What Would Jesus Do?

Government Covid propaganda has put the kybosh on Christmas for 2021. Celebrations have been cancelled because the indoctrinated, rigid with fear, refuse to socialise with the unvaxxed or insist they produce a negative Rapid Antigen Test to participate. What in the world have we become?

Traditionally Christmas is a celebration of God’s love and forgiveness but this year some churches have refused entry to second class citizens. They have abandoned the very essence of Christmas.

Besides the fact that peak viral load is the same regardless of vaccination status or variant type (vaccination does not stop Covid spread), segregating people by vaccination status is appalling.

What would Jesus do? In Bible times, people suffering from ‘leprosy’ were treated as outcasts. There was no cure and lepers were segregated from people free of the disease. Lepers had to ring a bell and shout “unclean” if someone approached them.

But when Jesus was confronted by a leper he did not recoil and demand the leper step back. Instead, He reached out and touched the man, healing him. The leper had acquired faith and recognised Jesus, approaching Him to say, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” (Matthew 8:1-3)

The Bible says we are born into sin, we may choose not to acknowledge it but this is our birthright. We have no merit in God’s eyes except through Jesus Christ. Our redemption rests on the biblical truth that Jesus was born into a sinful world to live a life free from sin.

Because sin has no hold over Jesus, through His death and resurrection, he destroyed evil and its hold over us. Jesus’ death is the price of our redemption.

We embrace salvation by acknowledging our inherent guilt and accepting God’s gift – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are transformed from sinners into righteousness men and women fit for the kingdom of God. This truth was demonstrated by one of the two criminals dying on their crosses beside Jesus.

“One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”

But the other responded, and rebuking him, said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our crimes; but this man has done nothing wrong.”

And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”

And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Luke 23:39-43

Perhaps the criminal who received the promise had an epiphany as he hung there dying but more likely he already acknowledged his sin and recognised the extraordinary man dying next to him as the Son of God. Jesus was the promise of this criminal’s redemption and the hope of our salvation.

There is nothing sanctimonious about the criminal but you can be sure the sanctimonious resented him. God’s faithful do not take credit for their salvation; it is not their doing but divine intervention.

Just as Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you,” (Matthew 26:11) in a different situation He might have said, “The sanctimonious you will always have with you.”

The sanctimonious are throughout the Old and New Testaments and still pass judgement today. They are church leaders and high profile Christians, Flash-Harrys who thrive on religious appearance and a proclivity to contrive rules and regulations to dispense ungodly justice. They have not changed in 2500+ years.

“Both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in my house I have found their evil, declares the LORD.”

Jeremiah 23:11 (626-586BC)

Sanctimonious Christians should be avoided like the plague. Jesus annoyed them by fraternising with unworthy sinners and calling them out for insincerity, so they spied on Him and plotted to trap Him.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”

Matthew 23:27

They make themselves out to be holy, without actually achieving holiness, creating a toxic culture that promotes evil.

Shunning the unvaccinated is evil and heartless. Hiding behind government inspired Covid fear, grooming and nurturing it to justify their evil, they do not understand the principles and teachings of Jesus.

Jesus would do today what He did in the Jewish temple back in His day. He literally threw out the merchants who had turned His Father’s house into a market place for personal gain.

“Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.“It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’ ”

Matthew 21:12-13

This image of Jesus is a picture of piety, gentleness and powerlessness. Can you imagine this Jesus throwing tables, merchandise and people out into the street?

A violent Jesus is not an image that readily springs to mind but it reflects God’s jealousy for His people, a pattern throughout the Old Testament. God is slow to anger but fair. He was justified in destroying the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone and sending plagues into Egypt to force Pharoah (believed to be Rameses II) into freeing the Israelites. The sanctimonious are unfamiliar with this powerful God; their invented God is malleable and ineffectual.

It is easier to embrace a religious concept of God rather than develop a personal relationship with a multifaceted, loving God who demands accountability.

Religion has the appearance of faith but not the heart of God. Religion justifies poor choices and convinces others of their merit, but God is not fooled and neither are true believers.