Far As The Curse Is FoundHuman Suffering & The Hope of Christmas

“The Problem of Christmas Grinches”

~ The Gospel of Matthew 26:45-54 ~

(or, Christians Behaving Badly)

“There have been a lot of horrifying—there have been a lot of

monster Christians. Hitler was a Christian.”

~ Whoopi Goldberg, Nov 17, 2015

How should we respond to the

charge of Christian hypocrisy / evil? ?

“Christians today are, in many countries, identified with a history which, at several

points, has served to obscure the gospel from the gaze of the

non-Christian: a history that includes bloody crusades and inquisitions, social intolerance

and intellectual bigotry, the selective use of biblical texts to justify slavery, sexism, colonial

imperialism, and a host of other evils.”

“Over the course of 2000 years, there has consistently been one

unanswerable objection to the Christian faith—

Christians.”

“The Problem of Christmas Grinches”

~ The Gospel of Matthew 26:45-54 ~

(or, Christians Behaving Badly)

Advent 2015: “Far As The Curse Is Found”

45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your restlater on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the handsof sinners. 46 Rise, let us be going; see,my betrayer is at hand. 47 While he wasstill speaking, Judas came, one of the

Matthew 26:45-54

…twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48Now the betrayer had given them a signsaying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” 49 And he came up to Jesusat once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!”

Matthew 26:45-54

And he kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him,“Friend, do what you came to do.” Thenthey came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched outhis hand and drew his sword and stuck the servant of the high priest and cut off

Matthew 26:45-54

…his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him,

Matthew 26:45-54

“Put away your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish bythe sword. 53 Do you think I cannot appeal to my Father and he will at oncesend me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should theScriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?

Our response on a personal level

should be gracious humility

1

Shut up, listen, & empathize.

“God, as we encounter him in the Scriptures, is a God of

justice. He seeks justice, he hates injustice, he is on the side of the victims of injustice, he is adamantly opposed to those

who perpetrate injustice, and all who live before him must in their turn seek justice and have the

courage to stand against injustice.”

~ Os Guinness

Confession & Repentance

~ CS Lewis The Four Loves

“If ever the book which I am not going to write is written, it must be full of confession by

Christendom to Christendom’s specific contribution to the sum of human cruelty. Large areas of the world will not hear us

until we have publicly disowned much of our past.

Why should they?”

~ The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1:12-16

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,

though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and

insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had

acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed

for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

~ The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1:12-16

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world

to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received

mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ

might display his perfect patience as an example to those

who were to believe in him for eternal life.

What do you believe is WRONG with the

WORLD?

GK Chesterton

“I am.”What do you

believe is WRONG with the

WORLD?

Our response on a practical level

should be courageous truth

2

The link between a belief & its outcome is important to examine. Some bad behavior,

however, is an accurate reflection of a belief, while other bad behavior is such a contradiction

of its belief that it is no reflection at all.

”~ Os Guinness Unspeakable

“

Jesus forbids…

• violence toward enemies (Matthew 5)

• arrogance towards others (Matthew 7)

• coercion (Matthew 22)

• oppression of the poor (Matthew 23)

• abuse of power (Matthew 23)

• hatred & murder (Matthew 23)

• advancing his cause by violence (Mt. 26)

Jesus seeks alignment between belief & behaviour

…he questions the integrity of faith if there is no good works along with it

(James 2:14-26)

…he criticized the church for failure to follow his teachings

(Revelation 2-3; Matthew 23)

…he set up a system for the church to police herself, i.e., church discipline

(Matthew 18)

image: Christopher Brown

Only Christianity offers the world a God who has suffered

at the hands of religious people.

Some behaviour is an accurate reflection of faith in Christ,

while other behaviour is an actual contradiction of faith in Christ.

“As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God.”

by Matthew Parris ~ Dec 27, 2008

Imagine…

image credit: Jeff Wallace https://www.flickr.com/photos/wherezjeff/10303547696/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

flickr images courtesy of:

other images used for educational purposes:http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/whoopi-goldberg/images/31581577/title/whoopi-goldberg-photo

image: Christopher Brown https://www.flickr.com/photos/coltrane/3531948937/https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/