Responding to "15 Things Jesus Didn’t Say"

An article has been floating around facebook the last couple days called “15 Things Jesus Didn’t Say” and I wanted to make some comments on it. I have two general comments and then I wanted to address each of those 15 things specifically.

My first general point I want to discuss is the format of the article. It’s catchy, hip, and leaving itself wide open to misinterpretation and confusion. I’m sure it was easy to write and it’s the kind of thing that gets you a lot of casual glances and “likes” but I found it to be lazy, at times confusing, and a bit insulting to scripture. If you want to talk about Jesus, talk about Jesus and what did and said. Don’t make up a bunch of things he didn’t say, and then imply that he would agree with your diametrically opposed position because he didn’t say those stereotyped, straw man arguments when very likely the truth isn’t at either extreme end of the spectrum. In general it’s just so unclear that I had to make up my own conclusions about what he was trying to say.

My second general point is on the whole idea of “Red Letters” (Oh how I miss thee DC Talk). I believe the words of Jesus are incredibly important, some of the most important in human history, but I do not believe they should be exalted above the rest of scripture. The basis of the article seems to be that since Jesus didn’t say something it isn’t true or important, but what about the rest of scripture? Maybe the author didn’t mean to imply that Christ’s words are more important than the rest of scripture but I think it happened anyway. The Bible tells us that ALL Scripture is God-breathed, not just Jesus’ words. So while I might love reading his words and find fulfillment from them, they are no more authoritative for our lives today then the commands found elsewhere in scripture (obviously excluding the ceremonial law of the OT which is fulfilled in Christ, though I would point that that does not make the ceremonial law valueless, only no longer binding, we can still learn from it and be reminded of Christ’s life and death by it).

So now let’s look at these things Jesus didn’t say, I'll put his statements in red and my responses in black…

“For God was so disgusted with the world and you that he gave his one and only Son.”

God loves the world. I don’t know a church that doesn’t believe this deeply. God IS however disgusted by sin, as he is holy and by definition cannot be party to or part of it. Evil is repellent to God, and as fallen beings we therefore need to be made clean. Praise God for the atoning work of his son in this. If we are in no way shape or form abhorrent to God, then why do we need the Jesus whose words the author is implying are so important?

“I have come to bring you a new religion.”

I have yet to figure out the hatred a lot of people have for the term religion. Maybe in their minds it has come to mean hypocrisy, empty platitudes, or a way of making yourself feel better. But that’s not reality, and if we’re going to have the “religion” conversation we really should use the dictionary definition, in which a religion is an organized way of relating to God. In which case…. Ummm, yeah he actually did. He took us out of the law-covenant of the OT into his death/resurrection based covenant of the NT, which by definition seems to me to be a new way of relating to God.

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have correct theology.”

I get this one. Some folks put way too much emphasis on being right and nowhere near enough on being loving, kind, gentle, humble, and good. So I get it, but Jesus also said that we should know the truth and that it would set us free. Whether I believe that Jesus is the only way to God or just a prophet pointing to Allah matters. So maybe it doesn’t matter as much as some people like to think it does, and maybe some folks do need to focus more on the practical everyday ministry side of their faith rather than the intellectual side. But what you do practically, is determined by what you believe, so I gotta say that theology definitely DOES matter, even if not as much as some might think.

“If anyone would come after me, let him disparage all other religions and their followers.”

Some Christians do make it their business to look down on members of other religions, which is wrong, but I don’t think for the reason the author is implying. We shouldn’t look down on members of other religions because the grace we have received is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, and too many of us decide we’re allowed to boast of it. That said, if the author really does care about Jesus’ words, I feel like he seems to be intentionally forgetting “I am the way and the truth and the life NO ONE comes to the Father except through me”. While we shouldn’t look down on members of another faith in any circumstance, if we believe Christ is who he said he is, then we believe we are following the one true God, and we need to be able to say that in order to witness to those of other faiths.

“If you love me, you will regularly attend a church of your choice… within reason.”

I have trouble responding to this one because I don’t understand at what he’s trying to poke fun. If he’s saying going to church isn’t a necessary part of the Christian life, then he’d wrong, and should read the New Testament some more, because a ton of it is about making the Church work. This is where my “red letters” comments comes in, because I feel like he’s using something Jesus didn’t say to invalidate the rest of the New Testament.

“Blessed are the tithers for they shall be called the children of God.”

I’m not a tithe guy, that said, it’s pretty obvious throughout Jesus teaching that large portions of our income should be used to support others believers in times of distress and provide for the poor and hungry. It seems this is an implication that giving of our money isn’t important, which is not remotely true (as Jesus talked about money more than any other single topic). I mean for goodness sakes, between sacrifices to God and gifts to the poor the average Jewish farmer was supposed to give somewhere in the vicinity of 50% of his income away, and we’re complaining about ten?

