Remember the Lesson
Yesterday, I posted an article analyzing the first 16 verses of Matthew 21.
Putting the Triumphal Entry and Cleansing of the Temple stories into their Old Testament context revealed that Jesus was stepping fully into his role as the King of the Outsiders.
The outer court of the Temple, the place called the Court of the Gentiles in Jesus’ day, was filled with Jewish people doing Jewish religious things. Even though what they were doing was recommended and even required by Jewish Law, the fact that they had taken over the area set aside for Gentiles to worship God infuriated Jesus and he kicked out both Jewish merchants and Jewish customers!
Then, in what he said, he made it very clear to those people nearby that no longer could Jewish people consider themselves “insiders” to the exclusion of Gentiles. In fact, the Temple itself, the very symbol of authentic Judaism was, according to Jesus, a place for literally anyone to come and fully worship God.
As we’ll see when we discuss verses 17-22 (tomorrow’s post), the failure of the Jewish religious system to bring outsiders in will result in the eventual judgment and destruction of their entire religious system.
But before we get there, I want to take some time today to address how we should apply the lesson. So, to recap, this is the lesson:
Jesus hates it when insiders keep outsiders out.
Applying the Lesson
Years ago, I was talking to someone about church and whether or not he saw himself as a church person. He said to me, “Oh, I’m sure if I ever set foot in a church it would burn to the ground!”
I’ve heard that more than once, and it’s a sentence that really bothers me.
It bothers me most because somewhere along the line that person got the idea that church was for “good people,” that God wanted only “good people” in the church, and that God would have to judge any church that let “bad people” into it. Somewhere along the line, that person got the idea that he was such a bad person, that God would have no choice but to destroy the entire church (building) just to cleanse it from his evil presence.
Maybe he wasn’t being completely serious in his statement, but the sentiment communicated something about his true beliefs. It communicated at the very least that he could never feel welcome in a church. Church is for the insiders, and he, an outsider, would never belong, so he would just continue to stay outside.
That’s the exact reason I think Jesus cleansed the temple. He entered Jerusalem as the Great King who would remove the oppressors from the Temple, but when he went to the Temple, the oppressors he found were the insiders! Jesus kicked out the insiders so the outsiders could come in!
To apply this lesson, we have to realize that religious people throughout the centuries have constructed all manner of religious systems that are specifically designed to keep outsiders out.
In fact, last week, I searched through the Old Testament and I could not find any reference to a “Court of the Gentiles” or any other regulations for who was allowed to be in the inner court vs. the outer court of the Temple. As far as I can tell, it was a later religious tradition to allow only Jewish men into the inner court. It was a religious tradition to relegate Gentiles (and women and children) to the outer court. It was a religious tradition to take care of the sacrificial commerce in that same outer court. But the bottom line is that all those religious traditions worked together to favor the insiders and keep the outsiders out.
What about us? What about today?
What do we do that keeps outsiders out?
Last Sunday, I gave a list of things that Christians do these days that intentionally or unintentionally keep outsiders out. Here’s the first part of that list:
- When we expect people to wear fancy clothes.
- When we fail to explain what they’re doing and why.
- When we fail to welcome and befriend newcomers.
- When churches with lots of money ask for more money.
- When churches with lots of people aren’t making life better for lots of people.
There are so many ways these things keep outsiders out, but I’ll mention two.
First, each of these things gives the insider a reason to look down on the outsider. “If clothing keeps you away from church, then your heart is in the wrong place anyway.” “If you don’t understand what we are doing, you can always ask!” “You’ll become my friend soon enough if you just keep coming to church when I do, join a group I’m in, and serve on a team I’m on.” “Who are you to judge how the church uses its money, time, and human resources?”
Secondly, perhaps church people don’t know this, but outsiders can feel this disdain. Sometimes, the outsider will literally not own a fancy set of clothes, but more often, the outsider will simply be worried about the judgment they are sure will come when they show up in less than acceptable attire. The outsider isn’t afraid of learning new things, but the outsider is afraid of the embarrassment that comes when everyone sits down and they are still standing. The outsider isn’t expecting to find a bunch of new friends on their first week, and that’s exactly the reason they stand at a distance, come late, and leave early. They don’t want to give the church the chance to prove it is not welcoming! I could go on.
The point is that these things create a dividing line between outsiders and insiders that both sides can feel and both sides can use to point fingers at the other side.
That list is bad enough, but there is a different list I have come to see in the past few years that I believe is an even worse list, a more insidious list, a list that I think can work to keep an entire generation of outsiders outside.
More Things Keeping Outsiders Out
When Christians pass judgment on non-Christians.
There was a time in the past when the basic moral code of the church was mirrored by the basic moral code of the surrounding society. There was a time when the two were largely in sync. However, that time is long gone. Over the past 100 years the society at large has shifted its ideas about race and racial disparities, the origins of the world, the humanity of a fetus, the rules governing sex, the rules governing divorce, the rules governing media, the rules governing substances like alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, etc.
Christians have been fighting to “conserve” their morals in the face of this social shift, but one major way this “conservative” effort has displayed itself is in the public declaration that immoral behavior is immoral.
That’s not a problem. The problem isn’t in the identification of sin.
The problem is in the direction of the pointing fingers.
Christians in a shifting society need to be clear about what is still to be considered immoral, but Christians need to be clear on those morals with other Christians who are supposed to share those morals.
The world has shifted and no longer shares those morals, and therefore, when Christians point their fingers at the people of the world doing things that are wrong, they are not perceived as “conservers” of society. They are perceived as “out of touch” with that society or even condemners of that society. In either case, the bridge between the Christians and the rest of the society gets burned not over the central tenets of Christianity, the “offense” of the cross, or the promise of the gospel but over ethical disagreements that only really pertain inside the family of faith.
