Red Letter Revolution: Jesus on Freedom

Freedom. Just seeing it typed out puts two types of images in my mind that I think our culture associates with the word.

First, we have the whole William Wallace shouting for freedom while dying to gain independence for Scotland. Whether we identify with Wallace or not, this freedom from tyranny has its poster children through the centuries: the American founding fathers, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the young revolutionaries in China or Eastern Europe near the end of the 1980s as the Cold War was drawing to a close.

Second, however, we have the "freedom" that is on display narrowly at events like Woodstock in the 1960s and broadly in movements like the sexual revolution, the expanding casual drug culture, and thugs using social events to loot and create cultural chaos. This "freedom" is seen in old video footage from the 1960s -- casting off the idyllic and perhaps two-dimensional culture of the 1950s seen in the Cleavers and other television couples sleeping in two beds while making corny jokes to obvious laugh tracks. Its also seen in videos of chaotic spring break excursions, "Free the Weed" rallies, and in looting and rioting in the background as CNN reports about the aftermath of the latest senseless police shooting in Anytown, USA where such nonsense sadly occurs.

Freedom. Free to be and do something? Or free from something? Jesus talked about freedom. And Jesus was quite the revolutionary. So I believe that as we talk about freedom we ought to consider Jesus' words about freedom and the way he lived his life, beckoning people to a life of freedom in him.

In John 8, Jesus is talking with critics and doubters and makes this statement:

31 “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free...34 Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

Jesus says that freedom comes from knowing him, abiding in his word, and enjoying the freedom that he provides. So as Paul wrote in his letter to the churches in the region of Galatia, "It is for freedom that Christ has set you free; stand firm, therefore, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1). Freedom isn't being able to do whatever we want; freedom is knowing that we are governed by one who loves us, has our best interests at heart, would do anything to protect us, and wants us to live as free men and women. And our gracious God, because of Jesus, is that one.

Great governments, though all inherently flawed, are mere reflections of the idea of freedom that God offers us in Christ. Great families, though no family is "perfect," live in a freedom that can only come from knowing and abiding in Jesus. Great work places, where the employees are valued and business is done with integrity, operate best when the principle of freedom is modeled like the freedom Christians have in Christ.

So we are not free from authority, expectations, responsibilities. Not at all. Jesus is no "Buddy Christ" because he knows that "freedom from" any type of authority is death. Freedom from is actually anarchy. Its is saying, "I am responsible to no one and am the master of my own fate." A Christian can never say this and then tack on "...because of Jesus." Quite the opposite. The Christian is compelled to trust, surrender, and obey. The Christian is mastered by Jesus but then finds that Jesus is not seeking to be a master but a Friend and a Brother who has our best interests at heart and died to save us from the destruction that an anarchistic spirituality would bring us.

We are free in Jesus but not free to be or do whatever we want. We are free in Jesus from sin, condemnation, slavery, the wealth of awful emotions and consequences that come from unbridled rebellion, a certain and deserved eternity in Hell. We are free, but its not the kind of freedom that gets cheaply peddled around by those who want to live like practical atheists while tipping the cap to a weak Jesus of our own imagination.

The offer of freedom from Jesus in the Gospels was never a call to just believe and do nothing. The call to freedom involved leaving a life of sin for the adulterous woman, selling all he had for the rich young man, renouncing cheap religion for the woman at the well, leaving family for the man who wanted to bury his father, and stepping out of the boat and all that made sense for Peter in order to walk on the waves in freedom.

Jesus calls us to freedom. But please, don't mistake what that freedom really is...and don't underestimate what that freedom cost. A high price was paid for our salvation, and a high calling to live and believe and obey in trust ought to be our response. That's a revolution and never a casting off of restraint.

Red Letter Revolution: Jesus on Conflict and Reconciliation

For the past few weeks at Origins, we've been walking through a series called "Red Letter Revolution," modeled after the book by the same title by Shane Claiborne and Anthony Campolo. While Red Letter Revolution deals primarily with political and social issues, we've tried to narrow the conversation and deal with ground-level, day-to-day issues like marriage and divorce, parenting, loving other Christians, anger, judging, and more. And each week, we've examined only what Jesus, in the red letters, has to say on a given issue without watering down, jazzing up, adding to, or explaining away those teachings. This blog will be a second platform, this month, for sharing thoughts on some of the topics and teachings we won't get to in our Sunday Gatherings.

So concerning Jesus and conflict and reconciliation...

My family doesn't do conflict well. We probably never have. Growing up we believed that you grinned when offended and then either just got over it or shared your frustration with others, running the offender down behind his back, while never dealing with it. Our conflict style was represented well in The Big Bang Theory episode, "The Mommy Observation." While Sheldon Cooper is talking heatedly with his very Christian mom (who checks all the boxes for culture's stereotypes of evangelicals from Texas) about her sexual relationship with a friend, they're figuring out how to proceed in relationship, leading to this exchange:

Sheldon: Well, this is confusing for me. But I don’t want to stand in the way of your happiness. So, I’ll condemn you internally while maintaining an outward appearance of acceptance.  

Mrs Cooper: That is very Christian of you. 

We took it a step further, usually condemning you to others. Like Sheldon, we were "very Christian." Surely, we reasoned, Jesus wouldn't want us to fight out our differences. Or does he? In Matthew 18:15-20 talks about how his followers ought to "do" conflict with one another.

