Do the words, “the Great Commission,” inspire visions of boldness, or do they inspire a guilty shudder down your spine?
The Great Commission is not the only commission given by Jesus, but it is deeply important. And it has dominated the attention of many strands of his followers today. Usually because we struggle with it. Usually to point out how inadequate we are doing with it.
Hence the guilty shudder.
God is not above making us feel guilty; but sometimes we feel guilty for our own reasons, rather than his.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. What is the Great Commission:
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded and, behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20
Before feeling guilty about failing to make disciples, consider with me the first part of this command: “Go.”
of the mechanics of this passage in Greek, especially how the command “go” and “make disciples” relate, see here.
Why does Jesus command “go”?
Why Jesus commands his people to “go”
Here’s 2 good reasons Jesus commands his followers to GO:
He’s the king on the mountain, and his Kingdom should spread
To check the disciples’ impulse of veneration on a mountaintop
Jesus is King on the Mountain…and beyond
Matthew does not record Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
He ends the narrative with Jesus as King on the mountain giving a royal command. So, at the end of Matthew, we see Jesus’ kingdom = the mountain they are on.
His territory + his people = his kingdom
That is good, but Jesus intends more. He is interested in God’s Kingdom come into the whole world. That’s a lot more than the little mountaintop they are gathered on. So, the logical next thing to do is for the disciples to go somewhere else and make disciples.
Where Jesus is worshipped as king, there his kingdom is. Thus, “go!”
Jesus wants his kingdom to spread. To do that, he needs to address the “stay where we are and venerate” impulse his disciples have already shown.
Go and take the Kingdom elsewhere, don’t build a shrine
The disciples already have an ambiguous track record when it comes to mountains, a glorified Christ, and what to do there.
At the transfiguration, Peter says to Jesus:
Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah
Matthew 17:4 ESV
In other words, let’s build a new tabernacle here because this is the place to be to worship!
Granted, it was a crazy experience and the response is entirely understandable. But here, now, at the end, Jesus is really clear that the point is not to turn this mountain into new shrine for his followers to tend. His kingdom is like a seed, compressed down into that tiny little space on the mountain, and it needs to ‘blow up.’
That ‘blowing up’ happens when they “go” and make disciples.
Need I point out that churches today tend to show a strong impulse to stay where we are and worship. We are better at building shrines than going where Jesus isn’t already worshipped as king.
What Jesus commands in the Great Commission
“Go” is an important part of carrying out Jesus’ vision for the Kingdom of God spreading.
Phrased more interpretively, here’s my stab at capturing the gist of Jesus’ Great Commission:
“Go out to where I am not honored as King, and wherever you find that place, whoever you find there, make disciples so that I am honored as King there, too.”
Wherever you happen to be in life, there is certainly room for “going.” And you probably won’t have to go far to find places where Jesus isn’t honored as king.
Many of the dynamics of sin in life can be explained by a simple idea: the fear of holiness.
Consider an example.
I slipped walking up the sledding hill.
The sandy soil wasn’t frozen yet. It gave way under the pressure of my foot in a most unexpected fashion. Suddenly my body was in free-fall towards the earth, no longer trustingly supported by my right leg.
We wouldn’t get far in life without deeply ingrained systems to deal with exactly this sort of problem. Without thinking, my left leg shot out to my right side to halt my downward trajectory. A fantastic flailing of limbs followed—I’m sure it was very graceful to see.
And I didn’t fall.
And I walked on up the hill.
Instead of falling, I earned some sore back muscles, a ligament on the side of my knee that was none-too happy about the sudden stretch, and a left hip that is still grumpy about the whole affair a few days later.
The irony of the whole situation? It wouldn’t have hurt at all to just fall over into the several-inch deep snow blanketing the hill. If only I had time to have a little conference with my instinctive fall avoidance system I would have reasoned it into submission: “Hey, look, you’re dressed in all kinds of padded outdoor clothes and there is a bunch of snow on the ground. Just let this one go, it’s not really going to hurt.”
