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How to Really be More Like Jesus

The list the church doesn’t want you to see

After writing an article where I expressed support for the LGBTIQ community, I was accused by a religious zealot of the ‘Christian’ kind, of being ‘soft on sin.’ It was meant as a kind of spiritual insult — usually bestowed on those who err on the side of tolerance, rather than retreating into self-righteous indignation every time one comes across someone who thinks and lives differently to oneself.

I wasn’t offended though.

I’d be glad to be seen to be doing the same.

Because, if I’m going to be accused of anything, I’d rather be accused of being soft on sin, than hard on sinners — as if I weren’t included in the group called ‘sinners’ in any case.

Jesus wasn’t hard on sinners. Jesus was hard on the self-congratulatory, self-important, self-righteous types who believed that they were in a position to judge others because of their apparently superior moralistic behavior.

Come at me with your Bible if you want, but I’d rather be like Jesus.

In fact, the more I look at the biographies of Jesus, the more that I am convinced that being a Christian is not about religiously attending church, reading your Bible, praying every day, stamping out a bunch of undesirable behaviors — commonly referred to as sin — being a generally nice person, or voting for the Republican party, not that there is anything inherently wrong with any of these things.

In fact if you really want to live like the Biblical Jesus, then it might look something more like the following list — a list that comes with a warning. If you actually do these things, you could end up being crucified at the hands of very pious and religious people, determined to protect their systems of power and control.

Religion has a habit of beginning as a life-giving force for good and then, over time, degenerating into something much less, usually at the hands of people who try to use it for personal profit, or to wield and maintain power and control. That is why we need prophets and reformers to call people back to the true heart of the faith.

Martin Luther was a reformer who held the Catholic Church to account for the corrupt practice of ‘selling salvation’ for the financial gain of the church. At that time, the Catholic Church was teaching people that by purchasing an ‘indulgence,’ an individual could reduce the length and severity of punishment that heaven would require as payment for their sins. This, of course, flies in the face of the concept of salvation as the unmerited favor of God, given freely to all. Pure heresy!

In the same way, the religion of Jesus day was in need of reformation. The religious leaders at that time were renowned for knowing and keeping all of the laws in the Old Testament down to the nth degree, and trying their darnedest to impose those laws on others.

In fact, the Pharisees were so concerned with keeping the laws in the Bible that they even created laws to help people keep the laws. By the time Jesus rocked up in human history, the Pharisees had developed a list of over 600 different laws and laws about laws. As a result, they were living out this kind of heartless, cold and arrogant brand of self-righteousness — the kind that looks down on others and judges others, while simultaneously congratulating oneself on having it all together. More than that, it placed an impossible burden on the people, many of whom, were genuine in their pursuit of God.

Martin Luther freed the people from the requirement to purchase their own salvation. Jesus Christ freed the people from the impossible requirements of the Old Testament Law, by fulfilling it himself. As a reward for their efforts, Martin Luther was declared a heretic and an outlaw, and Jesus Christ was executed outright — both at the hands of religious leaders. That is the fate that awaits those who choose to take up the mantle of a reformer.

Fast forward a few thousands years and what are we to make of the modern church as it descends into a precipitous decline? Are we, once again, in need of prophets and reformers to call us back to the kind of life-giving faith that Christ intended for us? Shouldn’t someone speak up about the uncomfortable marriage that exists between church and the conservative side of politics? Shouldn’t someone address the church’s propensity to burden people with the yoke of performance-based religion? Shouldn’t someone hold the church to account for its treatment and mistreatment of women, children, racial minorities and sexual minorities?

Surely.

In many, many ways, Jesus challenged the conventional and accepted wisdom at that time. Take Jesus’s famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Matthew 5, for example. Many people fail to realize how explosive its message was and how Jesus’ words would have shaken the world of many who were listening to Him on the Galilean hillside that day.

“Love your enemy. Blessed are the merciful. Turn the other cheek.” With these words, Jesus was not simply establishing a lofty, new ethical standard. Jesus was challenging the very meaning of what it meant to be God’s people — and flipping the Old Testament on its head. It would have been a real shake-up to the status quo.

Consider a few other famous commands in the Sermon on the Mount, such as “love your enemy,” “pray for those who persecute you,” and the so-called “go the extra mile” (Matt 5:41, 44). In these commands, Jesus was subverting the revolutionary and nationalistic tendencies which pervaded much of first-century Judaism.

For those original listeners, “Love your enemy” would have sounded something like: “Love the Romans who persecute you. Love Herod and His illegitimate, violent monarchy. Do not join the revolt movements.” Many would have walked away disappointed by this, because they had harbored hopes that Jesus would rise up and become the great military leader who would drive out their Roman oppressors and restore the nation to its former glory.

If you want to be like Jesus then consider this. What is the conventional and accepted wisdom of our day? What would Jesus say about fighting to protect our religious freedoms, for example? In a world where people are increasingly drifting to either the left or the right, what would Jesus say about loving those on the other side? What would Jesus say that would shake up the status quo?

This was Jesus’s warning to the people about the religious leaders of his day. It’s a fairly honest and brutal assessment about the kind of spiritual leaders Jesus was dealing with. Sadly, these kind of religious leaders have existed in every age up until the present day.

