Now that's just silly...

I cannot resist...

The Rev. Jessie Jackson is teaching that Jesus was an "occupier."  Now that is just silly!

The sweet, sweet Gospel is not about civil rights or cultural change.  The sweet, sweet Gospel is about Jesus.  Period.  End of story.

Jesus, being Emmanuel, being God-with-us, is about how God came to earth to fulfill the Law since we, born of sin, could not.  Jesus tabernacled among us, as John puts it, to live and die that we might die and live in Him, rather than in ourselves.  For His sake, we are counted righteous and escape the wrath and judgement our sinful lives would normally incur.

Jesus did not come to change Jewish Law or Roman Law or any type of civil or cultural laws.  He did not come to break the Law.  He came to uphold the Law.  By that very act, He was not living a life of civil disobedience or advocating for civil or cultural change!  By that very act, there is no way that He could be termed, labeled, judged an occupier!

When Jesus walked this earth, He did not heal everybody or wipe out all illness.  When Jesus walked this earth, He did not redistribute wealth or wipe out poverty.  When Jesus walked this earth, He did not set all captives free or ban slavery.

What Jesus did do was teach the truth, correct and condemn the things of man that had crept into the things of God (false teaching), take all sin upon Himself, suffer God's wrath and judgment in our place, die and rise again for us, and leave to prepare a place for us in heaven.

We live in a sinful world.  Jesus knew and understood that.  Until He returns again, there will always be poverty, illness, immorality, theft, murder, graft, corruption, and the like.  The sweet, sweet Gospel is not about changing those things.  The sweet, sweet Gospel is about Jesus coming for us, for me, for Myrtle, so that you and I might have eternal life.

Leaving the Holy Spirit to heal and save, guide and teach us, Jesus gave us the opportunity to serve His flock through our stations and vocations of life.  Even as a slave.  Even as a homeless veteran.  Even as a terminally ill child.

My writing partner, a woman who is most skilled at giving the sweet, sweet Gospel in such gentle and loving and simple ways, has been teaching me a bit about witnessing. I think the most marvelous bit is that what we testify to is not ourselves, our lives, our works, or our faith, but the self (the God-Man) of Jesus, His life, His work, His faith.  We have faith because it is a gift.  We receive that love and mercy and forgiveness and healing.  Even if we are a slave.  Even if we are homeless.  Even if we are dying.  So, well, even in the despair and anguish and confusion of the past year, I was still witnessing.  In fact, I was a good witness.

I quote this bit of the Christian Book of Concord all the time. Perhaps it really is my favorite bit, if by favorite, we narrowed down to a top 10 List...okay...a top 100 List.  I like it because it is absurd.  I like it because it is profound.  I like it because it is simple.  I like it because it is the mystery of God:


In order to retain the Gospel among people, He openly sets the confession of saints against the kingdom of the devil and, in our weakness, declares His power.  ~BOC, AP, V, (III), 68

What is my confession?

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.

Hmm...no civil disobedience there.  No woe is my lot.  No need to change the community, the government, the world.  Just God the Father, who created us and sent His Son to save us, Jesus and what He does for us, and the Holy Spirit and what He brings and gives and does for us. Our triune God does all of this for us just as we are...sinful, broken, anguished, arrogant, confused, deluded, egocentric, selfish, despairing, struggling, wretched human beings.  This is because it is not about us, about our faith or our works. It is about Jesus.  Our worth is not in what we do, but in who we are.  So, Jesus is about God cherishing His creation, longing to be restored to us even though we are sinners, and sending His Son so that we are made righteous and holy and can be in His presence once more.

Receiving faith, being forgiven, living in grace, having mercy poured out upon you...well, that very well might make you love and tend to your neighbor, give to the poor, comfort the ill, visit the imprisoned.  The Holy Spirit bears fruit in our lives and sometimes that fruit can change just us, those in our immediate vicinity, or even a corner of the world.

But Jesus is not about that, is not about the fruit of the faith given to us, not about the ways in which God tends to His creation through His creation.  Jesus is about the Law, respecting the Law, recognizing our inability to keep it so that we might be spared condemnation and eternal death, and living that Law in our place, keeping it for us.

So, with all due respect, Rev. Jackson, you are wrong.  Jesus is not an occupier.  Jesus is a Mediator, an Advocate, a Sacrifice, A Propitiation, a Redeemer, a Savior.  He is all those things precisely because, in love, He came not to destroy or change or set aside the Law, but to fulfill it for you, for me, for us all.


Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!