Jesus would probably punch you in the face

I started Eldridge Cleaver’s Soul on Ice today. Cleaver was a founding father of the Black Panthers. The depth of emotion felt by the men and women who led the civil rights movement always amazes me. Those folks hated injustice and racism at the core of their beings. For many of them oppression provided a unique opportunity to be able to identify and attack evil in a way many people will never experience. Likewise, equality and freedom was a tangible manifestation of the greatest good. As real to them as the hem of Christ’s garment to the woman with the aliment of blood, they fought social norms and each other for a chance to simply touch an unimaginable good.

I wonder sometimes about the discrepancy between civil right’s leaders’ passion for equality and Christians’ passion to live for Christ. I think of Jesus and his disciples as social radicals. It doesn’t seem that hard to do. Like many revolutionaries what Jesus said had an uncanny way of pissing everyone off. Jesus met people with marital problems and he told them to quit sleeping around. He met religious leaders, who could have been his greatest allies, and he calls them liars and cheats. I often imagine Peter having talks with Jesus that go something like:

Peter: Hey Jesus, man I need you to chill out on the “you brood of vipers” and “if you love me you’ll eat me,” talk. You’re gonna get us all killed.

Jesus: Um Peter, last time I checked I was the head of this deal right?

Peter: Right.

Jesus: Kay thanks – just checkin. If you’re not cool with the program, you don’t have to follow me around the desert. There’s plenty of fish in the sea, if you know what I mean.

I bet Jesus was pushy. But not in the way we think of Evangelicals asking for money on TV. He was the kind of guy that would get himself killed making speeches convincing workers to strike for unfair wages. Who wouldn’t wear clothes made by Ralph Lauren or the Gap because they were made in sweatshops. The kind of Guy that wouldn’t be a nationalist even if it cost him his life, because it would be an affront to his citizenship in heaven.

When Jesus comes back I bet he’s going to be pissed at a lot of Christians the way Stokely Carmikle was pissed at the Klan. He’s going to ride in on his white horse in white robes and cuss us all out, Christians and non-Christians alike. He’s going to swing his big sword and say “Yesterday 30,000 people starved to death while you were arguing about whether gay people can get married in churches,” and then he’s going to punch somebody in the stomach. And a little poor kid is going to cry and say a prayer of thanks.