I hear this too often:

Jesus was always gentle in speech and kind-hearted. He lived a perfect life, with God’s wisdom as his guide. And if we want to be Christ-like (the goal of every Christian) we should be like him – gentle, steeped in wisdom, living in love, compassionate.

“Always” is the part I dislike. Jesus was not always gentle and kind-hearted. Most people already know about the time Jesus yelled through unmasked anger and violently turned over tables in the temple courtyard. He created a whip and physically drove the merchants away. Here, we have assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism, disturbing the peace, intolerance. Jesus was not nice at all and if that happenend today, police would haul him away. 

This is not Jesus

More examples of Jesus’ rather human-like behavior:

• Jesus calls the Scribes and Pharisees snakes and vipers. He labels them murderers and blind guides, and ridicules them publicly (Matthew 23:33). He undermines their authority. He insults them. He castigates them.
• Jesus rebukes and condemns in Matthew 18, He uses morbid and violent imagery, saying that it would be better to drown in the sea with a stone around your neck than to harm a child.
• Jesus deliberately did and said things that He knew would upset people. He was often “in the face” of the religious establishment. For example, He healed on the Sabbath, knowing how it would disturb others, knowing it would make them uncomfortable.
• In John 8:44, Jesus rebukes unbelieving Jews and calls them ‘sons of the Devil.’
• Jesus said, “live by the sword, die by the sword.” He told his disciples to sell their cloaks and buy a sword (Luke 22), and He said that He ‘didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword’ (Matthew 10).
• The passage that really freaks out everybody is when Jesus calls a Cannanite woman a dog. All she had done was ask Him to heal her daughter. (Matthew 15:21-28)

Dog-woman

Jesus was unafraid of confrontation, he detested evil, and he did not waver or give credence to the other side. However, the image of Jesus as “perfect” is a cultural creation, a brick in institutional Christianity, which exists to keep us orderly, sweet little robots who bury our rage and never rock the boat. And in creating a soft Jesus, people layered over his teachings a blanket of inerrant loving kindness.  

For example, the belief that speaking the truth in love is neither confrontational nor bordering on rude; neither self-serving nor seated in rage. Speaking the truth in love, as interpreted by many today, cannot allow for tough love and harsh words.  Jesus did battle with the corrupt politicians and institutional religious leaders because their ways did not align with God’s. And, I include all of these hard sides of Jesus when I think about what it is to be Christ-like.

We do not need to be afraid of our full range of emotions, including anger, rage, disgust. We can express what we feel. We can shout, moan, wail, rage. It is okay to be less than perfect when our government and religious leaders are maniacs with no moral center (like today). Were the soft Jesus here in the flesh today, it sounds like we would be having tea, all dressed up in white gloves and sweet hats, discussing and tsk-tsking the state of affairs today, being holier than thou about the rabble rousers who march, demonstrate and say nasty things on Facebook. Jesus, the bread of life and the light of the world got pissed off and we can too. There is nothing un-Christian about being out of order, walking in the shadows, investigating your grief, name calling.

Not always, though.  Just like Jesus was not always soft, kind, and compassionate, He was not always hard, angry and violent. Overall he let the wisdom of God rule his life, and he taught us how to live that wisdom too. When others defied that wisdom, he fought back. Hard. And the evil forces of the world murdered him for making waves.

May I offer as an example of a respected German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who personifies the hard Jesus. People tend to whitewash him also with a coating of inherent goodness. However, he revolted against Hitler.He not only signed up with the German secret service (to serve as a double agent—while traveling to church conferences over Europe he helped Jews escape Nazi oppression). Bonhoeffer also became a part of a violent plot to overthrow and later to assassinate Hitler.  Bonhoeffer decided that speaking the truth in love is not always the answer when evil looms so large. Unfortunately, that evil regime murdered him too. Ghandi and MLK did take the “speak the truth in love” approach; however, evil murdered them too. So what is that all about? Evil doesn’t care what face you wear.

Bottom line: I am not going to be a sweet Christain who avoids anger in dealing with today’s evil government. We are lead by looney toons every bit as warped as Hitler. I will call it like it is and try to influence others who believe in this insanity. I will not waver. And in doing so, I too will be calling forth a Christ-like attitude. Really.