Jesus was not a pushover. He wasn’t some meek, cowering simp that let people take advantage of Him, be mean and evil, and Him keep silent. There seems to be this misconception that” turn the other cheek” means Christians are supposed to allow themselves to be abused, that God wants Christians to be run over, evil propagated against them, for them not to fight or fight back in some physical way.
The world has so twisted the ideas and teachings that so many are confused. The world has presented Jesus as this nice, polite guy that didn’t rock the boat, was always well-mannered, didn’t raise His Voice, and basically was like Santa Claus. Just a nice guy that people wanted to hang around because He benefited them. That is not what the Bible says. That was not who Jesus–God in human form–was, is, what He taught or how He acted and behaved.
Biblical Examples
In the Sermon on the Mount, starting in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says things like, “The meek will inherit the earth…” And the English definition of meek is: quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on; submissive. (from asking Google,” Define meek” and Oxford Languages opening. Also notable, the example sentence is “She brought her meek little husband along”… this narrative and agenda of demasculinizing males is permeating everything, everywhere, and it’s noticeable).
Question one: Who wants to inherit the earth? I’ll take heaven. Earth is only temporary. This thought just struck me. Interesting. Maybe explore that later. Another time. What I was going to get at is that Jesus was talking about meek spiritually, the people who know they need a Savior. But I’m going to move along because now I have more questions than answers on that.
Let’s move on to another part in Matthew that is my prime example of Jesus not being nice, quiet, or polite in our typical sense of the word in American English. He wasn’t meek at all when he called out the Pharisees for being hypocrites and whitewashed. tombs!
Matt 23:27-33 (HCSB)
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!…Blind guides! You strain out a gnat, yet gulp down a camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! … inside you are full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisee!…Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity.… inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness…Snakes! Brood of vipers!”
Yup, there’s some nice, gentle, sweet words from Jesus. “Hypocrites! Snakes! Brood of vipers!” I may have to start using that! I don’t know, “Choke the squirrel,” was pretty good, from a southern woman I met the other day.
My point stands
Jesus didn’t just let people do as they pleased and think they were all okay. He didn’t “live and let live.” He wasn’t ” tolerant.” And he certainly wasn’t always nice and polite. How does one reconcile this fact as evidence from the Bible with the truth that Jesus is God and God is love.
Terminology
Terminology is super important, and the English language is super difficult: so many meanings for different words and the same words; so many rules that apply (until they don’t); and so many meanings of words that change or are changed over time (words like” bad” meaning ” good,”” cool” meaning “interesting,” or “neat,” as in interesting, not necessarily orderly.
The world has twisted words, twisted theology, and watered down and twisted the understanding of who Jesus was, who he is, and how Christians are to try to be and behave, because we are instructed to “be like Jesus.”
Before someone can be like Jesus, they need to know and understand who He was, how He really acted, behaved, believed, and thought. Because as He pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount behavior isn’t the only way to sin: sin starts in our heart and mind.
This is profound. A lot to unpack, and like spaghetti, one piece leads to another, and soon there is a whole pot overflowing into the kitchen, filling the house, creeping out the door. The mystery and enormity of God is incredible. It never ends. So very intriguing.
Background Story
To share the story that brought this topic up:
My sister called and let me know that a guy that had been causing problems for her husband at work had been involved in an incident, had a health issue because of it and was sent home. My brother-in- law (a “new believer,” trying) was incredulous at my sister laughing hysterically at the situation..
“This is really serious! Jesus says we’re to have compassion and here you are laughing at this guy’s misfortune.”
She called me to share the story and find out my take on if she was wrong to laugh. Right or wrong, I said,” Karma, which is just God and a universal law he made–just like ‘Mother Nature’ is the rules made by God to run the physical universe–a person reaps what they sow. Why should we not get some satisfaction and laughter out of people proving God’s power? “.
Now the caveat of this is that I am very careful to not demand God’s justice for other people–albeit I admit that one of my sins is I am sometimes [read as: “often, most of the time, generally”] impatient for people to reap. I try to keep in mind: I know I deserve the same as them. I do not desire God’s justice to come to me, and I am just as deserving of condemnation–praise Him for His grace and mercy! He is so kind, gentle, and generous to me and I am so very undeserving!
Conclusion
I’m not sure it is wrong to glean some satisfaction from people reaping what they sow, just because they reap negative consequences (consequences are not always a direct result or correlate to the sowing that us humans can identify… that is Karma, negative begets negative, not exactly direct cause and effect, though).
While I’m not on the “God doesn’t want us to be unhappy and miserable” wagon–I believe that He doesn’t want us unhappy and miserable, but our happiness is not His primary objective. I do believe that He gives us perspective and contrast, and when we get some satisfaction from people’s experience that demonstrates His power, I’m not sure that is” wrong.”
