By Patrick Anderson, editor
The gospels describe Jesus as being fully human, just like the rest of us. The great mystery is that Jesus was also God. He did things, miraculous and incredulous things, that only God could do. The human qualities the gospels ascribe to Jesus also cover the full gamut of our own human experience, specifically emotions of sorrow, affection, disappointment, frustration and joy.
When I read the accounts of the daily life of Jesus, I understand him, relate to him, and feel a kindred spirit. Jesus is most readily and most comfortably described by Christians as loving, compassionate, peace-seeking, thoughtful and empathetic.
But Jesus of the gospels shows other human characteristics too—even feelings that spring from anger. He is described sometimes as being really ticked off. We see him upending merchant tables in the temple, calling people names, pushing the hottest of buttons.
In one memorable exasperated outburst, recorded in Matthew 23, Jesus lets loose on religious leaders, the people against whom he frequently vents his strongest emotions:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!… you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness… you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets…You snakes, you brood of vipers!…How can you escape being sentenced to hell?
In John 8, Jesus is quoted on another occasion:
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Those outbursts from Jesus reflect the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament. In the gospels, we can see that Jesus sometimes takes on the mantles of Isaiah, Amos, Micah and others to exhibit verbal expressions that my mother would consider beyond the boundaries of civil discourse—not suitable for polite company. Name calling and angry words were not tolerated in my mother’s house. Yet the Bible includes quite a few of those very words.
I want to be judicious in my use of prophetic language. Such expressions should not be used willy-nilly. But it seems to me that today we face a set of circumstances that cry out with an urgent need for straight talk. As Wendell Griffen reminds us, Allan Boesak says, “The time for pious words is over.”
In this issue of Christian Ethics Today, you will see prophetic expressions on a variety of current issues we are facing. James Dunn frequently described this kind of expression as “truth with the bark on it.”
Pastor Chuck Poole’s sermon, “Nine Words,” explicates his own spiritual growth, the teachings of the Bible, and authentic Christianity regarding the on-going struggle too many Christians have in discerning between human differences and spiritual sin, specifically regarding the subject of homosexuality.
Next, Pastor and Judge Wendell Griffen provides a thoughtful and thorough discussion of the on-going folly of COVID-19 vaccine refusal, too often justified by misguided understandings of the Bible and erroneous understandings of the proper role of government. He describes the dangerous hypocrisy of misinformation, the evil nature of purposeful mischaracterizations of medical policies, and the deadly results of such misbehavior. In many ways Griffen uses principles he describes in his book, The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope (Judson Press, 2017).
John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah College, demonstrates how cherry-picking verses in the Bible to bolster one’s own bias has been carried out for centuries.
David Beck, a professor of Native American Studies at the University of Montana, calls for a truth and healing commission to respond in a Christian way to the horrors of church-operated, government-funded boarding schools which traumatized Native American communities and which have recently come to the attention of government and religious organizations.
Jennifer Butler, CEO of Faith in Public Life, tells a deeply personal story of how the Texas Abortion Law is justified by an un-Christian religious argument.
Lewis Brogdon describes from his perspective as director of Black Church Studies and research professor at the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, the urgent crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. His thoughtful analysis is a prophetic statement of the perils of our failure to learn important lessons, a failure which gives a foreboding expectation of our inability to handle the next crises. He reminds us that the prophet Hosea said, “My people perish for a lack of knowledge.” Millions of people have died during the past two years because of mass ignorance and reckless group thinking that plays out on social media. They died because of our arrogance, Brogdon says, and notes that the Apostle Paul described the last days as “perilous times,” bemoaning in a letter to Timothy the time when people would be “ever learning but not able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Finally, Walter B. Shurden completes his six-part series on the writings of John R. Claypool. In “Reading John Claypool,” Shurden has introduced a new generation to the extraordinary life and words of Baptist and Episcopal pastor Claypool. Readers of Christian Ethics Today have been blessed and challenged by both Claypool’s writings and Shurden’s authoritative historical review and analysis. I’m sorry this series comes to an end, but be assured that Walter Shurden will grace us with more of his insights as time goes by.
So, the urgent need of prophetic truth is upon us, as is the need for truth with the bark still on it.