Before I get crucified, I will preface this comment by saying that there are many religious leaders who are good, honorable and decent people — worthy of being followed — even some of the Pharisees in Jesus’s day. We ought not attack people for the sake of attacking.

That said, if someone presumes to hold a position of spiritual leadership and oversight, then they accept the fact that they will be judged more harshly. In fact, the Bible says as much in James 3:1: “Don’t be in any rush to become a teacher, my friends. Teaching is highly responsible work. Teachers are held to the strictest standards.”

My experience is that holding religious leaders to account is met with one of two responses depending on the kind of leader you are dealing with. The good leader is capable of graciously receiving feedback. However, the insecure leader is always threatened by prophets, reformers, free-thinkers, people who challenge the status quo and those who advocate for change. The insecure leader will also defend their position by taking one of a number of well-worn paths. Sometimes, they use their — apparently — sophisticated knowledge of the Bible to position themselves above critique, leveraging their apparent spiritual maturity as a reason to dismiss any complaint. Sometimes, when they are held to account by another, they like to paint themselves as a long-suffering or patiently enduring martyr— the victim of an erratic and emotionally immature person.

In fact, Jesus was called, “Crazy” at times.

The fact remains: When Jesus called out the hypocrisy that he observed in the religious leaders, it didn’t end well for him.

The Pharisees found it offensive that Jesus would even associate with all kinds of disreputable folk, like tax collectors and prostitutes — among the most despised people of that time. But Jesus wasn’t ashamed to be seen in their company and, not surprisingly, he seemed quite popular amongst that particular ‘crowd.’

If you really want to be like Jesus, then find the people who are the most despicable to religious people, and to society in general, and spend time in their company. I wonder who that might be in our day and age?

Eat at their tables. Invite them to your parties. Welcome them into your churches. This is not my idea, either. In Luke 14:12–14, Jesus said: “When you host a dinner or banquet, don’t only invite your friends, your brothers, your relatives, or your rich neighbors. But, invite the poor, the amputees, the cripples, the blind as well.”

Jesus instructions are as clear as his actions. We ought not hide ourselves away in our little spiritual enclaves to protect ourselves and our children from the wicked influence of ‘the world.’ Rather, we ought to engage fully with it. We ought to be glad to be seen with all kinds of people. We ought to esteem them with our presence and be esteemed, equally, by theirs.

Of course, if you start hanging out with all kinds of people, it won’t sit well with many good Christian folk.

The tearing of the temple curtain is an often overlooked part of the crucifixion narrative. However, it is actually one of the most significant moments in human history. Legend has it that the temple curtain was as thick as a man’s hand. It was a designed, in no uncertain terms, to keep the presence of God separate — a barrier between humanity and the divine.

Yet, at the moment of Jesus’s death, it was torn open. The symbolism is clear. God was no longer able to be contained inside four walls and steepled roof. No man-made barrier could hold him in. Jesus made God available to everyone.

What is more, by making God accessible to all, Jesus humbled much of organized religion’s ability to control the god-human relationship. Suddenly, God was beyond any attempt to be controlled, to be bought and sold in any temple. In fact, Jesus did the temple out of a job because, from that moment onwards, the temple of God became the hearts of willing humans.

Therefore, if you want to be like Jesus, then bring down all the walls that people erect to keep people from God. Tear down the barriers, one-by-one! Start building bridges, instead. Announce to the world that God is freely and indiscriminately available for all! You do not need a church to find him, nor a priest to mediate for you!

Didn’t know that Jesus was a law-breaker? He wasn’t crucified for nothing! The religious leaders in Jesus day believed in a strict observance of what was known as the Sabbath Day. The Sabbath Day was ordained by God to be a day of rest — a good idea, if you ask me.

However, the religious leaders took this good and life-giving concept and burdened people with many absurd regulations to make sure that people were truly resting — from how far you were allowed to walk before it was considered ‘work’, to how much you were allowed to carry to what food you were allowed to prepare. Even boiling water was outlawed on the Sabbath.

So, you can imagine the outrage when Jesus broke the Sabbatical Laws on multiple occasions. In fact, Jesus performed at least 7 of his miracles on the Sabbath Day. Rather than rejoicing at the fact that people were being healed, the religious leaders were incensed that Jesus had dared participate in the ‘work’ of healing people on the sacred day of rest. Jesus challenged them by saying: “Which is the right thing to do on the Sabbath day: to do good or to do evil? Is it right to save a life or to destroy one?” They had no answer for him, but inwardly they seethed.

In reality, the teachers of the law had elevated the law itself above the reason that the law was given. It was a good law, purposed by God to bring life and freedom, but was never intended to prevent people from doing good for the sake of its keeping.

Jesus refused to stop doing good, just because it was a particular day of the week — and for that, he was considered a law-breaker.

Two thousand years of human history hasn’t changed us all that much. Prophets and reformers are usually unpopular with those in positions of power. We still like to delineate who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out.’ We somehow still believe that the favor of God is something that must be earned through human endeavor and striving. Any voice that speaks out against this system must be silenced. Anything that interrupts the status quo must be stopped.

Do you really want to be like Jesus? You could try a few of the things listed in this article. Of course, the logical end of all these kind of actions is death — usually at the hands of devout and religious people. Sure, you might not be physically killed, but you can expect your character and conduct to be attacked — at the very least. If that was the fate of the Son of God, why would it be any different for you?

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