But that instinctive fear of falling kicks in and works to protect the body at all costs.
Even when the costs are far greater than just falling over would be.
Fear
The instinctual fear of falling explains so much about why some sin hangs around so tightly.
The fear of falling triggers whenever you unexpectedly depart from normalcy. Sitting down is normal; you don’t flail limbs doing it. Sitting down and then missing your chair = limbs flailing. As soon as you move slightly outside of normal, the fear-driven instinct of self-protection hijacks your bodily systems and aims to protect normalcy at all costs.
Normalcy is key.
My life, your life, right now contains certain patterns of sin and brokenness that are so deep, so connected, so intertwined into who we are that to try to touch them sets off instinctual alarm bells: “protect this area at all costs—this is normal.”
Remove this sin, indeed, touch this sin, and what do you have? Something abnormal.
Never underestimate the power of normalcy.
A deep commitment to normalcy means that my body will sacrifice the health of my back muscles, my knee ligaments, my hip tendons, all to keep upright. Even when it is completely unnecessary to do so. Fear controls. Fear sacrifices to protect its own.
The gossip struggles with gossip because without it their life makes no sense. The porn addict continues on for the same reason. The father with explosive anger hates the explosive anger, but every time life tips slightly outside of normalcy, that is the way to right the ship.
Whatever the sin, those deep-seated ones are always monitoring the situation in life to hijack all systems and protect the status quo whenever any threat emerges. Departing from normal is scary.
Many of the dynamics of sin in life can be explained by a simple idea: the fear of holiness.
“I can’t accept the traditional Christian understanding of hell and judgment because it’s not fair. It makes no emotional sense for God to condemn finite people in an infinite way. God’s love will certainly win.”
“I’m deeply sympathetic to the arguments you are using and the perspective which they come from, but I think you’re missing a bigger problem.”
That summarizes my perspective on a recent discussion I had with a gentleman at a retreat. He approached me and obviously wanted to talk about a subject near and dear to his heart: why the traditional doctrine of hell and judgement is wrong.
He’s read many books about it. Thought about it. Had a variety of points about the topic and a settled surety on his understanding.
It’s not my intention to defend or critique the traditional doctrine of judgment and hell at this juncture–that’s a major undertaking on its own. I want to consider a bigger picture issue about the way we understand ourselves. You see, the mere fact that there is a traditional Christian doctrine of hell and eternal judgment which has been well-articulated, embraced, defended, and trumpeted for centuries, indicates that there is nothing inherently unfair or emotionally unsatisfying about the idea. That we today feel it’s unfair and emotionally unsatisfying tells us something about us, not necessarily about whether the idea is true or not.
I think my interlocutor hasn’t deeply confronted his anthropological presuppositions.
Wait. Come again. Did I miss something? What are ‘anthropological presuppositions’ in plain English?
Thomas Jefferson famously asserted that it is “self-evident” that all men are created equal, with certain inalienable rights.
Most people today scratch their heads at what that could possibly mean coming from the pen of a slave-holding aristocratic gentleman. Jefferson’s anthropological assumptions were on full display in the words flowing from his quill and in the simple fact that he held many human beings as slaves.
To good ole’ TJ, there was no conflict between saying all men are created equal with unalienable rights and holding slaves.
To us today in the West, we see this as an absurd contradiction in his assumptions about the nature of humanity.
That’s when you know you’re dealing with presuppositions. They make all the sense in the world when you assume them to be true, but upon closer inspection, they are shot through with ideas that might be true, but which can’t be proven and which are often mutually contradictory.
The claim that hell is not fair or emotionally satisfying will likely stop most discussions today.
That is because we have a radically different notion of who we are than most Christians through most of the history of the world have had. And that understanding of who we are makes all the difference in the world when it comes to thinking about what might await us in an eternal afterlife. How did we get to where we are today?
