Whilst browsing the web, I have just come across the song ‘The Rebel Jesus’ (which a friend recommended to me a while ago) and then your explanation of why you consider it ‘the worst Christmas song ever’, and I have been provoked into thought, and reading and re-reading both the lyrics and your words. So thank you! For good or bad I am dispatching a copy of my response in your direction. I hope I have not misunderstood you—living on the opposite side of the Atlantic there is always a danger of this—and I assume that your church sees itself in the mainstream of orthodox Christian belief. Forgive me if I have gotten this wrong.
To briefly recap what I hear you saying, you cite Jesus as ‘the Ultimate Conformist.’ In my understanding, this is an incredibly misleading statement because Jesus, being as I guess we both believe God, conformed only to himself, which set and sets him at odds with all world systems. And being at odds with the systems of the world around is close to my definition of being a rebel.
In what we call the Magnificat, his mother Mary was inspired to sing of things like the proud being scattered in the imagination of their hearts, the mighty put down, and the humble and meek being exalted. Sounds like rebellion as well. Of course Jesus did not follow the popular take on rebellion (which would have involved a lot of dead Romans for a start), his rebellion was against the false status quo, which if you want to be theological is a result of the Fall.
I would suggest that to label Jesus ‘the Ultimate Conformist’ without detailing exactly what you mean (which I think will be quite different to what most people who read the line expect) is a shockingly dangerous thing to do, but it pales before your naked assertion: Scripture makes it very clear that Jesus is exclusively interested in ending spiritual poverty.
As I read (and re-read) that, as I could not quite believe it, that distances you from any reasonable interpretation of Scripture. It means that you have found a way of completely ignoring so much of Jesus’ actual teaching, which is to do with how we actually treat the poor and needy, and love our neighbours as ourselves. Hey, it would be a whole lot easier if we did not have to…and you have found a way to get round all that, by saying spiritual is all.
To put it crudely, proving to yourself that you can have the rights to heaven whilst leaving the earth with its poor, and the wreckage of creation, to go to hell? It strikes me that you may never have read the parable Jesus told likening people to sheep and goats being separated at the Judgement, the upshot of which was that entry to Heaven depended on how you had physically treated the poor.
He specifically mentions folk who had called him Lord, who by implication had got their theological understanding of who he was right, but who had ignored their material obligations towards the needy. The door closed on them. ‘Depart I never knew you…’
Scary stuff.
Maybe I have misunderstood you. I do hope so.
Thank you for prompting useful thoughts, and getting me to listen to the song, which I happen to think is one of the better Christmas offerings. On the side of the rebel Jesus? To be honest I cannot think of a better place to be.
Posted in: "The Rebel Jesus" - Worst Christmas Song Ever?
A very belated response!
Dear Dan
Whilst browsing the web, I have just come across the song ‘The Rebel Jesus’ (which a friend recommended to me a while ago) and then your explanation of why you consider it ‘the worst Christmas song ever’, and I have been provoked into thought, and reading and re-reading both the lyrics and your words. So thank you! For good or bad I am dispatching a copy of my response in your direction. I hope I have not misunderstood you—living on the opposite side of the Atlantic there is always a danger of this—and I assume that your church sees itself in the mainstream of orthodox Christian belief. Forgive me if I have gotten this wrong.
To briefly recap what I hear you saying, you cite Jesus as ‘the Ultimate Conformist.’ In my understanding, this is an incredibly misleading statement because Jesus, being as I guess we both believe God, conformed only to himself, which set and sets him at odds with all world systems. And being at odds with the systems of the world around is close to my definition of being a rebel.
In what we call the Magnificat, his mother Mary was inspired to sing of things like the proud being scattered in the imagination of their hearts, the mighty put down, and the humble and meek being exalted. Sounds like rebellion as well. Of course Jesus did not follow the popular take on rebellion (which would have involved a lot of dead Romans for a start), his rebellion was against the false status quo, which if you want to be theological is a result of the Fall.
I would suggest that to label Jesus ‘the Ultimate Conformist’ without detailing exactly what you mean (which I think will be quite different to what most people who read the line expect) is a shockingly dangerous thing to do, but it pales before your naked assertion: Scripture makes it very clear that Jesus is exclusively interested in ending spiritual poverty.
As I read (and re-read) that, as I could not quite believe it, that distances you from any reasonable interpretation of Scripture. It means that you have found a way of completely ignoring so much of Jesus’ actual teaching, which is to do with how we actually treat the poor and needy, and love our neighbours as ourselves. Hey, it would be a whole lot easier if we did not have to…and you have found a way to get round all that, by saying spiritual is all.
To put it crudely, proving to yourself that you can have the rights to heaven whilst leaving the earth with its poor, and the wreckage of creation, to go to hell? It strikes me that you may never have read the parable Jesus told likening people to sheep and goats being separated at the Judgement, the upshot of which was that entry to Heaven depended on how you had physically treated the poor.
He specifically mentions folk who had called him Lord, who by implication had got their theological understanding of who he was right, but who had ignored their material obligations towards the needy. The door closed on them. ‘Depart I never knew you…’
Scary stuff.
Maybe I have misunderstood you. I do hope so.
Thank you for prompting useful thoughts, and getting me to listen to the song, which I happen to think is one of the better Christmas offerings. On the side of the rebel Jesus? To be honest I cannot think of a better place to be.
Peter Ryder