How Jesus Cuts It

Posted on October 25, 2013 by
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A few weeks ago I posted this Tweet: “If you’re truly conservative in a biblical sense, on some issues you’ll appear liberal in a political sense.”

Well, that upset some people. One guy Tweeted, “That is absolutely wrong & selfish! Easy solution 4 lazy Christians to think government should do their job!” He added, “NAME THOSE ISSUES PLEASE. Abortion? Gay marriage? Gays in military? Or r u depending on government 4 charity?”

Hmmm.

What makes Jesus so remarkable is how he cuts it. How he turns things upside down or sideways, revealing (literally) truth we otherwise miss; can’t see.

These are some of the added dimension of the cross.

This is so different from current conversations in the United States. Here, everything is Left or Right. If you’re Left you’re not Right, and vice versa.

Usually that means either Republican or Democrat, with of course the (even more) extreme wings at both ends. Right now (in contrast to some past periods), no safe ground in the middle.

But Jesus cuts it differently. His grid, the Bible’s grid, is not Left/Right, but the incisive discerning truth of the kingdom of God.

Politics cuts it Left/Right. Jesus cuts it Up/Down. The kingdom of justice, righteousness, and true wisdom versus the foolishness, injustice, and darkness of the present age. The Upside Down Kingdom turns today’s political grid ninety degrees, giving us a totally different take on things.

Thus (as I Tweeted), if you’re truly conservative in a biblical sense, on some issues you may appear liberal in a political sense.

My point here is a very simple one, yet so often lost amid political and economic discussions, and discussions on social and moral issues.

Jesus cuts it differently: According to the wisdom of God’s reign—the mystery of godliness, not the mystery of iniquity.

Lord help us to see things (all things) through the lens of Scripture; the lens of the kingdom of God.
That will puzzle the world.

I once heard former Ohio Congressman Tony Hall give his testimony. He was a Democrat, and quite conservative on moral issues. (The only Democrat in Ohio to get favorable ratings from a very conservative religious political group.)

Tony Hall was the conscience of the House of Representatives on global poverty and hunger issues. He once went on a hunger strike to protest Congressional cuts in food aid. (See http://www.nihp.org/2011/03/15/former-congressman-tony-hall-starts-hunger-strike-to-stop-attacks-on-food-spending/.)

Tony was converted to Jesus Christ and his kingdom while he was a Congressman. After he gave his testimony, I asked him where he got his passion for the poor, and for issues of hunger.

“From reading the Bible,” he said.

OK!

That’s how Jesus cuts it. That’s how the Bible cuts it.

Not Left/Right, but according to the measuring line of the kingdom of God.

Left/Right is the wisdom of the world. Biblical Christians are those who walk and think according to the wisdom of the reality and promise of God’s reign.

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