Here’s a 3 sentence summary of how the Western world has developed in our core assumption about the nature of humanity:
God speaks, therefore I am.
I think, therefore I am.
I speak, therefore I am.
Each sentence represents a monumental shift in human self-understanding that we have inherited today.
Take a quick look at the self-understanding each sentence reflects.
Most everyone in the ancient world assumed that humanity was created and/or governed by some higher power(s), be it God, the gods, Fate, the balance of good and evil, etc. Everyone shared the assumption that humanity exists in a world where the table is set by someone/thing greater than we are and we need to get in line.
In this view of life, punishment (and reward) at the hands of the Higher Power makes all the sense in the world. On this view, the idea that there would be no punishment for wicked people is emotionally unsatisfying.
The French philosopher René Descartes famously wrote cogito, ergo sum, “I think, therefore I am.” (Somewhat ironically, this famous line that conveniently marks out modern man’s departure from God comes from Descartes attempt to prove the existence of God via reasonable argument). This simple phrase signals a sweeping change in human self-understanding.
The thinking person is responsive to the world around him/her, but not simply at its mercy.
In this view of life, punishment at the hands of the Higher Power is ambiguous. We’re still responsive to a Higher Power, but we get a hand in setting the table.
The current default views us as definers of our own reality. In place of a created servant, and in place of a thinker who responds, we become “man, the Speaker.” The speaker sets the table and the agenda. More than merely responding to reality, the speaker is a co-creator (or sole-creator) of reality.
In this view of life, punishment at the hands of a Higher Power is rather hard to swallow. Mostly, it is outright objectionable. We view ourselves like artists. Yes, people will probably critique our work at certain points–and maybe even God will–but it’s most important that we be true to ourself.
These 3 simple sentences chart the course for why we struggle so much with the doctrine of hell and judgment today, even though most Christians throughout the ages have not.
We think about ourselves differently than they did.
I’m not sure which way of thinking about ourselves is right.
Each of the 3 views enhances some aspects of truth and obscures others. They are kind of like putting on 3 different pairs of glasses, each with a different color tint on the lenses. Through red lenses, you’re blinded to the presence of red; through blue glasses, blues become white, and so on. Each color lens privileges different aspects of the visible spectrum, and makes others harder to see.
And this phenomenon effects far more than how agreeable or disagreeable we find the idea of judgment and hell.
Why do people need salvation? Are we mostly good by nature? Do we actually need some influence from the Holy Spirit to walk in the right way, or will meditation and therapy suffice? Why can’t I do whatever I want with my sexuality?
Most of the difficult questions in our modern time emerge from our distinct way of viewing the world.
It would be folly to conclude that the answers to the great questions of humanity from the past–including judgement and rewards–are wrong simply because we assume different things to be true about ourselves today. Thus ensues the on-going need to check what we assume to be self-evident about the nature of humanity and what God can or can’t do with us.
Wait, what? What is the long ending of the Lord’s Prayer?
To clear things up right now, the long ending refers to this line: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”
So, what’s the issue?
Observant readers will note that in most modern English Bibles, this line is put in a footnote, not in the text. Is it an original part of the Bible? Why do we pray it?
Based on best methods and explanations of the ancient manuscripts we have, this line was not part of the original prayer. It is absent in many of the earliest and best manuscripts as well as the earliest commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer from key early church leaders. Not to mention that there are a few different versions of this long ending scattered in different places.
Because the church has prayed it this way for about as long as we can look back into time.
This ending likely made it into the Gospel manuscripts via using the prayer in church services. It brings a nice, theologically profound, closure to the prayer. As we pray for God’s kingdom to come, as we ask for God to meet our daily needs, we wrap those prayers up in words reminiscent of what the angels proclaim in the heavenlies: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is filled with his glory.
So, we continue to pray this longer ending as part of the people of God stretching across the centuries longing for the kingdom, the power, and the glory of God to be established in all things.
