Counter-cultural

Somedays when I read part of the Bible it strikes me as completely counter to the world we live in.  No book does that more than Matthew.  Matthew was a man who used his position in government to get rich.  Yet contrary to what most people would do, he gave it all up to follow Jesus.  It is not surprising that he wrote about Jesus as King of a kingdom that has a value system completely opposite of the world’s values.  Jesus’ teachings are presented in a way that some might actually find threatening.

One part that strikes at the heart of western civilization is chapter 19.  Three main points are made in the chapter, and they all strike at the heart of my home culture.  They attack the sacred cow of personal happiness in a way that even people in professional ministry tend to explain away.

The first point made is about divorce.  In the west divorce is quite common.  Everyone knows many people who are divorced.  Multiple divorcees are not uncommon.  When a spouse does not meet our desires, it is common practice to find a new one.

Jesus’ said that divorce is never good, and only in the case of marital unfaithfulness is remarriage after a divorce permissible.  The marriage itself is more important even than the personal satisfaction of its members.  This is not only a radical teaching today, but it was radical back then.  In fact, even Jesus’ disciples thought that it would be better to throw out the institution of marriage all together than to abide by what Jesus taught.

In the same way, many Christians today find excuses to ignore this teaching.  Divorce and remarriage is common in churches, and happens for all kinds of reasons.  People will say of their marriage, “I just wasn’t happy.”  Western culture teaches that a marriage can be terminated and a new spouse found when it is convenient.  Jesus taught that marriage is sacred and not to be abandon lightly.  

The second point Jesus makes in this chapter is about children.  People brought children to Jesus and His disciples tried to send them away.  They did not see the value in kids, but Jesus said that to such as them “belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

Western culture does not have a great love for children.  In America for example, we have a massive billion-dollar industry specifically designed to kill children before they are born.  Half of my country supports this industry, and the other half mostly turns a blind eye to it.  I know of several Christians in professional ministry who argue in favor of this industry.

After kids are born, they still are often not valued.  It does not take much to find posts on social media about how annoying children are and how much they make our lives difficult.  It is not uncommon to find Christians, even in formal ministry, who consider their own children as secondary to their work, hobbies, or personal happiness.  Do we, like the disciples, see kids as merely a nuisance that we have to tolerate?  Jesus saw them as extremely valuable and worthy of His time and love.

The third point made in this chapter is about money.  A rich man who had obeyed God’s word all his life asked what he needed to do to inherit eternal life.  Jesus told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor.  This made the rich man sad.  Jesus then made His famous statement, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Essentially, he was saying that it is humanly impossible for a rich person to go to heaven.  His disciples got the point and asked, “Who then can be saved?”  Jesus responded, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  I other words, rich people can go to heaven, but only on God’s terms.  (This is no different than for anyone else by the way.  We all need Jesus to be saved.)

If you are from the west, you might not think of yourself as rich, but you probably are.  By western standards I do not make a lot of money.  Many people express surprise at our low income.  One person even once asked me, “How do you survive?”  Yet my income is several times higher than the average worldwide annual income.  In other words, I am far richer than most people in the world.  The poor person in the west is almost always richer than the majority of people across the globe.

There is nothing inherently wrong with money.  However, when we like it too much it can become our god.  We do not want to give it up out of a fear that we will not be happy without it.  We run to money, not God, for security.  We put the temporal before the eternal.  Many Christians fall into this trap.  A quick web search will turn out countless ministries that promise wealth, prosperity, and happiness.  This is not promised by Jesus.

Marriage is sacred, children are valuable, and wealth should not be our hearts’ desire.  These values run counter to individualism.  When we read teachings of Jesus like this we are faced with a choice.  We can ignore Him, or we can trust and obey Him.  However, let us not fool ourselves, if we chose the former, we are not following Christ.  How then do we call ourselves Christian?