Would Christians Crucify A 21st Century Jesus?

I found myself musing over a question recently and the question was this;

If Jesus lived among us today, who would follow him and who would crucify him?

You know, if we didn’t actually “know” he was Jesus.  Not an obvious “god-man” but a carpenter.  A carpenter from a humble background who just happened to have a particular knack for understanding the divine and what goes on in the human heart.  Someone who travelled around telling folk things like:

*  those that struggled with being spiritual, well, the Kingdom of Heaven was for them too

*  those who were tired of a world filled with injustice, that God invited you to be a citizen of a new, just government

* those who desired to bring peace to relationships that God affirmed you were indeed doing the family business

* those who longed for a clean window of their soul would see God’s spirit working around them all the time

People both loved and hated that message 2000 years ago.  But what about today, what would we do with it now?

Who would follow Jesus?

I recently was in a pub discussing this question with a good friend of mine who doesn’t believe in God.  I suggested because of his desire to see things change for the better in our world that he would be one of the folk actually following Jesus if Jesus happened to be walking around Hong Kong today.

He replied something like, “Absolutely, I would totally get behind the things Jesus talked about.  I wouldn’t believe he was the son of God, but I’d be hanging out where he was talking.”

And my friend wouldn’t be any different than the multitude of other followers of Jesus that the Bible says were not quite sure what to make of this guy who was sharing this life changing message:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven… Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Matthew 16:13-20

When Peter replies that others think that he’s a great teacher and prophet in the tradition of the Bible greats of old Jesus seemingly takes no offense to that.   In fact, when Peter says that he believes Jesus is the son of God Jesus seems pleasantly surprised to hear it but goes on to tell them not to share that revelation with anyone.

Why?

Because then THAT point becomes the issue Christians focus on rather than the message.  Whether someone is hearing and putting the “Way” of Jesus into practice would become secondary to a new litmus test of whether you believe he is the son of God or not.

Who Would Crucify Jesus?

Well, if my friend who doesn’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God would be one of my many “non-Christian” friends following a 21^st century Christ, who would take the role of the religious leaders calling for his crucifixion?

Sadly, if we look at the precedent set out in the Gospels the list of pastors, evangelists, youth ministers, worship leaders, and intercessors would be the ones leading the charge.  People who “know” the proper way to “believe” in God would be aghast at who this Christian teacher counted as his followers and, worse still, who he consistently seemed to affirm.

True, in most of our 21^st century culture the crucifixion of the messiah would be more metaphorical than physical.  We may hang a perceived heretic out to dry but hanging him on a tree would be a whole lot tougher.

Instead Jesus’ reputation would be crucified.  From the pulpit pastors would denounce him as a heretic, youth ministers would warn their teen groups to avoid his teaching, and protests would be organized wherever Jesus spoke.

And yet despite this, there would still be some leaders like Nicodemus who sneak out of their church elders meeting to find Jesus and ask, “How do I become born again?”

Yep, if Jesus came today instead of 2000 years ago little would change.  The “Christians” would be leading a charge against him and the “sinners” would be following him all around asking him to share about this new way of seeing the world.

People want to know when Jesus is coming back and I have a thought on that.  It will probably happen when Christ is convinced that those who call him “Lord” wouldn’t crucify him again.

Peace,

Steve