I don't know whether to laugh or be offended at the question posed by some CNN reporter: "Would Jesus Occupy Wall Street?"
Of course, from a practical, spiritual standpoint, if you believe Jesus is indeed God incarnate, then He is already occupying Wall Street. God is omnipresent, meaning he is everywhere. I always laugh when I hear preachers or missionaries talk about "taking God to ... " where ever - deepest, darkest Africa or Pakistan or China or Hollywood. Because the truth is, as I once heard Andre Crouch say, "We brought Jesus in here with us, only to find out once we got here that He was already here!"
But of course, that's not what the question posed by CNN reporters and others really means.
The premise is, can those who are involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement find validation in their actions in Jesus?
Which is funny in that, like so many of us, CNN only seems to bring up Jesus and what He would or wouldn't do when it suits their purposes. I mean, you don't hear Anderson Cooper asking "What would Jesus do ..." about education, political scandal, environmental disaster, or in his New Year's Eve ridiculous banter with so-called "B"-lister Kathy Griffin.
Just imagine how different our news would be if Chris Mathews or Bill O'Rielly or Diane Sawyer approached every newscast with a sincere, "What would Jesus do?" approach. Even if they don't believe in Jesus, just to sincerely ask the question.
Or, for that matter, what would Mohammad do? Or Buddha?
I don't for a minute think that any of them could give a solid answer to the question, but I do think the dialogue would be healthy for all of us. After all, as founder John Adams once wrote, "religion and virtue are the only Foundations, not only of Republicanism and of all free Government, but of social felicity under all Governments and in all Combinations of human society." Or, as another signer of the Declaration, Dr. Benjamin Rush, said, "the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments."
Of course, to have that conversation, they'd need to actually read things like the Bible, or the Qu'ran, or the Torah, so they could have a basis on which to talk.
But that's the thing, particularly when most of us start to talk about Jesus - it's so much easier to just say what we "think" He would do, based on the image we have created of what He was/is like.
Of course, a God who is created in our image is not much of a god at all.
But a God who is bigger than us is frightening, because how can we even begin to understand His ways? What if He doesn't like what it is we want to do?
Let's be honest here: what if CNN asked the question, and the answer was clearly, "No, Jesus wouldn't occupy Wall Street." Do you think that would change the attitude of the news reporters toward the Occupy movement, or cause the Occupiers themselves to suddenly go, "Oh! Well ... never mind" and just slink off back home?
Even those of us who say we want to "know" Jesus approach that knowledge with some trepidation (if we're honest) because we don't change Jesus to fit our image; He changes us to fit His. And sometimes that's very uncomfortable.
Donald Miller, when he isn't waxing eloquent over sunsets and starlight and the way a Volkswagen bus rambles through the Western countryside, said of "spirituality" that "All great spirituality is subversive, including the spirituality of following Jesus. Jesus was poor because the truth is there is more to life than money, and money is only a tool. Jesus did not cower to the power of religious authority, because the religious authority was corrupt and misrepresented God. Jesus did not take a wife or even a girlfriend because there is more to life than romance and sex. Jesus did not associate his identity with a specific fashion because clothes themselves cover the truth. ..."
Basically, when we follow Jesus, Miller says (and I agree, even if I don't live it like I should), everything about our lives should become subversive because we stand against the things the world around us holds dear.
Because we humans have by nature take the good things God has given us and focus on them so strongly - like the child that is so enthralled by the birthday gift he fails to consider the giver - that we lose sight of their purpose. We focus on wealth and sex and beauty and brains and health and become obsessed with them - even with trying to make sure everyone has those things - rather than what Jesus said we should focus on, which was "glorifying God."
It's hard to glorify God when we're so caught up in glorifying humanity (which is to say ourselves).
How much of our pain is caused by worshipping those things that ultimately have no power to help us, no power to save us, no power to do much of anything but consume us?
Perhaps the most dangerous thing we can do is try to argue that God (or Jesus) is on our side. The fact is, I don't want God on my side; I want to be on God's side!
It's an interesting question, though. Would Jesus Occupy Wall Street? Would Mohammad? Would Buddha?
How would we know?
Here's one idea: read the book.
You want to know if Jesus would Occupy Wall Street?
Read the Bible and find out for yourself.
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