Jesus Is Mortified

When Jesus looks at the church, I think he’s mortified.

Yes, mortified.

And I think that because I really don’t think that Jesus ever intended for humanity to start a religion in his name, a religion that has elevated our religion over everyone else’s religion. Like, I don’t think Jesus intended for his followers to create walls and fences and lines and barriers …

That declare who is in and who is out.

That declare who is right and who is wrong.

That declare who is bound for heaven and who is bound for hell.

I grew up in a very conservative evangelical world. I went to a private Christian School from the 4th-12th grades and then I went on to complete 4 years of Bible College and one of the phrases that was always tossed around as if it were Jesus’ middle name was “born again”.

“Are you a born again Christian?”

“Have you been born again?”

“You’re not really a Christian unless you’re born again.”

… Jesus Born Again Christ.

Born again? The idea comes from a conversation that Jesus had with a man named Nicodemus. John’s Gospel says that Nicodemus came to visit Jesus at night and asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life and Jesus told him to be “born again”.

And so from this story the evangelical church has adopted the phrase “born again”, has attached it to the word “Christian”, and has built a theology that says when you put your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you are born again into a new life whereby the old is gone and the new has come - a life where you no longer live, but Christ lives in you and through you … a life that will wind you up in heaven instead of hell when you die.

Buuuut.

Jesus never really said any of that in the conversation he had with Nicodemus and not only that, but this is the only place in all of the Gospels where he said the words “born again” … and he said them, mind you, in a much different context than the church has led us to believe.

Nothing about being a born again Christian.

Nothing about needing to be born again to avoid hell and go to heaven.

Nothing about the need for everyone to be born again.

In their book “Decolonizing Evangelicalism” my friends Bo Sanders and Randy Woodley point out that “Jesus mentioned being born again once, but said follow me dozens of times”, which is super important … right? Because it seems to me (in my experience) that the evangelical church in North America, in particular, has it a little bit backwards where “being born again” is emphasized way above and beyond “following Christ” and modeling his life of …

Love.

Grace.

Inclusion.

Forgiveness.

Peace.

… To the world. After all, Jesus didn’t tell Jews and Gentiles and Pharisees and fisherman and prostitutes and tax collectors to be “born again” and to “become a Christian”, but he most certainly did invite them all to follow him.

Right?

Like, he never told them to be born again into a new religion.

BUT.

He did tell them to follow his way of life.

And so I think Jesus is mortified because we’ve started a massive religion in his name that amasses huge sums of money all the while drawing lines of who is in and who is out and who believes the right things and who doesn’t. We’ve taken his invitation to “follow me” and have divided it up into 32,000 different denominations, all of whom think they are right or hold some sort of corner market on the Divine.

The one who made himself low has been placed on a high pedestal where he is worshipped, sang to, prayed to, enshrined, held on high … all the while those he asked his followers to love are most often left outside the walls of the church buildings that he never asked us to construct. God raised Christ from the dead so that his Spirit could fill us and empower us to make the world more like heaven, but we’ve poured a fair amount of attention into …

Raising up buildings.

Raising up pastors.

Rising up leaders.

Raising up budgets.

… All of which often lend a hand to the building of walls and boundaries and gates that do nothing more than divide and keep the few chosen ones on the inside and the sinners on the outside.

I tell you all of this because I’m not sure what kind of baggage you’re carrying from your past or what kind of toxic theologies you’ve been fed in your past, but I don’t think Jesus has any interest in you being born again and I really don’t think Jesus cares whether you go to church 1 time a day, 1 time a week, 1 time a year, or never and I really don’t think he’s all that concerned with how often you read your Bible or in how many Bible verses you’ve memorized or even in how many times a day, a week, a year that you pray.

Rather.

I think the invitation he gave dozens of times to the many people in the Gospels is the same invitation he extends to us today and always - “follow me.”