Here’s a decent place to get a longer answer informed by some basic discussion of the textual tradition and the practices of the church emerging in the Reformation Era: Why Do We Say the Long Ending of the Lord’s Prayer?
How can God possibly hear and answer all those prayer requests? It’s a mind-boggling prospect that one person can interact with so many prayers in an intelligent way. How is that possible, even for God? That’s a question people have wrestled with for ages.
Keep reading below, or watch a short reflection on how AI helps us think about God answering prayers
A Bruce Almighty prayer machine
This question is the premise for an extended gag sequence in the Jim Carrey movie Bruce Almighty. Like many Jim Carrey movies, it’s funny, and really weird, and in this case much more sacrilegious than most. Bruce, Jim Carrey’s character, receives the powers of God. As he’s walking down the street, he starts hearing peoples’ hopes, dreams, and prayer requests. This happens all the time, and it is overwhelming to have to deal with. So, he sets up an email system to handle the millions and billions of requests. But that is too hard, too. To avoid having to deal with them, he just answers “yes,” to all. Chaos ensues.
The gag is premised on the simple idea that God is more powerful than a person, but still finds it overwhelming to have to carry on so many relationships and field so many requests (often contradictory) at the same time.
But we have a different way to picture it, now.
The power of AI helps us picture the power of God
Large Language Model AI, like Chat GPT, have upset the status quo in many ways.
Here’s a good way.
The existence of these AI tools that seem to be able to answer most any question in the blink of an eye—all around the world—gives us a conceptual tool to make a little bit more sense of how God deals with prayers. We made this machine. It is subject to the limits of human power and engineering, and yet it’s power is mind-boggling incredible.
How much more than this AI can the God who created the universe and created us carry on a relationship with everyone all at once and never be overwhelmed. Never be taxed. Never be worked too hard by it.
There are no less than five significant points of theological discussion that Jesus works through with the Samaritan woman at the well in their conversation.
That’s maybe a little different than you often think of this interaction. Let’s face it. If you know something about the Samaritan woman at the well, it is probably that she’s a whore. And the funny thing is, this one thing that everyone knows about her is almost certainly wrong (there are many possible explanations for her serial relationships besides that).
Rather than being suspicious of her sexuality, try this on for size: the Samaritan woman at the well is a thoughtful theologian. That’s what is actually there when we look at the text.
In fact, this is the longest theological conversation Jesus has with an individual recorded in any of the Gospels. And the discussion centers around debates between the Jews and Samaritans about worship.
Look with me at 5 touch points in these theological debates:
Samaritan identity
Samaritan ritual purity
The importance of the Patriarchs
The Messiah as the Knower of Secrets
The proper place of worship
Read on, or watch this video to find out more about how Jesus and the woman navigate these 5 key areas of theological disagreement in their discussion.
Samaritan identity
Many Jews of Jesus’ day considered the Samaritans to be religiously inferior.
Their exact history and origins is shrouded in mystery. According to their own traditions, they were the true Jews. According to most Jewish voices, they were at best potential proselytes, and at worst pagans. When the woman asks about, “Our father, Jacob,” she is making a claim that both Jews and Samaritans stem from the faithful patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Jesus never challenges that. He yields the point that they really are connected to the patriarch Jacob, thus having some claim to being part of the covenant people.
Samaritan ritual purity
This identity question is deeply relevant to a major related concern: ritual purity.
Based on what we can gather from sources of the day, many Jewish teachers would have viewed Samaritans in general, and Samaritan women in particular, as unclean. For Jesus to have this conversation at all, and especially to ask for a drink of water from her, was out of bounds.
Uncleanness was passed on by contact, especially by drinking vessels. And Jesus was asking for a drink, of all things. By his mere presence and asking for a drink, Jesus is registering a theological point about the view many Jews had of Samaritans in his day.
