Why I love Jesus and Religion

There seems to be a rather popular video floating around the stratosphere. You’ve probably seen it by now. I’m not going to do anybody the favor of re-posting this spoken word piece. It’s already been over a week this went viral, and if you haven’t seen in just go onto Facebook and I’m sure one of your friends has already re-posted and liked it by now. Truthfully I would have liked to have this post ready a week ago, and this seems like old news by now. But I had quite a bit already prepared and still think that the issue this controversial video has brought up in the blog-o-sphere is worth talking about.

First of all, I'll say straight up that I'm not going to make a big critique this video. That has already been done by people who did it much better than I could have and who have had contact with the author himself. But I am going to speak frankly about my reaction to this piece of work. I know that the author, Jefferson Bethke, has said that his theology was "not airtight" when this video was released. And I believe this person to be a Brother in Christ and fellow artist. This is in no way a personal judgement on him.  

I have to wonder though, why does this video bother me so much? Was it because I simply knew better theology because of my Biblical training and degree studies? Or more importantly is it because I believe this piece of work is a complete misuse of scripture and orthodox theology? Yes to both. But furthermore I have to look at this with the eyes of an artist and theologian. 

I love the use of spoken word. The video is good quality and well produced. It is exactly the type of video I'm supposed to like as a young person, as a Christian and as an artist. But Christianity has always had a messy relationship with art. (By this I mean performance or theater) As artists we strive for authenticity, and that's the one thing that this video has going for it. The author is raw and real about his own feelings and experiences. But his perspective about Jesus and what that Gospel says about "religion" is entirely off base, and down right un-Biblical. His jumping off point for this piece is a botched up verse straight from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-8)  

I have long believed that the modern view of religion as it relates to a relationship with Jesus has been looked at out of context. Jeff Bethke is speaking from an evangelical, post-modern context. He is not looking at a picture of Jesus from the 1^st century. A Jesus who happened to be a religious teacher, a devout Jew, and a Pharisee. This is the same Jesus who said “I came not to abolish the law [of Moses] or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17 TNIV) The author only paid attention to the first part of that verse, and somehow still managed to get it wrong.

Jesus is undeniably connected to the story of Israel, through his lineage, through the events of his life (exile in Egypt, persecution) and through prophecy. I believe that Jesus’s life, as decribed in the Book of Matthew, is a reenactment of the story of Israel. But what I find so interesting about the scripture for which Bethke bases his piece on, is that it belongs to Matthew 5, the first chapter of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. This is a sermon that Jesus is preaching to a crowd as well as to his own disciples (Matt 5:1-2)

  

Religion is not the enemy. The enemy is death and sin. The enemy is what separates us from God. We give ourselves to death when we choose to act according to our own desires and wills, when the costly risk of following God becomes seemingly too burdensome. Yes, Jesus is the answer, but before he came God gave us the Law. God gave his people religion. He gave them a way to live in holiness, a way to live that always pointed to him. We trust a compass to point North, just as we trust the Word of God to point to him. (By this I mean whole Word: Torah, Prophets, Writings, everything not just the New Testament) Jesus as the complete Word, God with us, Immanuel. God gave his people, the Israelites, the law [religion] as a way to draw closer to him. As a way to begin mending the gap that death had created. God sent his only son Jesus Christ to complete this work, to draw his people closer, to make them disciples, and to defeat that which corrupted the harmony between man and God; death.    

I’ve been told many times, by Christian teachers, that I should hate religion. I remember specifically one evening service I went to while working at a camp in Yelm, Washington. The speaker, a local youth pastor, gave us counselors and staff a chance to vent our grievances and discord with the church and Christianity. We all let it out. One after the other, this collection of young Christians shared our struggles with society and the church. Then someone said "I hate religion." The pastor's response, "We should ALL hate religion." It didn’t settle right with me. I didn’t hate religion, nor did I want to. When these people [and Jeff Bethke] used the word Religion I don't think they mean a value system, set of beliefs, creed and/or canon, as the word Religion is defined. They mean legalism, rigidity, and self righteousness. They mean every bad experience they have every had that has been tied to the church. They mean every ugly action by church officials that has resulted in shame or loss. The word religion has been turned into a nasty thing.

 I need religion. I need to be reminded why I love Jesus, because sometimes I forget why I do. Sometimes I am so swept up in the pressure and motion of daily life that I forget that I have a God who loves me. I forget to pray, to give thanks, or give praise. I don’t always like to be remorseful or repentant of the things I have done. I want to feel justified in every action I do, as if I have every right to live my on my own terms free of punishment. And I need to be reminded that that just isn’t so. 

The reason I go to church every Sunday isn’t necessarily because I enjoy it all the time. It is because I am reminded when I attend my local church that I live as part of the body of Christ. I am a member of a peculiar group of people, and I am just as responsible for them as they are for me. The reason I keep a rosary beside my bed, isn’t because I’m Catholic or because I like saying Hail Mary’s, but because I need to remind myself that Christ is with me when I go to sleep and when I wake up. Sometimes need to remember the way he taught us to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

I have a mezuzah on my doorframe. It was left by one of the previous owners of my apartment. The first time I saw this object nailed to the door, I knew that God had meant for me to live in this place. I keep this reminder nailed to my door not because I’m a Jew, but because it reminds me of Exodus 12. It reminds me that the Israelites were enslaved and that when the plague of death came, those who had the blood of a lamb painted on their door frames were passed over. It reminds me that Jesus also escaped death as a young boy. But it would later be his body nailed to wood, and his blood spilled across that wooden frame that conquered death. The blood shed so that I may be forgiven, so that death might pass over me.

Why do I love Jesus and religion, because Jesus is my religion.
It was good for my mother, it saved my father, it was good for Paul and Silas, it will take us all to Heaven, It's good enough for me- Charles Tillman