07- Christ the Adversary

He wasn't always Mr. Nice Guy

This is a guest post by a friend and coworker who always keeps me thinking. Just remember, flog HIM with the wet noodle! All kidding aside, this is pretty good and will definitely make you think! —Art

 I would like to start by thanking Art for welcoming me to his platform as a place for the free exchange of radical ideas. Jesus was a radical, a fact too often forgotten, and I am so thankful to work with a fellow radical Christian. In keeping with this awesome blog's theme of challenging commonly held notions, this guest post can be no different!

 Jesus Christ was an adversarial figure. With these opening words, some might assume I am speaking of the warrior king Jesus referenced in the book of Revelation, coming to annihilate the Anti-Christ and his armies. You might also assume I am referencing the view of Jesus as the judge, in which you will be confronted for all of your sins. Neither of these instances are what I want to talk about here. Another objection might be, Satan translates to “the adversary” in Hebrew, and Jesus is the opposite of Satan! Well, that is true. But just like the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang, in two opposite things, one side will always contain some element of the other within itself. 

 Now that you’ve got your pearls good and clutched, let’s look at the big man in question. In Jesus‘s ministry, who were his adversaries? For anyone who has studied any of the four gospels, you will have some ideas. The Roman State and the Religious Authority. Now, did Jesus start his ministry by going out and attacking these groups? Did he teach us to go pick fights with the authorities? No he did not. Yet, he was still drawn into conflict with these forces. Why? Let us read the scripture. 

 I would like to focus on two passages. Most Christian’s are familiar with the story of Jesus cleansing the temple of the money changers and merchants. These passages have been interpreted in various ways with the main focus typically being on the act of turning over the tables and Jesus’s messages to the money changers. But what I wish to look at is the later part of the chapter. Mark 11:18 ESV tells us after the events at the temple “And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching.” 

 The second passage I would like to quote is a little more lengthy, but I promise I’m getting to my point!

‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭30‬-‭34‬, ‭39 says “I and the Father are one.” The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? Again they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.”‬ 

 In both of these passages, Jesus is breaking down unjust hierarchies and challenges the religious authorities by showing the hypocrisy of the Priesthood in the first and bringing people into a direct relationship with God’s Love in the latter. Is he antagonizing these priest for antagonism's sake? No. Jesus brings himself into an adversarial relationship with the authorities by standing with the masses of the poor and meek. In Liberation Theology, a theological school pioneered by the Latin American Catholic Church, there is a concept called the “preferential option for the poor.” This refers to a trend throughout the Bible of priority being given to the well-being of the poor and powerless of society over the rulers of society. This is especially prominent in the teaching of Jesus. Just as when Jesus challenged the church, many religious authorities in the Catholic Church tried to suppress this theological tendency. My point in all this being, the core of this adversarial dynamic is not the antagonistic actions or words of Christ, but of the authorities' rejection of God’s Love. They are the ones who choose to be on the side of the powerful over the meek. And in this decision, they are rejecting Christ.

 So what does all of this mean for Christians today? One of the greatest examples of what it means to be Christ-like in modern history was the example set by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Nearly everyone claims to uphold the legacy of Dr. King and claims they would be in support of him during the Civil Rights Movement. In reality judging by the statistics, you wouldn’t. According to the Harris Poll, at the time of his assassination Dr. King had a disapproval rating of 75%. Dr. King was not afraid to take radical stands, regardless of public opinion. Just as Christ did, Dr. King fought for the poor and downtrodden to the point he became a target of government repression. 

 If our ministry to the poor and downtrodden doesn’t make the establishment nervous like the ministry of Jesus and Dr. King did, are we really living up to the radical example Christ has set? I would argue no, we are not. What social issues or political positions can we see today that are wildly unpopular with mainstream Christianity, but might actually be closer to Christ’s values? When a business tries to bust a union drive, when a landlord raises the rent and ignores his tenets’ pleas for repairs, when a government defunds education and public aid while increasing military spending, it is the duty of all Chistians to take up the love of Christ, the deep love for the poor and and toiling masses, and join the side of the righteous. And when that love for the poor brings you into conflict with the modern money changers and arrogant priests, then we will know we are living as Christ did.

Joshua Blankenship-

02/2024