The Samaritan woman is picking up on something important happening here.
The importance of the patriarchs
The patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—played an elevated role in the religious practices of the Samaritans.
That’s because they didn’t use the same Bible as most Jews. They only accepted the first five books of what we call the Old Testament. Because of this elevated role that patriarchs play, her question about how Jesus stacks up against the patriarch Jacob is actually a theologically weighty one.
In essence, she is asking Jesus, “Who do you think you are, saying you are greater than the main vehicles through which God made himself known? What is your authority, you odd traveling Jewish rabbi who is asking me for a drink? where do you stack up against Jacob?”
She’s asking a theological question that is right on the money. After all, Jesus is claiming that he can give her better water than Jacob, the great patriarch. And water that gives life beyond any normal property.
That’s a big claim.
Messiah as the Knower of Secrets
The hinge point of the conversation comes when Jesus reveals knowledge about the woman’s life secrets.
This is really important because, as we just mentioned in the prior point, the Samaritans only accepted the first five books of the Bible. When they envisioned the coming Rescuer from God, they were not thinking of a Messiah in the line of David, like the Old Testament prophets point to. No. They were looking further back.
Back to Moses.
Deuteronomy 18:18 records God’s promise of sending another prophet like Moses. The Samaritans look to this person they called the Taheb. And the distinguishing feature of this Samaritan version of the Messiah was that he would be a knower of secrets who could reveal all things.
And, what do you know, Jesus shows up saying, “You’re right to say ‘I have no husband,’ because you’ve had five husbands and the one you’re with now is not your husband.”
Jesus is revealing secrets.
What’s up with the five husbands?
Jesus pointing out that she’s had five husbands is much more than an attempt to embarrass her with scandalous dirty laundry.
Indeed, since everything else in this discussion is deeply laden with symbolic meaning we’re encouraged to at least think through further why out of all the things he could have said, Jesus pointed to her marital life. Here, we are helped to think of the Jewish prophetic tradition of the Old Testament in which marriage and adultery is a key picture of religious fidelity. Pointing to her marriage history, Jesus at one and the same time shows himself as the Knower and Revealer of secret things and also as a great prophet challenging her on her faithfulness to the God she proclaims to worship.
That the woman responds with, “I see you are a prophet, so let’s talk about the right place to worship,” confirms that she is tracking with this discussion.
The proper place of worship
Any theological discussion between a Jew and a Samaritan has to discuss the proper place of worship.
The chief bone of contention between them is that the Samaritans claimed you should worship God on Mount Gerizim while the Jews claim you worship God on Mount Zion. Since Jesus has so far presented himself as greater than Jacob and one who can reveal secret knowledge, she asks him to weigh in on this thorny question. She is on a quest for knowledge at this point. One might say, she has left her quest for water far behind and is trying to find living water instead.
Jesus steps up to her question with the earth-shaking claim that he is God’s Messiah and is reshaping the landscape of worshipping God so that both Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Zion are taken up into something more complete, and more beautiful.
A bridegroom seeking a bride
The Woman at the well proves to be the perfect bride for Jesus.
No, to be clear, Jesus didn’t marry her (nor is there any reason to believe he married anyone else, either). But, metaphorically speaking, she is the perfect bride. The one ready to receive him as Messiah with worship. Worship in spirit and in truth.
This bride/bridegroom image is encouraged by the very shape of the account.
When we look at the whole Bible we see a repeated pattern of meeting by a well. Jacob’s servant meets Rachel by the well, Moses meets Zipporah there, etc. And this isn’t the first time in the Gospel of Johwn we’ve encountered the picture of Jesus as a bridegroom in search of a bride.
The wedding feat at Cana back in John 2 encourages us to see Jesus as a bridegroom come looking for a New Israel, a New People of God, that is, a new bride.
The woman at the well stands there toe-to-toe, asking all of the good questions, and coming to all the right conclusions as Jesus leads her on into a new understanding. This is exactly the new sort of bride that Jesus comes to rescue.
