But We Preach Christ Crucified

The Early Church found itself in a difficult position. As I see it, there were two groups of people you could be associated with: Law-abiding Jews or free-living Pagans/Gentiles. Romans, who were Gentiles, ruled the day. So free-living (sexual promiscuity, etc.) ruled the day as well. They didn’t have much tolerance for Law-abiding Jews who had all these customs and regulations for how one should live your life. In fact, they scoffed the Jewish way of life. The Jews didn’t so much appreciate the Roman Gentiles either . They desired to be free of their control. They disdained the heathen way of living for pleasure. Instead, a Jew lived to follow God’s Law.

So neither side had much respect for the other. Yet, they both found a way to live somewhat peacefully with each other. The Romans permitted the Jews to practice their religion, and the Jews did what they could to keep peace with the Romans in order to remain free to fulfill their religious customs and regulations. The Romans understood this–they knew that the Jewish people didn’t really recognize them as a valid government over them–the Jews just tolerated Roman rule. And the Romans just tolerated the Jewish people as well.

So it was imperative to find yourself either associated with the Jews, or to associate yourself with Caesar. Any other position, and you were on your own. Everyone wanted to know: where was your allegiance? If you were a Jew, your true allegiance was to their God and their religion, not Caesar. But you still needed to give Caesar enough allegiance as to not be a disruption to him or his government. Everyone else (heathens/pagans/Gentiles) lived a rather free life, with their allegiance to Rome.

And then a new movement sprung up–those who followed “The Way.” Although they originally started within the Jewish community, they didn’t have the support of the Jewish community–largely because their leader claimed to be superior to the current-day leaders of the Jewish faith. In addition, their Leader taught his followers to live their lives differently from the Jews. And most importantly, this Leader told his followers that they were supposed to follow Him, not the customs and regulations that the Jewish leaders taught. The Jews successfully convinced the Romans that this Leader was not only a threat to the Jewish way of life, but He also was a threat to Caesar. Together, they allied themselves to have Him put to death. To top this off, followers of “The Way” claimed that their leader came back to life, because He was the Son of God, and that their only allegiance was to Him. So not only did they lack support from the Jewish community, they also were disdained by the Gentiles, because of their holy way of life and their refusal to give allegiance to Caesar.

As a result, this small movement didn’t have a home within either the Jewish community or the Gentile community. They were on their own. While the Jews didn’t respect the Gentiles, and the Gentiles didn’t respect the Jews, neither Jews nor Gentiles had any room for followers of “The Way.”

In order to try to ease tensions, some followers of “The Way” tried to buddy-up with Jews by becoming more like them. In order to be accepted by and live in peace with the Jews, they tried to convince fellow followers of “The Way” to be circumcised, and to follow Jewish regulations and customs. They argued that Jesus himself was a Jew, circumcised according to the Law, and that He must have practiced the Jewish Law his entire life. To follow Jesus now meant to follow the Law. This attempt to ease tension is understandable–no one wants to be without a home. Followers of “The Way” were ostracized by everyone around them. They found no consolation anywhere. Other followers of “The Way” tried a different approach–they tried to buddy-up with the pagans/Gentiles. They tried to follow “The Way,” but also permit the free-lifestyle associated with pagans, so that they would be accepted by the pagans. They argued that Jesus freed them from Jewish Law, and therefore they were free to live as pagans, but still follow Jesus.

The Apostle Paul rejected both of these attempts to associate with either community. He insisted that a true follower of “The Way” was bound to be persecuted by both sides, because true followers of “The Way” serve one person, and Him only. And this meant no allegiance to either the Jewish community or the pagans. This meant–be persecuted from all sides.

This is what Jesus warned would happen. To follow Him meant to be out of step with both options out there: the Jewish faith and the pagan life.

I would like to submit a thesis today for us to consider. What if following “The Way” today is just as precarious as then? As a Christian in America, the two predominant communities are the secular world and the church world. Is it possible that the church world today is slowly becoming something similar to the Jewish faith during the Early Church days? While the Law did indeed come from God, the Jewish faith distorted it so badly over the years that Jesus had to teach His followers to follow Him instead of the way of the current Jews. Would Jesus have to do the same thing today if He were here? Like the Jewish faith, the Church was also instituted by God. But like the Jews, is the church seeking its own interests rather than the interests of God? Does it not often equate its own interests as those of the interests of God? Indeed, it is true that these two communities (the church world and secular world) really are opposed to each other, just as Jews and Romans were opposed to each other–they’ve just found a way to tolerate each other. But at what cost?

As it was for the Jews back then, it is easy for most Christians today to see how we shouldn’t try to buddy-up with the secular/pagan world. What is harder to accept is the possibility that the church world is becoming just as screwed up as the Jewish faith was in Jesus’ time. I’m not saying that it is, but I wonder how screwed up it has to get before we start saying–I need to follow Jesus, regardless of what the secular world says/does or even what the church world says/does.

This would put a follower of “The Way” in a precarious situation–not finding your home in the secular world or even in the church world at times. It was in this type of situation that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, when he talked about how true Christianity doesn’t jive with either the Gentiles or the Jews. Is it possible that true Christianity today doesn’t jive with the secular world or the church world?

That is a scary notion. Paul said it this way: the Gospel is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. I fear that the Gospel, while it has always been foolishness to the secular world, may also soon be a stumbling block for the today’s church world.

In today’s church world, we strive after relevance, status, success, approval, numbers, etc. I can hear Paul saying, “That’s what the church world is looking for, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to such aspirations.

I am not advocating that being a Christian today means that you don’t go to church, or that we need to practice our faith outside of the church community. What I am proposing is this: while true Christians today may recognize that our calling requires us to be out of step with the secular world, are we willing to consider that it may also mean being out of step with the church world too? As hard as it is to be out of step with the world, are we ok with being out of step with the church world when we insist on and practice the Gospel?

With so many churches who are spending gazillions of dollars and investing so many hours a week to build great facilities, draw increasingly larger crowds, raise bigger budgets, have a rockin’ band, put on an edgy look, etc…what’s your average Christian who is simply trying to follow Jesus faithfully supposed to do? For example, what do we make of this article in the news from two days ago: First Baptist Church in Dallas? Is this really necessary? Are we spiritualizing our desires for success, influence, status? Or perhaps Jesus does want all that money to be spent on a building? It’s hard for me to believe that, but I also realize we shouldn’t be quick to judge. It’s just really hard for me in this situation. 😕

I leave you with my modern-day version of 1 Corinthians 1:22-23

The church seeks after relevance, status, wealth, approval, success, excellence, numbers, greatness, and the world looks for progress, tolerance, comfort, money, power–but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the church growth movement  and foolishness to the secular world’s plurality. But to those whom God has called, both church people and secular people, Christ alone the power of God and wisdom of God.

P.S. I am speaking in generalities here, not in specifics. The purpose here is not for anyone to become defensive. The point here is to ask us Christians if we are willing to be out of step with the church world if that need were to arise? I’m not saying that the need is there for you to do so, but clearly the need has been there at different points in history. That’s why renewals, reformations, and revivals have taken place–not to destroy the church or bash it, but to love one another and encourage one another to live for Jesus no matter what!