But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.-Jesus' words in Luke 6:27-28
My inbox is always packed with emails from Christians hoping I'll scold people who've offended our faith; or who as public Christians have failed to live up to the words of Christ.
As talk radio's taught us, there's money to be made off of taking on the enemies of Christianity's teachings. Raise the passions of the true believers and their dollars will follow. It's a strategy both sides of any moral debate use, and it always works.
Trouble is it doesn't honor God.
Take Matt Damon or Aaron Sorkin, for example. Both are masters of their particular craft, taking talents God gave them and honing those talents into finely-tuned bodies of work. You don't have to like their personal beliefs to admire their work, but it is admittedly difficult to admire their work when they use those finely-tuned tools to skewer the beliefs we treasure as Christians.
So how should we react when they do so? In fact, how does Scripture suggest we react when our bosses or coworkers do the same thing? I know, I know, the Bible says to "turn the other cheek" and to "pray for those" who would do us or our faith harm.
How? How do we turn the other cheek when SNL trashes us, or Kathy Griffin trash-talks Jesus?
Wouldn't it be delicious to out-act them; out-write them; out-skit them? To turn their words around and take Matt Damon up on his challenge to debate Creation? You just know he'd crumble in the face of the unanswered questions he thinks of as answered, but is that pleasing to God?
Here's the thing: People who know Jesus know that anyone who meets Him is changed forever. If He had picked this age to make His first appearance, Jesus would have treated Damon or
Most people aren't angry with Christ, they're angry with Christians. They've been hurt by our words or actions, or disappointed by our inability to live like Jesus taught, or are just plain jealous that we've found peace when they haven't. For whatever reason, they lash out at Christianity because they're mad at Christians.
In other words, they need to meet the real thing. Or at least to catch a glimpse of who He is by what they see in us.
They won't find that in angry defenses or righteous diatribes. They won't see Christ in our finger-pointing and scolding; they'll just feel vindicated in judging Jesus by us and not wanting any part of it.
When Matt Damon meets Jesus, I want it to be when Jesus can treat him like He treated Zaccheus. I don't want the only time he meets Him to be that day when every knee is bowed and Jesus is now Judge instead of Savior. I want, as much as is humanly possible, to surrender my flawed character and its' knee-jerk human responses so the Matt Damons and Aaron Sorkins and Kathy Griffins of the world come face to face with the gentle Jesus, before they have to face the terror of Jesus as judge.
There's a scene in Ghost, the old Patrick Swayze-Demi Moore movie where the villain of the show dies, and a black gremlin-like spirit drags his soul away while he screams in terror. That scene, created in
I can't think of anyone who can make me mad enough to wish that moment on them, and so I ask God every day to help me keep from pulling the trigger every time somebody offends my faith.
I'm a Christian, and therefore saved, not because I'm better or smarter or more deserving than Damon or
Trust me, Jesus can take care of Himself; He doesn't need us locked and loaded.
--Randy Kilgore
www.madetomatter.org
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