This woman and her conversation here is a picture for all time of how to receive Jesus.
And it’s a beautiful picture that unfolds in this deep and thoughtful theological discussion.
For a church to thrive, it must value relationships. That’s where meaningful life change happens. These three pictures show how lives are changed in relationships.
Imagine showing up to The Big House and seeing 50,000 other people dressed in maize and blue shirts, just like you. Immediate connection. The shared shirt brings you into something bigger than yourself: a relationship.
The starting point for changing lives is making connections.
Swimming is easy, once you’ve learned how. Since your body more or less floats anyway, the art of swimming is learning to relax into the support of the water rather than fight to stay on top. Gaining this comfortable familiarity requires time wading in the shallows, then venturing out into the deeps.
Lives are changed in relationship as people build comfortable familiarity. This comfortable familiarity allows people to take off their masks, to be more open and honest with each other about their strengths and weaknesses–and the odd ways those are intertwined.
A friend with a sheep farm occasionally had rams that wouldn’t stop fighting. The solution? Tie them together with a very short strap. The result? After being forced to do everything together–eat, sleep, play, walk, etc.–they became fast friends.
The deepest change comes in lives that are bound together by a lasting relational connection. Lives are deeply shaped by sticking together and sticking it out.
Want a thriving church? How are you moving from shirts to sheep?
Biblical truth is like a sign. Road signs give an important piece of information to guide you about the right way to act at the moment: STOP, turn right, get on the off ramp, etc. Signs are extremely useful.
Just like road signs, biblical truth gives important information to guide you about the right way to act in the moment. Some famous signs in the Bible: the 10 Commandments, Jesus’ Great Commandments, and the Golden Rule. Valuing biblical truth begins with following the signs.
Signs are helpful, but only when you already know where you are going. You could drive around a roundabout forever and never violate a sign…and never get anywhere. Enter the GPS. It tells you how to get from where you are to where you are going. The big picture is essential for successful travel.
Just like a GPS, biblical truth gives the big picture of where life should go. Valuing biblical truth deepens through learning the big picture to make sense of life.
A GPS is great for guiding your journey from A to B. It helps with the “how.” But it doesn’t do much with the “who,” as in, “who are you?” For that, you need a conversation partner. A skilled conversationalist draws out who you are.
Biblical truth is a skilled conversationalist that draws you toward grace, again and again. Valuing biblical truth means engaging the conversation.
There are some passages of scripture that encourage endless speculation. What are we to make of 1 Peter 4:5-6:
5 They will face a reckoning before[a] Jesus Christ[b] who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 Now it was for this very purpose[c] that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead,[d] so that though[e] they were judged in the flesh[f] by human standards[g] they may live spiritually[h] by God’s standards.[i] (NET)
Here are a few thoughts on this passage.
There are lots of details to debate in this passage. But here’s the big picture: the dead in Christ have eternal hope; the dead outside of Christ…not so much.
Kids are experts at the hermeneutics of presentation.
Wait, what? Come again. English please.
OK. Let’s say that a little differently. Kids are experts at determining how good a gift will be based on its size, shape, and the type of wrapping paper it is in. There. The hermeneutics of presentation. Rare is the Christmas morning where parents have to say, “Timmy, stop opening up all the cards and reading them and start opening up the big presents.”
We have to teach proverbs like ‘beauty is only skin deep’ and ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ because we automatically treat beauty as skin deep and judge our books by their covers. Kids are experts at sizing up how valuable the contents of a package will be based on the way it is wrapped. Part of maturing is learning how to see through the wrappings and judge with greater clarity. Said differently, part of maturing is learning to read the way that wrapping paper guides you and choosing to accept or reject the message it sends.
And that’s a wrap
The importance of wrapping doesn’t go away when Christmas gifts turn from wrapped packages to cards with cash. The importance of wrapping hangs with us our entire lives. The ‘wrapping’ gives us cues all throughout life about what is on the inside…and how we should interact with it.
