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As the conversation continues, I want to stop and highlight this point that @natskee9 makes: there is a real fear that if Christians aren’t dominant, then they will be dominated. And this gets us closer to the heart of the problem.
Nationalistic Fear - A very long thread.
1/18 https://twitter.com/natskee9/status/1348865933369106433
Nationalistic Fear - A very long thread.
1/18 https://twitter.com/natskee9/status/1348865933369106433
Several times throughout the ministry of Jesus, he rebukes his closest disciples for succumbing to the temptation of vying for power. He regularly reminds them that his kingdom not being of this world meant not that it was in a different location but of a different nature.
2/18
2/18
The kingdom, a relationship with the king, came to dwell in the midst of them, and ultimately within them. But. It’s nature repelled the systemic inequities and selfish tendencies of a fallen humanity.
3/18
3/18
It wasn’t about having the best seat, a bunch of power, or fame and fortune. Instead, Jesus said it was about stopping to serve those considered the least by most everyone else.
4/18
4/18
The irony of power-hungry Jewish leaders in the gospels is that they were just like the Romans they detested.
Like many of the Roman caesars, the Pharisees feared living in a society in which they lost power, position, and the praise of the people.
5/18
Like many of the Roman caesars, the Pharisees feared living in a society in which they lost power, position, and the praise of the people.
5/18
Like those same caesars, the Pharisees grew increasingly paranoid about the sudden rise in popularity of a competing communal influence.
And ultimately, like the caesars, the Pharisees sought to eliminate competition through lethal means.
6/18
And ultimately, like the caesars, the Pharisees sought to eliminate competition through lethal means.
6/18
The very reason Jesus even says that many couldn’t accept him as the suffering servant he came to be is because they expected him to be the one who would lead the armed revolution to overthrow the oppressive ruling nation.
7/18
7/18
Many who hoped in the Messiah saw his death as a defeat rather than his mission, their discouragement and indictment of their carnality.
Part of their liberation was from the very systems that turned the oppressed into oppressors.
8/18
Part of their liberation was from the very systems that turned the oppressed into oppressors.
8/18
Jesus didn’t come to take one group of people off the throne and put another group of people on it.
He came to destroy the throne and be seated on a completely different one from which love would reign, not the corrupting lust for power and control.
9/18
He came to destroy the throne and be seated on a completely different one from which love would reign, not the corrupting lust for power and control.
9/18
And so, something as casual as a dispute among his closest disciples becomes a motif in the gospels, a cautionary tale of the tendency for people to seek becoming that which they themselves despise as a solution to the problem of their suffering.
10/18
10/18
No, this doesn’t mean that Jesus sanctioned oppression. It does, however, mean that Jesus didn’t sanction oppressing others as means to throw off the shackles of being oppressed.
It is the mercy of David, wrongly denied the throne by his predecessor, sparing Saul’s life.
11/18
It is the mercy of David, wrongly denied the throne by his predecessor, sparing Saul’s life.
11/18
It’s the battle cry of Jesus on the cross pleading in his divine advocacy on the behalf of spiritually ensnared murders for the forgiveness of his enemies.
And in that battle cry rings the same call to love for his disciples who reign not over others but over themselves.
12/18
And in that battle cry rings the same call to love for his disciples who reign not over others but over themselves.
12/18
Paul emphasizes to the Corinthians this reality, that Jesus came to serve as a poor and lowly man, only to die a criminal’s death, overwhelmed by the high tide of corruption and injustice. He emphasizes that this was the plan, to purposefully choose that which repelled us.
13/18
13/18
To choose what was low and despised, so that only the lowly and poor and humble would find and embrace it for what it was.
In the kingdom, an unjustly interrogated, tried, tortured, and executed God-Man sits on a throne of mercy.
14/18
In the kingdom, an unjustly interrogated, tried, tortured, and executed God-Man sits on a throne of mercy.
14/18
In the kingdom, citizens look not to be powerful, but to acknowledge the true power of Christ formed in them—the power to forego their liberties for the sake of liberating another. In the kingdom, citizens don’t stand above others, they stoop to serve them.
15/18
15/18
And so, when I consider the fear of losing power, my question to Christians is this: what did Jesus do with his power, and what purpose did he leave for his disciples to pursue?
In other words, are you afraid of relinquishing the oppressive systems Jesus came to destroy?
16/18
In other words, are you afraid of relinquishing the oppressive systems Jesus came to destroy?
16/18
Are you afraid to live in a nation that forces you to begin to understand the slightest fraction of what it truly means to embrace and embody the gospel as one forsaking liberties to liberate others?
17/18
17/18
Are you afraid to actually start getting to know the Jesus of the gospels and the gospel of the true Jesus?
Because if so, nationalism is the lie that tells you about a different savior who can’t even save you from yourself, let alone anything else.
18/18
Because if so, nationalism is the lie that tells you about a different savior who can’t even save you from yourself, let alone anything else.
18/18
