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Uncomfortable reality:
“Speaking truth to power” is not the primary mode of Gospel witness, simply because it isn’t the way Jesus operates.
Brought before both Pilate and Herod, the two main embodiments of worldly power in the Gospels, He was nearly silent.
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Uncomfortable reality:
“Speaking truth to power” is not the primary mode of Gospel witness, simply because it isn’t the way Jesus operates.
Brought before both Pilate and Herod, the two main embodiments of worldly power in the Gospels, He was nearly silent.
[1/21]
He speaks truth (usually in vain) to Pharisees and sadducees and scribes, but these people seek Him out, not the other way around.
If He isn’t speaking truth to power, then who does Jesus speak truth to?
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If He isn’t speaking truth to power, then who does Jesus speak truth to?
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“He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives...
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‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives...
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...and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.’
...The eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
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...The eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
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Jesus didn’t come to speak truth to power.
Jesus speaks truth to the powerLESS to free them from the dominion of the powerful.
Jesus speaks truth to the powerless and therefore empowers them.
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Jesus speaks truth to the powerLESS to free them from the dominion of the powerful.
Jesus speaks truth to the powerless and therefore empowers them.
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To the poor, He speaks glad tidings. To captives, He speaks liberty. To the blind, He speaks sight. To the oppressed, freedom.
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He does not speak these truths according to way of the world, which is to overturn the powers-that-be and raise up the captives to become the new slave masters. This is the cycle of sin and death that Jesus has come to end.
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Instead, shockingly, Jesus speaks these truths to the powerless - not in the power of the world, but in the love of the Spirit. This is the love of the Trinity that propels Him to constantly pour His entire life out for others, even His enemies.
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“Speaking truth to power” has its place (“If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” or even the cleansing of the Temple.) But isn’t not the Lord’s fundamental method.
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Instead, He goes to the powerless and empowers them to love their oppressors so much that they would die for them.
This is the scandal of the Cross.
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This is the scandal of the Cross.
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Does it scandalize you? Does it anger you, that Jesus, the true King of the World, goes, not to the oppressors, but to the oppressed, to speak truth to the downtrodden - Divine, Effective, Transformative Truth - and challenge the captives to love their captors?
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It is scandalous, but it’s also obvious this is the only course of action that can actually change the tragic trajectory of our story. Anything else is just rearranging the faces of the oppressors and the oppressed, swapping roles like clockwork.
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In the coming days, you will have to compelling opportunity to become part of the mob. Or perhaps you have already been taken in. Which mob? It doesn’t really matter. Whichever one speaks loudest in your heart. In the end, it’s different teams in the same suicidal game.
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Or you can choose something else: the Gospel, which speaks to you as the powerless, the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed.
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Jesus does not offer us the opportunity for revenge, or to become the new oppressors. If this is what we want, in our heart of hearts, then the Gospel isn’t for us. Better to admit that now than later.
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What Jesus offers is infinitely better than a brief period of political power, always purchased by the blood of my sisters and brothers. He offers an otherworldly, eternal power, a transformative Love that is stronger than death & so willingly dies for even our enemies.
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The pressure to join a (the) mob is mounting. Clarify your principles now, in prayer and the peace and confidence that only prayer can give you. Give your heart to Jesus once more and ask Him to guard it.
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If we are going to stand with the Gospel and believe in the saving power of the Cross, and if we don’t want to abandon Jesus in this time of crisis...
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then we are going to need to stay separate from the mob and offer the witness of something different, something that makes no sense to worldly power (which is why Jesus rarely bothered):
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The witness of the Body of Christ on the Cross, poured out to the last drop for our family, our enemies.
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I implore you to let the Lord seal this conviction in your heart now, so that, in the unfathomable love of Christ, we can set our face toward Jerusalem, not towards whatever new Babylon is festering.
Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, let us be your Body in the world.
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Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, let us be your Body in the world.
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