Renegade Gospel: Discovering the Rebel Jesus John 14:6

This morning’s scripture verse is one that has been debated over by Christians for centuries. It is one that is catchy and often finds its way on to church signs and bulletin boards on the side of the highway. But I have to wonder if we ever took time to examine what we mean when we say that Jesus is the truth. 

I have a ministry coach who I talk to monthly. One of her favorite things to say is that just because something is true, that does not make it the Truth with a capital ’T’. This is the type of truth that Jesus is - capital ’T’ truth. But sadly, for too many churches this type of truth isn’t reflected in their worship and service. Instead, as the church we have often confused the Truth of Christ with our desires and personal preferences.

Over the next several weeks we are going to be discussing something uncomfortable - Jesus’ truth. Some of you are going to end up getting mad at me, because I’m going to invite you to set aside the lens of what you believe is true in order to re-discover Jesus. We are going to explore some of the scripture verses that reflect Jesus’ truth, the words that some of you may find printed in the color red in your Bibles. And we are going to come back to this mornings scripture verse about what Jesus means when he says that he is the way, the truth, and the life. I’m going to apologize in advance if this sermon series make you comfortable, because I know that it is trying. I too was faced with some unpleasant truths as I read the book this sermon series and our parish Lenten Bible study will be based off of, Pastor Mike Slaughter’s The Renegade Gospel. It’s uncomfortable because too many of us have stopped looking for Jesus and instead have made Jesus into who we wanted him to be - culturally, politically, and theologically - and we no longer now which version of Jesus is the Truth, the Way, and the Life. The Truth is Jesus isn’t republican or democrat. Jesus isn’t just the savior of America. Jesus is the Good News - the gospel Truth embodied, God in the flesh. 

Pastor Slaughter states, “We often forget that Jesus was a member of the marginalized and persecuted minority.” We forget that Jesus was a refugee because of genocide. We forget that he wasn’t white. And we forget that he wasn’t like by the religious leaders of the day. And neither were his followers - in fact all of his disciples except for two died a martyrs death. The only ones who didn’t were Judas who took his own life and John who died on an island in exile. What would lead so many of his disciples to die a martyrs death? They believe the Truth of Christ. They believed that he was Lord and that he had all authority over their lives. Jesus’s radical stance and radical demands on his disciples changed their lives to the point where they were willing to die for what they believed, which ultimately changed the world. 

The reality is, however, that this is rarely the Jesus that we were taught about in Sunday School, or is preached on, or even studied in Bible Studies. But we’ve done ourselves, as followers of Christ, a dis-service by only talking about the Jesus that we knew in Sunday School.  For a few years I taught Sunday School to kindergartners and for many years I dramatized Biblical Stories at Vacation Bible School. For those stories, we often had to edit them - to take out the parts that would cause parents to be uncomfortable if their child went home and retold the story. We took out details that were not child friendly or appropriate. But for too many of us, our knowledge of Biblical stories stopped in Sunday School, instead of growing to know the Jesus of the Bible, the red-letter Jesus, as an adult.

I want you to think of someone you knew who was passionate and enthusastic about their faith life? Do you have that person in mind? My guess is that person, even though I never met them, knew the Jesus found in scriptures. The radical Jesus that his disciples, both in the past and today, were willing to put their life on the line for. There aren’t enough Christians like this around today. Far too many of us never encountered the Jesus of scriptures in such a way that we were transformed and our lives were re-arranged. Instead, we made Jesus into someone who is docile and only offers comfort instead of words of challenge. The Jesus in the Bible was so radical that he started a movement that spread like wildfire - and it breaks my heart that some of us can go our whole lives without knowing this contagious Jesus. Instead we’ve made him into a God that makes us feel safe, instead of one who changed the world. 

For when we encounter this radical Lord, we have a choice to make - if we are going to follow him. If we are passionate about what he is passionate about. If he will truly be our first love. But, as the Church, we’ve set aside hard questions like this, set aside even asking people if they have encountered this Jesus, and have taken the type of discipleship shown by his first followers with other things - what it means to be a good citizen, or a good church member, or a  nice person. Brothers and sisters, these were not the things of Jesus’ heart and mind when he came to save the world.

And the more distance we have put between ourselves and the Jesus of scriptures, the more we have made church into a place to go, a building, instead of remembering that we are the church as the people of God. We are the tool God wants to use to transform the current state of our world. But all too often we get caught up in different things, and have made Jesus someone to believe in, instead of someone to love and follow and be wholly dedicated to. 

Now don’t mishear me, this is not true of all people and all places. According to Pastor Slaughter, “The places in the world today where Christianity is growing the fastest are those countries where Christianity is still illegal and Christians are being persecuted by their government.” I have friends who have served as missionaries in such countries and their accounts mirror those of Pastor Slaughter. In places where people need to really decide in their faith in Christ is worth dying for, his Word spreads like that wildfire of the first centuries. Because they are actually engaging the Word, making their own decision, and dedicating their entire lives to it, no matter what the cost. 

This is also one of the reasons that I love working with college students so much. At a time when they are away from their homes, parents, and faith communities, they have a choice to make - whether Jesus is worth giving their all too. And many of them begin reading the scriptures for themselves and discover as Mike Slaughter writes that, “The real Jesus was pro-love and pro-peace, yet unafraid to challenge the hypocritical religious status quo regardless of consequences.” That the Jesus they grew up hearing about isn’t the same one on the pages of their Bibles. And they radically commit their lives to the Truth of Christ. They start to realize that it isn’t just about knowing Christ or believing him, for even the demons knew Christ by name and believed in his power, but about the saving and radical way of the one who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

Believing alone will not save us. And Christ did not come to this earth simply to be believed in or so we can get to heaven. Christ came so that we can have the promised life now and have it abundantly. And that isn’t a promise or a call that is dependent upon any particular life stage or age. Its the call of the Real Rebel Jesus - the Jesus who changed lives and changed the world. Is this the Jesus you know? Is this the Jesus you want to follow? Amen.