Reflecting Christ

Over at Adiaphora there is a post about an email exchange between the author and his Presbytery regarding a fellow pastor who has jettisoned Christianity yet retains the pastorship of a church. It's a good post about a serious problem and the lack of concern from the leadership for truth. I found this in the comments: "Your writing does not reflect Jesus Christ to me at all. I'm glad you're active with Habitat because that, in contrast, does."

I'm puzzled by this. We have this commenter holding up two things saying, "This doesn't speak Christ to me and that does."The reference to Habitat, I believe, is a reference to Habitat for Humanity, an international, nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry. Volunteering to help build houses for the poor speaks Christ to this commenter. The writing that doesn't speak Christ was calling on the Presbytery to recognize that one of their ordained ministers was denying the fundamental teachings of Christianity. Apparently it is Christ-like to build houses for people but not Christ-like to call out error. Instead, what the commenter said was, "What I see more in your writing is the Gospel caricature of the Pharisees and Sadducees and experts in the law."

Don't misunderstand. I'm not taking up sides on the blog in question. (You can likely guess which side I'm on, but that's not my point.) I'm addressing here a common misconception about Christ. It seems to me that this is a caricature of Christ. A caricature is a depiction of someone or something that ludicrously exaggerates their peculiarities. Christ was, indeed, peculiar in His care for the needy around Him. He healed the sick. He cared about the sinners. He fed the hungry. These are all true, and no one should deny it. However, to suggest that this was all that Christ was about is to entirely miss the Christ of the Gospels. It would be to ludicrously exaggerate (a caricature) that peculiarity.

You see, while we certainly see a caring Christ in the Gospels, we also see a Christ with a whip in His hand when He encountered moneychangers in the Temple. We also see a Christ who went toe to toe with the Pharisees and Sadducees that were the religious rulers of His day. He didn't defer to their role as religious leaders; He pronounced curses on them ("Woe to you ..."), declared them "vipers", and called them "of your father, the devil." While many like to think that Jesus was a social activist, concerned about meeting people's needs around Him, the truth is that He was a truth activist, concerned with presenting the truth to the people around Him. If that took healing them for them to listen, He did it. If that took a combative approach to the deceivers who led the "church" of His day, then He took it. But His call was not one of trying to meet people's felt needs. His job was to be about His Father's business.

Paul's charge to Timothy was precisely along these lines. He told Timothy that the reason poor Tim was alone in Ephesus was "that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine" (1 Tim. 1:3). According to Paul, Jesus didn't come into the world to meet felt needs; He "came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15). And poor Timothy ... I think he tended to be more compassionate than Paul. So Paul had to hammer the point home. "This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience" (1 Tim 1:18-19). "Wage the good warfare," Paul says. "It's time to go to war against false doctrine." Now, I suspect that the commenters on that blog might not see Jesus in that kind of talk, but it appears to me that this is because of a caricature of Christ's love without His call for Truth. Paul writes, "I have handed [Hymenaeus and Alexander] over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme" (1 Tim. 1:20). Now, that doesn't sound like the Jesus who healed the blind man, but it certainly sounds like the Jesus who defied the Pharisees.

It is important that we, as Christians, reflect Christ. In that we ought to be leading the charge in service to others. We ought to be helping out anywhere and anyway we can. I think we're likely poor at that. On the other hand, we are also called to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching" (2 Tim. 4:2). Yes, that includes patience. But it also includes reproving, rebuking, and exhorting. Anything else is a caricature of Christ. We cannot afford, any more than Christ could afford, to idly sit by and watch error be offered as truth. If we are to mirror Christ, we need to contend for the faith (Jude 1:3).