Interpreting through the wrapping is evident in Ford vs. Chevy battles. Or the John Deere vs. … wait, does anybody else make tractors even worth buying? Although it is difficult to independently find any consistent, real advantage in one over the other, try convincing someone who has learned that the running yellow deer is a symbol of the unmatchable quality of whatever machine it is emblazoned on. Brands matter. And they are essentially wrapping paper helping you interpret the contents inside.
Get the point? We are always interpreting the contents by the wrapping.
The ‘Trump’ Bible
On Good Friday morning, I read in the news about Donald Trump endorsing the God Bless the USA Bible. This Bible—a KJV, for those interested (since the KJV text is in public domain no modern publisher needs convincing to undertake the potential risk in this endeavor)—not only contains the Bible, but many core texts that have become associated with patriotism:
Handwritten chorus to “God Bless The USA” by Lee Greenwood
The US Constitution
The Bill of Rights
The Declaration of Independence
The Pledge of Allegiance
And all of this wrapped inside a cover with the American flag emblazoned on the cover, proudly sporting the phrase, “GOD BLESS THE USA.”
Others can debate the potential motives for Donald Trump to ‘endorse’ a Bible. And they should.
I’ll tell you that when I read about this, I had two feelings: (1) bewilderment and (2) a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Have we really gone there?
You are free to think and feel many things about the current political climate and candidates of our country. As a pastor writing this, I invite you to think for a few brief minutes about interpreting the wrapping paper. Because everything is wrapped up to help us interpret it. Including the GOD BLESS THE USA Bible.
When you mix politics and religion…
Is there anything wrong with publishing a Bible that has several important American legal texts and a cult-favorite song attached to it? Is there anything inherently wrong with putting an American flag on the cover of a Bible? Or the words GOD BLESS THE USA featured prominently below the title HOLY BIBLE?
I invite you to consider that the answer is yes. There is something wrong. Wrapping paper matters for how we understand what is on its inside. Framing the Bible within a particular version of the trappings of American patriotism—a flag, the God bless the USA slogan, and American legal documents—sends a message about how to understand what is wrapped up on the inside. The very idea that a potential president stands in a position to endorse the Bible is itself offensive. What possibly is lacking in the Scriptures themselves, and in their long history within our culture, that Donald Trump feels he can add to with a word of endorsement?
When you mix politics and religion you get…politics. And Jesus had some cutting guidance for us regarding politics.
God and Caesar
When Jesus was asked about paying taxes, remember what he said?
18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:18-21 ESV)
A simple lesson from this: there are concerns in following God that are bigger than the concerns of the state. In terms of wrapping paper, the bigger wrapping of life should be “rendering to God the things that are God’s,” not “rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” It is instructive that the religious leaders hadn’t thought of this when they came up to Jesus with a question they viewed as a trap. The allure of political wins in the moment tends to obscure what is God’s and what is Caesar’s.
At this moment of high political conflict, I invite us all to reflect on this key point. What you do with voting and advocating in politics has many strands of influence and many motives. Make sure one of those—and a deeply important one—is asking the question, “Whose kingdom is this advancing, God’s, or man’s?” It is hard to imagine how wrapping up the Holy Bible in the trappings of American patriotism at this juncture of American history is aimed at advancing God’s kingdom.
If there is anything true about the current moment in American politics it is that it inspires passionate feelings. Whatever passionate feelings you have in this moment, I invite you to consider this. Are the interests of God’s kingdom advanced by such an overtly political wrapping paper?
Wrappings send a message: Are you listening?
The God Bless the USA Bible is not troubling because of the Bible. Nor is it troubling because of the American patriotic and governmental texts. It is concerning because it wraps the Bible up in the trappings of American politics as though the politics are the more important reality. That sends a message. All wrapping sends a message.
