It’s a dangerous thing to make declarative statements about other people’s inner religious convictions… but here goes:
Many Christians in your church don’t believe in Jesus.
That’s not to say that they don’t have a kind of belief.
They may have enough faith to get them to a building on Sunday; perhaps enough to get them to pause for a momentary blessing before the buffet afterward.
Some may even have a real, tangible feeling throughout the day, that they have some kind of relationship, with who they believe to be Jesus.
They offer prayers to him, seek guidance from him, and consider him God.
The problem is, the Jesus they know and follow, is a counterfeit Savior.
Somewhere along the line, we’ve all been sold on a Jesus who’s perfectly fine with followers whose lives look pretty much like everyone else’s.
We’ve been conditioned to think that we can have a part-time, lukewarm, apathetic response to God, and that He’s totally cool with it.
In fact, we’ve managed to craft a cozy, comfy, fuzzy false god made in our own image: The “Meh”ssiah.
The “Meh”ssiah is the sanitized Savior of Suburbia; a chilled-out, low standard, dispassionate Christ, one we’re all more than happy to worship, because we know that we can do that, and really not alter our lives in any meaningful way.
Most church people have grown comfortable with a Jesus whose existence merits no great choice, other than which service time they’ll attend or the amount they’ll toss in the collection plate. Beyond some superficial, benign alterations, the rest he’ll leave to you and me.
The “Meh”ssiah wants more than anything, for his followers to feel good. And we like feeling good.
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. – Jesus, Mark 8:34-35
Yet the Jesus of the Bible is different.
The Jesus found in the gospels demands a decision. He’s a brutally honest ultimatum-giver; a God-sent, hard, crisp line in the spiritual sand, requiring one of two choices: Adoration or Rejection.
Frankly, well we’re just not willing to own that kind of religious extremism.
To commit to either pole the way this Jesus requires, would mean willingly choosing boldly selfless, path-altering, priority-shifting worship… or honestly admitting that we don’t want to.
So most of us who claim Christ choose to make our beds in The Middle; comfortably sandwiched between adoration and rejection; believing a little, doing a little, and ignoring a lot. We don’t have the courage to completely walk away from Jesus, but we also don’t have guts to lay it all out and do what he’s asking either, so instead of letting him renovate us, we remake him.
The Middle: That’s the easy, low-risk, low-bar spot where 90 percent of our churches live, and where “Meh”ssiah reigns. There in The Middle, we can live as nearly undercover Atheists, clothed as Christians.
We can feel properly religious, without the cumbersome life change, the deeper, urgent calling that overrides our preferences and vetoes our agendas.
We can have a “relationship with Jesus” that isn’t costly, or difficult, or invasive; just the kind that the real Jesus makes it clear, is not really an option.
In the sixth chapter of The Gospel of John, there’s a scene where Jesus is delivering some really hard words, and the writer tells us that lots of people who had been following him, begin to walk away.
They just, leave.
We look at them as lost, as traitors, as villains, but at least they were honest enough to admit that the real Jesus was asking too much, and so they bailed.
Sometimes I wish we who call ourselves Christians, would all be courageous enough to get out of The Middle, even if it meant leaving The Church.
Sometimes I want The Church to shrink to almost nothing, if it means that those few who stay are the real deal, though I’ll admit, I’m scared that I might not be among the remnant. (Pastors can get really comfy in The Middle too).
I believe that God honors the honest extremists.
I know that I do.
I think it’s far more honorable to be a passionate Atheist, than an apathetic Believer.
The world outside of the faith won’t be changed by anyone in The Middle anyway.
No community, or marriage, or life will be transformed by anyone following the “Meh”ssiah.
Church, for the sake of our stories, and for the stories of those we’re meant to reach, it’s time to choose where we stand in response to the real Jesus:
Rejection or Adoration?
