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| Communism in Poland. And you thought Franklin's was bad. |
There's a Robin Hood version of Jesus in the popular imagination with whom I have an on-again/off-again relationship.
On one hand, I like that just about the entire world wants a piece of Jesus of Nazareth. Even hard-core secularists who indict the God of Abraham for alleged war crimes and laugh off the Holy Spirit as a mere superstition revere Jesus to some degree. They like what he represented. He "stuck it to The Man" and preached love and forgiveness. Even Gandhi, a Hindu's Hindu, famously said "'I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
It's that Folk Hero Jesus that paves the way for me to introduce my Lord and Savior to just about anyone I meet. It's like asking someone if they'd like to talk about Mr. Rodgers. Evangelism made easy.
On the other hand, I cannot stand the way personal attitudes and biases are often projected on Jesus. Because he preached forgiveness, he must be indifferent to whatever sin you're practicing. Because he was all about healing the sick and helping the blind to see, then anyone who boldly preaches Christ (or happens to hurt someone's feelings otherwise) must be a hypocrite that has never read the Red Letters.
This Folk Hero version of Jesus I can do without, as it flies square in the face of many things Jesus taught as a perfect Jew and one with God the Father. The one who would go to the bar and have a drink with you, while laughing his way through all the heartache and bad life decisions. "Buddy Jesus."
Fewer than 12 percent of Christians surveyed (according to a Barna study) thought Joan of Arc was Noah's Wife. A recent Lifeway Research study discovered only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week, 40 percent occasionally, and 1 in 5 never read it at all.
Non-Christians read the Bible even more seldom, naturally. But this doesn't stop them from building opinions about Jesus. Be their misconceptions stem from church tradition, folklore, non-Christian religions, or even TV, it's comforting to believe a popularly-held lie.
In a recent worship gathering, I thought I'd engage in a little myth-busting on these folk tales about Jesus. I'm not talking about apocryphal accounts of Jesus (such as turning clay into pigeons or rebellious children into goats or a Gnostic take on the crucifixion) but the twists-of-truth that plague us even in the 21st Century.
Here are four I could think of off-hand. If you can think of any others, by all means leave a comment!
