Thursday, June 27, 2024
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Jesus’ litmus test
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, arrived at the city, and the king of Judah surrendered to him.
Our Lincoln Christian Seminary Professor John Castelein introduced his Roman Catholic Theology class with a word picture.
“We are all going to the circus. Some of us will fit into the circus tent, but some of us will not. As for those in the tent, some of them are nearer the center circle, nearer my God to thee, so to speak. What constitutes a first class, front row ticket to heaven? Who gets in the tent and who is left outside to listen under the canvas for a bit of music now and then?
“Or is there any tent, is there any center circle, is there any post that holds everything up for you to cling to, with your first class ticket?”
None were left among the people of the land except the poor.
In one of her last attempts to cut through her own theological spiderwebs, Flannery O’Connor wrote the short story “Revelation.” Her protagonist was abused in a doctor’s waiting room by a modern, college co-ed. When she went home to her hogs and her husband, she had a vision beside the pigpen of hundreds of men and women singing their way along the road to heaven. She expected to be at the front of the line, but she was not. Some of those she looked down her nose at were leading the way, and she was further back.
We cried, “For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.”
At least she was there. At least she was singing. It’s singing, after all, that makes life worth living. Those glorious gospel songs that breathe up and down my spine, oh yes.
Ron Rolheiser wonders what Jesus considered essential luggage for the heaven-bound.
I think there are four things that Jesus asks of anyone who would be his disciple:
First, that he or she “keep the commandments”, both the larger commandment of the heart “to love God and neighbor” and the ten commandments. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.” Nurture your private relationship to Jesus and be faithful in your own morality.
Second, Jesus mandates social justice as non-negotiable, not optional, within Christian discipleship. This is clear from Jesus’ own life, from the text on the last judgement in Matthew 25, and from the fact that in the gospels, on average, one out of every eight lines is an imperative from Jesus to reach out to the poor.
Third, as Jesus defines it, discipleship demands involvement within a concrete community of faith. Christian discipleship is not something we do alone. We’re asked to journey to God with each other, as part of an ecclesial community, as part of a church. As the First Epistle of John puts it: “The one who claims to love a God that he cannot see and does not love a neighbor whom he can see is a liar.”
Finally, what Jesus asks of us as an essential component of discipleship is a mellow, warm, grateful heart. Discipleship isn’t just about what we do; it’s also about the spirit within which we do it. We need the right truth, but also the right energy. Nothing counts for much, no matter how right or orthodox the action, if it doesn’t issue from love and gratitude.
But Rolheiser thinks perhaps Jesus found a way to incorporate all of this into one thing. He calls that Jesus’ litmus test.
Is there any one, singular, teaching that can serve as a criterion as to who is and who isn’t a true disciple of Jesus?
There is. For Jesus, the litmus test for a disciple, at least for a mature disciple, is this: Can you love an enemy? Can you bless someone who curses you? Can you forgive, and can you forgive even a murderer?
It is precisely to this challenge that Jesus refers when he tells us that our virtue must go deeper than the virtue of the scribes and Pharisees, who were sincere and decent men. They loved God, tried to help the poor, practiced justice. But loving an enemy and forgiving a murderer aren’t prescribed by justice, the ten commandments, church dogma, human decency, or even sincerity. They’re an invitation to something deeper, an invitation that comes from Jesus’ life and teaching.
This is the deepest answer in the gospels to the question.
Our theology class discussed beliefs, and of course Rolheiser and Castelein were theologians. Miss O’Connor read Aquinas in the evenings, so she qualifies as well. But beliefs inform our actions, as Jesus showed us over and over. Jesus’ example calls us into the most strenuous sacrifice and obedience, to the point of death.
What would Jesus do? Such a simple question, such a life-changing answer. Love your enemies. That is the ticket to the circus, that is how to get into the crowd singing on the way to heaven. Just do it. And when you fail, confess and do it again.
When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at his teaching.
(2 Kings 24, Psalm 79, John 14, Matthew 7)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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