Not My Jesus: A Heretical Rant

We have been reading Matthew's Gospel for months at Vespers, and this week we come to the end before the passion.  Each day we hear another parable of the coming judgment.  We've had the parable of the wicked tenants, the parable of the wedding banquet, the parable of the wicked slave, the parable of the bridesmaids.  Tonight is the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14-31).  Over and over, we hear that people will be thrown into the outer darkness, put to a miserable death, cut in pieces.

Last night was the last straw for me.  The foolish bridesmaids will be locked out of the kingdom.  They missed their only chance.  The bridegroom refuses to know them.

I'm sorry, this is not the God I know.  It's not the Jesus I follow.  The God I know pays the late laborers as much as the early ones; loves the lost; welcomes prodigals.  I believe that Jesus knew that God, and tried to teach the rest of us.  But Matthew missed that lesson.

Now, this is so important because for centuries Matthew was the primary Gospel, the one read in church on Sundays (which meant, for most people, the only one they knew).  His message is great for scaring people into behaving, which served the needs of an imperial Church, but it's not a message for lovers and seekers.  It is a message of hatred and fear cloaked as something else.

I know that's not all that's in Matthew's Gospel.  But there's a lot of it.  And it is toxic.  It deforms those who believe its message, and it perverts the public image of Christianity.  When religious bigots picket, threaten, condemn those they consider sinners, and do it in the name of Jesus, people who are hungry for the love of God decide that they won't find it among the followers of Jesus.

Among the Companions this is a live issue.  We run into this regularly, talking with people who can't believe in the God they were raised to believe in.  They wonder how we can be Christians, since we don't share the politics and ethics of those more visible types.  Maybe you encounter this too.

All I can do is say, That is not my God!  That is not my Jesus!  Matthew had an agenda (as did the other writers, don't get me wrong).  He saw through a glass darkly.  There are other messages in the Scripture, just as "canonical," that counter these threats.

Yes, there's a truth there: we can go to the outer darkness.  But we go there, God doesn't send us.  When we live with hate in our hearts, even (or especially) hatred masquerading as piety, we are in the outer darkness.  When we live in fear of God, we are locked out of the banquet.  But we cast ourselves out - God is waiting for us to find our way in.  God will welcome us.

So what if your oil is low and you're late?  We're so glad you got here!  Have a plate.  Let's dance.  A baby is being born.