are caring people, and given the absence of religion as a counterpoint, who knows what kind of quasi-spiritual regime might have developed. Like I said, an interesting parlor game.

A more serious question for the future is whether Christianity could have done more if it hadn’t been so timid. Can we deny we haven’t lived up to Jesus’ vision? The Jesus of the New Testament is an apocalyptic figure, a confrontational prophet who condemns the culture of his day -- economic and religious -- and declares the coming of a new age, which he calls “the year of the Lord‘s favor.” But instead of fighting to the death for this new age, we Christians did just what the church of his day did -- made peace with the powers and principalities of the world and settled for incremental improvements.

When Jesus described “the year of the Lord’s favor,” he used very concrete terms: the oppressed and the captives would go free, the blind would receive sight and the poor would get relief. He didn’t say the poor would be a little poorer, or the oppressed a little less oppressed. He promised radical change and was killed for saying it was possible. Anyone eager to take up his mission?

When Barack Obama first stood and promised a new age, he was received as almost a messianic figure. But just as we stood and watched Christ’s message shrink to a size comfortable for the culture, Obama’s message has been reduced by others to a plaintive copy of Rodney King’s “why can’t we all just get along.” Jesus was willing to die rather than just get along. Maybe a guy like Jesus doesn’t come along every two thousand years. But if Obama wants to see his message live, he should be ready to speak the full truth and, if need be, let his candidacy die.