To make matters worse, Christians repeatedly have demonstrated to the world that they are just as prone to these sins and moral failings as the rest of the world and therefore, our finger-pointing gets revealed to be abject hypocrisy.
In both cases, whether by condemnation or hypocrisy, Christians and by extension, the entirety of the Christian faith, becomes repulsive to the outsiders.
By making Christianity seem out of touch, condemning, and hypocritical, we have made Christianity unpalatable, and thereby have made it ever more difficult for an outsider to want to come in.
When Christians attach Christianity to a political platform or social policy.
As a result of our desire to publicly identify sins as sins, and as a result of our desire to have legal protection for our beliefs and our ability to speak of our beliefs, we have for a long time been motivated to be engaged in the world of politics. Christians were on the Mayflower as a political act fleeing the oppression of the State Church in England, Christians were heavily involved in the slave trade, Christians were heavily involved in the fight for abolition, Christians were heavily involved in the American Revolution, Christians were heavily involved in the eradication of the American Indians, Christians were heavily involved in the enacting of Prohibition, and we were heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement.
Today, we see some of our involvement has been wise and some of our involvement has been foolish. Political involvement is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is always a dangerous thing to attach a political platform, party, person or policy to Christianity.
In 2016, close to 80% of white evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump.
In 2016, close to 80% of Black Christians voted for Hillary Clinton.
Which candidate was more “Christian”? Which group of Christians was acting more like Christians? Is it possible that neither Trump nor Hillary was the “Christian” candidate?
Again, the problem is not in holding a political opinion or even being politically active. The problem is in tying that opinion too closely to your Christian faith especially if the tie has no real basis in the life or teachings of Christ.
Aside from the fact that it is immoral and unwise to pretend that some political policy is the “Christian” one, here’s why it matters in practical terms:
Not every Christian shares your perspective on things.
Not every outsider shares your perspective on things.
Tying your faith too closely to a political platform puts you at odds with other Christians, and puts you at odds with the outsiders too.
And all the outsiders who know you might just get the sense that you and your church and your faith are all about the same opinions as you and therefore can not be welcoming to them.
When Christians broadcast disdain or ignorance to the world around them.
Thirdly, as an extension of our desire to point out sin as sin and our temptation to align ourselves with specific policies and positions, Christians who now find themselves in a world of social media, public protests, T-shirts and bumper stickers too often broadcast to the world around them their feelings and opinions. Frankly, much of the time, those feelings and opinions display disdain and/or ignorance.
First, I want to get this out of the way. The only people Jesus ever spoke negatively about were the Pharisees and religious leaders of his day who were using their authority to oppress people in various ways. We would do well to follow his lead. If someone claims to be a religious leader, they are open to criticism. If a leader is using their authority to oppress others, they are open to criticism. Even so, expressions of disdain are rarely the Christian thing to do. Christians who express disdain for other people, especially when directed toward non-Christians, are separating themselves from the non-Christian world and working to keep the outsiders out.
Secondly, and this is a touchy subject these days, I want to address the Christian appearance of ignorance. On Sunday, I mentioned a series of statistics that I find fascinating. Now, I pay close attention to polling data whenever an organization does a poll about what Christians believe or about what the world thinks of Christians, and in the past few years, I have come to learn that Christians are far more likely than the general population to believe and promote the following claims:
- The Earth is flat.
- The Earth is under 10,000 years old.
- The 2020 election was fraudulent.
- Systemic racism doesn’t exist.
- Climate change isn’t real.
- Vaccines and masks are unsafe / unhelpful.
Here’s why this list is so interesting to me: Each of those claims goes against the mainstream consensus of experts in their respective fields, and yet, Christians are more likely than the general population to accept them as true.
I’m compelled to learn more about this and to motivate conversation around it whenever I can for at least two reasons.
First, I want to know why beliefs like this, which are not found anywhere in the Bible, have gained such purchase among Christians. What is it about Christians and Christianity that makes us susceptible to such beliefs? What is my role as a pastor in relation to beliefs like that? Should I ignore them or address them?
But it’s also interesting for a second reason. There is a world around us asking the same question: What is it about Christians and Christianity that makes them susceptible to such beliefs? The world around us is increasingly falling in line with mainstream consensus on these matters and that means Christians again are looking out of touch at best or ignorant at worst.
This might not be a problem if Christians kept these beliefs to themselves, to their families, or even to their church, but Christians these days are promoting these beliefs to the wider world through social media and more.
As a result, whether by statistics or by anecdotal evidence, whether justly or unjustly, the outside world has enough evidence to write off Christians and Christianity as ignorant.
It’s my conviction that such behavior is keeping outsiders out.
Questions to Ask Ourselves
As I said on Sunday, we Christians are facing an uphill battle when it comes to welcoming the outside world into the family of God, but one of the worst things we can do is to continue to perpetuate things that work to isolate us from that outside world. Jesus hates it when insiders keep the outsiders out, and these are just a few of the areas where I see Christians doing work that might make sense to other Christians but ends up dissolving our witness to the wider world and thereby encouraging outsiders to stay out.
So, in response to this, I’m asking you to join me in reflecting on three questions:
- Is there something I have attached to my Christianity that is not actually Christ-like? If there is, it will likely show up in my life and damage my witness.
- Am I presenting myself to an unbelieving world as welcoming? If I am not, then not only am I in the place of the money changers in the Temple, but I’m also failing to be the “salt” and “light” Jesus called me to be.
- Is our church doing the work of welcome? (I don’t think we are doing very well at this these days, but turning that around is a major reason we are walking this three month “relaunch” journey.)