15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

That passage doesn't describe my comfort zone when it comes to conflict. My conflict style is one dangerously bad approach to handling broken relationships. I'd rather smile and bite the bullet, blame myself, swallow it, and move on. I "take one for the team." We endanger two people, however, when we choose this path -- the offender and ourselves. We endanger the offender because he walks away while a wrong goes unpunished. We endanger ourselves because sin is poison, and in swallowing another's sin and leaving it unresolved, we are absorbing poison. More on that in a moment.

A second bad approach to handling broken relationships between Christians involves speaking too much, or being too easily offended. Jesus says, "If your brother sins against you..." We must be careful to distinguish between sin and being inconvenienced or having our preferences disregarded. Sin is missing the mark against God, as it relates to worshiping him and living with one another in this world; inconvenience and being disregarded or disrespected are missing the mark against us. Sin is wronging the Lord; inconvenience and being disregarded or disrespected involve another wronging us. This bad approach chooses to nitpick and always be looking for a "tough conversation" where something forgettable and seemingly insignificant has to be addressed, dealt with, and resolved. When sin is clearly not the case, we need to grow thicker skin, forgive as we have been forgiven, and remember that we are not the ones who occupy the throne of the universe. 

So how do we do conflict, according to Jesus? 

• Decide if we have been sinned against by our brother or sister. Examine the situation and decide whether, intentionally or unintentionally, the offender has wronged God by wronging us. If you're not sure, go to Scripture and check your situation against what God calls sin. If the answer is no, we should ask the Holy Spirit to help us let it go, move on, and love as God has loved us in Christ.
• If we have been sinned against, without swallowing it and without telling another soul, we are to go to the offending brother or sister and let him or her know what has occurred. We don't need to build a coalition, and we don't need an ally to go with us. We just go. And we share honestly. If, like me, this feels unnatural, soak that situation in prayer and ask God's Spirit to fill you up before you go and address it.
• In the moment of confrontation, we state clearly what has happened. State. It. Clearly. "I want you to know I love you and care about you but you sinned against me when you _____, and I want us to make things right." After all, we are family; Jesus is talking about a brother (or sister) who sins against us. Don't minimize. Don't shoulder the blame that's not yours to shoulder. Don't be unclear. Mincing words only ushers in confusion rather than the healing that comes from repentance after feeling the sting of sin's effects.

Hopefully, this is Game Over. They repent. We forgive. We hug. Restoration occurs. We have "gained our brother" because in going through the awkwardness of biblical conflict we watch restoration occur between another person and God and between ourselves as family in Christ. 

But in the event that the person is defiant about sin or denies, negates, or further minimizes the hurt, Jesus gives us Step B in the process. 

• Take one or two others with you. Be careful who you invite into the process. Don't welcome into this holy moment of potential healing one who is divisive, rejoices in wrong, or has an axe to grind. Bring holy healers, followers of Jesus who love the Gospel so much that they want to see it embodied in the way we relate to each other. Bring a person who will pray during the conflict more than cheer for you.
• For the second time, we state clearly what has happened. State. It. Clearly. "I want you to know I love you and care about you but you sinned against me when you _____, and I want us to make things right." Continuing, "In fact, I brought _____ and _____ because I didn't get the impression last time that you understood the gravity of what's at stake here." Repeat: Don't minimize. Don't shoulder the blame that's not yours to shoulder. Don't be unclear. Don't mince words. 

Hopefully, this is now Game Over. Repentance. Forgiveness. Hugging. Restoration. We pray that in the presence of the one offended and a couple of others, healing occurs. 

But in the event that the person still refuses to change, to turn from sin to Christ, Jesus gives us Step C in the process. Steps A, B, and C would be what Jesus calls "church discipline." Sadly, however, many mistakenly think of church discipline as Step C. Further and even more tragically, many churches historically have moved too quickly to Step C without trying Steps A and B or after "attempting" Steps A and B in an unbiblical way. Its sheep pushing wandering sheep over the cliff rather than inviting back into the flock, into the Good Shepherd's protection.

Step C is like a funeral. In telling the church of sin and an unrepentant Christ-follower, the church grieves but surrenders the offender to the Lord, having attempted to do all they can to turn the believer back to Christ. In surrendering that person to the Lord and treating him or her as "a Gentile and a tax collector," we are acknowledging that God loves him or her, that God will have to draw him or her in love through conviction of sin, that we have done all we can, and that he or she is living and believing as one who is a "they." Ultimately the unrepentant believer has little in common with the church. Which demands that, as the church, we are walking in love and in step with the Spirit. Otherwise, our call to repent and surrendering the offender over to God has no "teeth."

We rarely do conflict and reconciliation God's way. Its easier and more justifying to do it our way. Character assassination and lobbing grenades from a distance are less messy than going one-on-one to the one who who sins against us. Yet conflict that honors Christ occurs this way.

So in a red-letter revolution, I want to vow to Christ to live differently. And I want to ask you to do so as well. Our lives and relationships would be so much less cluttered if we kept healthy accounts of loving, encouraging, praying for, challenging, serving, and blessing one another rather than constantly over-drafting and bankrupting relationships by doing conflict in a way that is displeasing to Jesus.