The Jesus Question - 9/23/10 – by Toby Jones

One of the toughest questions our emerging Living Vision community has had to wrestle with is the Jesus question – who is he? How do we articulate and convey who we believe Jesus to be? And can our faithful expression of and following of Jesus make room for people of other faiths or of no faith at all? Or is following Jesus tantamount to saying all other faiths are somehow wrong, false, or misguided? Is the only way we can ultimately relate to non-Christians be with the intent to convert them?

It is not surprising to me that it is this Christological question that already threatens to split our tiny fledgling community. America and the larger world is chock full of Christians whose battle cry is “Jesus is the ONLY way…No one comes to the Father but through Him…Jesus didn’t say he was ‘a way;’ he said he was ‘THE way!’” I have spent the majority of my life with this very kind of Christ follower. I have been a part of many church and para-church communities who have espoused this highly exclusivist theology. As a seminary graduate, I am also intimately familiar with the many New Testament passages used to substantiate this notion of Christianity as the superior and only “true” religion.

And it is, at least in part, because of my long history with exclusivist Christianity that I want our Living Vision community to offer the world something different. I know what happens to relationships, to conversations, and to all forms of service when they are undertaken by people who assume their way is the only way. As a dedicated follower of Jesus, I have been repeatedly embarrassed and even ashamed when members of my faith communities have - however unintentionally - presumed a spiritual superiority over others. I have felt a palpable dissonance between what my fellow Christians have said/done and the Jesus I have come to know and love through the scriptures. I simply cannot imagine Jesus - the one who came not to be served but to serve - “lording it over” others the way so many of his followers do. I envision Jesus being extremely respectful of and open to other religious expressions, much the way Mahatma Gandhi was when a reporter asked him if he was trying to convert the whole world to Hinduism. Gandhi responded, “No! I want to help Hindus become better Hindus, Muslims to be better Muslims, Christians to be better Christians, and Jews to be better Jews.” I want my spiritual community to be like that. Gandhi was deeply informed about and respectful of the way of Jesus. I see no reason that Jesus and his followers should be any different toward our human brothers and sisters of other faiths.

Christians have an unfortunate history of wielding scripture – particularly out of context scripture – as a bullying club. How many times have Christians quoted John 10:7-9 to “prove” Christianity’s exclusive truth claim, a passage in which Jesus says, “I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers…I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved…” And yet why aren’t we Christians equally familiar with and respectful of Jesus’ own words a mere seven verses later, when he said: “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them along also”? Or why aren’t exclusivist Christians very familiar with Jesus’ parable of the weeds in Matthew 13? In this story a farmer sows good wheat seed in his field but is soon told by his servants that some weeds have grown up alongside the wheat. His servants impatiently and judgmentally seek permission to go yank up the unwanted weeds. But the master says, “No, for if you gather the weeds you might root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.” Or when was the last time you heard a sermon on Mark 9:38-41, which recounts the unnerved disciples tattling to Jesus about some other people who were casting out demons in Jesus’ name but were not part of The Way? The disciples expected Jesus to be threatened, to claim some sort of monopoly on healing. But Jesus says, “Do not forbid them…For he that is not against us is for us.”

As a former pastor, I am painfully aware that both sides of any theological argument can use scripture to substantiate their view. But ultimately such an exercise is fruitless and far more damaging than edifying to all involved. I have only resorted to offering the above verses to illustrate how selective and one-sided we Christians have been and continue to be in our use of holy writ. When all is said and done, the place on which I hang my hat is the person and work of Jesus. What did he DO? How did he treat people? Were the things he did and the instructions he gave in the service of some religion or belief system? Or was he in touch and concerned with a deeper Truth or Truths, ones that superseded the tight boxes of any particular religion, including the one that was ultimately named after him? How many of us have had the experience of seeing and knowing a non-Christian who is more Christlike than we are? (see my blog entry on Chip Duncan, “An Unwitting Disciple”)

In addition to my desire to follow Jesus, I am committed to Living Vision’s experiment in spiritual community because of my deep conviction that everyone – EVERYONE – is a child of God, created in God’s own image. It isn’t only espoused followers of Jesus who are created in the image of God. There is no way that the God made known in Jesus could or would condemn people simply for being born into a non-Christian culture or family. And let’s be honest: isn’t 99.9% of the reason any of us are Christians because of where and to whom we were born? I want to be a part of a community of Christ followers who truly believes and lives as though everyone on the planet is a child of God. Period.

Who knows what Jesus had in mind when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me”? I believe that what Jesus was saying was that our task in this life is to live like him – to walk according to his “way” - and to leave all gate-keeping questions to him. He wanted us to understand that there are limits to what we humans are to concern ourselves with. And if making conjectures about where other people are going to spend eternity isn’t one such forbidden place for us, I can’t imagine what is!

There is nothing experimental about forming a spiritual community around certain commonly held beliefs – such as Jesus being the son of God, the Savior, the Messiah, the only way to God. I have seen and the world has seen where such communities end up. What I long to see is a spiritual community that is willing to risk diversity of belief in order to live in the way of Jesus. Anyone interested in being a part of such an experiment is urged to join us each and every Thursday night from 6-8:00pm for our open community dinner and discussions. For more information just email me at tobyjones48@gmail.com