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in Heaven after the earth goes up in flames and destroyed.”

I do agree that we should focus on being Christians while we’re here, but Paul said he LONGED for heaven, and multiple books of the Bible spend time talking about the new heavens and new earth. Now we shouldn’t focus on that so much that we become ineffective on earth, but I actually think the American church has FORGOTTEN in many cases that we are looking forward to a future reality and thus we end up holding too tightly to this world, therefore making us ineffective.

“You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor,’ which means the people with whom you attend church and relate to in your Christian sub-culture.”

I’m okay with this. The evangelistic nature of our faith isn’t doing so good in America today, we totally need a wakeup call on this.

“In my Father’s house there are a limited number of rooms. But no worries, there is plenty of room in Hell.”

I don’t know if this is trying to advocate universality of salvation or saying that Christians condemn too much or trying to make some other point I don’t get. I agree Christians focus too much in general today on what we’re against instead of what we are FOR. That said, Jesus talked about hell more than Paul did, and Jesus said that he’s the only way to heaven. I don’t see how you can claim to value his words and then make this statement. In addition, the Bible says that the road to heaven is narrow and the path to damnation is wide, implying that the statement more people will go to hell than heaven is factually correct. Just sayin’.

“The kingdom of God has come!… Well, not exactly. I mean, not completely. Let’s face it, the really-real kingdom comes after we die. Hang in there. It won’t be long.”

Once again, Jesus and the other NT writers talk about heaven and about the new heaven/earth often. I don’t see how you can continue to claim a value for scripture without seeing the now/not yet tension throughout the New Testament. It’s pretty clear that yes, Christ has defeated the power of sin and death, and yes, his kingdom has begun, but it’s also clear that his kingdom isn’t complete yet. Unless you think natural disasters, wars, famine, hate, and disease are part of the end game here. In which case I don’t really know how to respond.

“And you will know the truth and the truth will make you superior to all the other simpletons who never learned Greek or Hebrew.”

I’m fine with this one too. I’ve been guilty of feeling superior to other Christians because of my academic knowledge on Christianity. Thankfully God has really blessed me with elders at my church who with no formal theological training are very close to God, incredibly wise, and incredibly caring. They’ve really helped to keep me humble and remind me that my academic pursuits mean diddly squat to my holiness and commitment to God.

“You are the light of the world… well… in a sinful-filthy-scum kind of way.”

Yet again, this seems to evidence a complete disdain for the New Testament now/not yet and the doctrine of the sinfulness of man. I don’t even know what to say, if you think you’re a perfect Christian, more power to you. I’m gonna stick with the “I’m messed up, I’m broken, I still make mistakes, but I’m also beautifully and wonderfully made and am being remade into the image of my savior” camp.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you a checklist of things to do and not do in order to remain in God’s favor.”

Agree that our salvation has NOTHING to do with our works. But a lot of folks in the author’s (I’m assuming, like I said I can’t get a real read because of all the snark) camp of thought seem to have a “I’m good enough as is and so I don’t need to change” mentality. I really don’t see how this one and the one above fit together at all. Paul specifically says that we are NOT to just keep doing evil. We aren’t perfect that’s for sure, but does that mean we should just give up on being as Christ-like as we can?

“For God so loved the world… you know like theoretically… as in, God loves the big ‘W’-world. But when it come to you specifically, that are quite a few things that would need to change for God to actually and specifically love… or even like… YOU.”

I have never in my life encountered a church that DOESN’T preach God’s great love for mankind and for individuals. It’s one of our popular doctrines. I feel like if you’re opposing something, it should be something that actually exists.

“He appeared to his disciples over a period of 40 days and spoke about how to incorporate his life and teaching as a 501(c)3, and go into all the earth to build mega-churches in his name.”

I’m not the biggest fan of mega-churches, anyone who knows me can tell you that, but I don’t think this is really about mega-churches, it feels like it’s more about the (for lack of a better word) business-itizing of the church. On one hand, I agree. I totally get that a lot of folks treat the church more like a country club or a for-profit venture. But at the same time, why not organize churches in a way that allows them to use as much of the funds they receive doing ministry as possible, rather than giving it to our bloated government to squander (not trying to make a RvD comment, I think we all agree our government as a whole needs help).

In the end, it seems like this was a post designed to get some likes from a group who has severe bitterness towards the church as it currently looks in America, and that is was often neither true to Jesus’ own words or the words of the entirety of Scripture.