Confronting the Culture

by

Rick Presley

When Jesus came to this world he shocked both the religious and non-religious alike because of his radical ideas about holiness. The traditional practice in Jesus’ day by those widely regarded as the most holy was to observe a form of religion that emphasized a strict separation from unholy elements in the world, and attention to religious rituals that ensured a personal holiness. There was a clear and obvious distinction between how the religiously devout followers of God and the less devoted people lived.

At that time, distinctive dress easily identified the devote followers of God. They wore the adornments of their religious devotion as proud badges of their personal holiness. The fringes on their garments and the phylacteries they strapped to their arms and foreheads testified of their deep commitment to the things of God. Additionally, they observed dietary restrictions and avoided the company of unholy people to the point where unclean individuals were denied entrance into their homes. They also practiced outward ceremonial forms that testified of their purported inward holiness. They would not eat until they had performed their cleansing rituals. They observed ritual fasting and strict rules about tithing and sabbath-keeping.

This is a religious devotion familiar in many respects to that which we practice in our Evangelical churches. Some of us can be identified by the distinctive style of dress that we wear. When I was growing up, none of the women were permitted to wear slacks because it was considered men’s clothing. For some in our denomination, it was a source or ridicule from those who did not understand, but it was a badge many wore proudly because they knew that they were being persecuted for the cause of God. Our dietary restrictions were less strict than the devout of Jesus’ day for we had only one real prohibition and that was alcohol. We were so committed to abstaining from alcohol that we not only avoided it, but we avoided eating at restaurants that served it. We did have a number of outward forms that testified to our inward holiness. These included reading through the Bible in a year, the practice of daily devotions, attending additional church services on Sunday night, Wednesday night and many, many extra services throughout the year, and saying grace at each meal, even when eating in public. However, more striking than our devoted practices was our unwillingness to associate with the impure folk of the world. We avoided them in the aggregate by not going to dances, movies, and festivals where they would congregate and we avoided them individually by cultivating close personal friends only among other Christians. In effect, we walled ourselves off from interacting with the lost people in our community to the greatest extent possible.

But what of Jesus?

When he came to this world he was vilified by the religious people we so closely resemble. Jesus stood most of their religious traditions on end, flouting them with abandon and on some occasions even provoking controversy by upsetting firmly established religious convention. Did Jesus flaunt his personal holiness as the sinless Son of God? If he did, it was certainly not in any way familiar to the people who watched him most closely. The devout fasted but Jesus was asked why he and his followers never did so. The religiously scrupulous made sure they performed their ritual cleansing while Jesus and his disciples ignored this important tradition.

This is the equivalent in our day of Jesus eating a meal without saying grace beforehand. Worst of all, Jesus refused to follow their sabbath traditions, even going so far as to perform miracles on the sabbath. This would be the equivalent in our day of deliberately skipping a Sunday morning service at church. It just would not be tolerated.

However, Jesus did not stop there. He actually sought out opportunities to mix and mingle with the world. In the gospel of John we see him deliberately traveling to Samaria, homeland of heathen half-breeds. And if that is not bad enough, he begged water from a woman so ungodly and immoral that even the heathen Samaritans avoided her. Jesus allowed unclean sinners to dine with him and even touch him. Beyond that, he would go out of his way to touch those who were untouchable - the lepers, the lame, the dead. Jesus represented a fundamental antithesis to the popular teaching of separation that so dominated the religious climate and culture of his day. For them, holiness was about staying as far from the world as possible and not let it touch them and thus defile them. For Jesus, it was not what we touched that defiled us, but rather the touch that we had on others. His touch was a healing, purifying, holy touch that sanctified and made holy all  that He came in contact with. We see this most clearly in Jesus taking a Roman instrument of shame and torture and transforming it into a symbol of triumph and victory - the cross.

So what is our approach to confronting the culture? Do we see ourselves as a holy people called to live a life separated from the world, undefiled by its influences because we work so hard to keep ourselves spotless and pure from contamination? And do we see people who would advocate for the abrogation of such a lifestyle as libertines, licentious, or antinomian? That is exactly how the Pharisees saw Jesus. They saw him as a man who represented a threat to their carefully crafted religious system of devoted religious observance. They recognized in him the downfall of nearly all that they stood for and reacted accordingly - they shunned him, confronted him, persecuted him, and ultimately crucified him.

The question for us today as we look to engage the American culture in a call to renewal is what would we do with Jesus? What if Jesus were to appear today and refused to endorse our denomination as the one most closely adhering to the tenets of the Bible? What if he drank alcohol, had friends who were sinners of the worst kind. What if he skipped church services on Sunday mornings to minister to the sick, the dying, the poor, the hungry? What if Jesus didn’t do anything that we expect of religiously devout people in our day and age? Because that is exactly what happened at his first appearing.

But this question is more than speculative and academic. It is meant as a challenge to us. Jesus transformed the culture around him by first of all avoiding the entanglements of religious tradition. But more than that, he engaged the culture in a form of holiness that went beyond the mere forms and trappings of religious observance. While religiously devout people felt pretty good about themselves for avoiding murder, fornication, and divorce, Jesus called them in the Sermon on the Mount to a higher standard of holiness that avoided anger, lust and loveless marriage. Jesus was unsatisfied with avoiding the Samaritans or even condemning them and their wicked ways. He was not satisfied until he had gone through Samaria and touched it with his transforming gospel of grace and good news. He didn’t scorn the demoniac, but turned him into an evangelist so that the next time he came to that village he was welcomed with open arms.

Is our Christianity of the Jesus sort or the Pharisee sort? Are we practicing a proud form of separation like the Pharisees or are we practicing a form of engagement that is vibrant, full of life, and embraces the sinner, enfolding them in God’s Good News of transformation and redemption? Are we railing against all the evil influences in the culture around us or are we loving ungodly people until they ask us why? Are we extending a kindness and courtesy to those who style themselves as our enemies or are we responding to their shrill rants in the same high-pitch tones?