Religion and Jesus

Recently there has been a viral video that has taken the internet by storm of a young man doing some very well produced slam poetry about the problem with religious people. Most of you with an internet connection and a Facebook account have probably seen it – it’s become extremely popular registering over 15.5 million views in less than two weeks – the video is titled “Why I hate religion but love Jesus” and if my friends list on Facebook is any indication it has been met with great applause and appreciation from Christians and non-Christians alike.

The central message of this video is that the legalists (or the religious people as the presenter identifies them)  have lost sight of who Jesus was and what he called the church to be by transforming the community into a religious (legalistic) and judgemental place where Grace is merely an abstract idea – not something that is practiced; and where plastic people put on false facades of perfection while their lives underneath bear little resemblance to the standards they inflict upon everyone else.

When the video first appeared in my Facebook newsfeed I really resonated with what he said – as many of his statements are things that I have said from the pulpit to my congregation (probably not as eloquently or with as high a production value mind you). I especially loved one descriptor of the church he gave: he says at about the half-way mark of his poem that the church is, “Not a museum for good people, but a hospital for the broken”.

AMEN to that and to many of his other statements about grace and atonement and the like. But later the message gets a little troubling – He goes onto say that “Jesus HATES religion” that “Jesus came to abolish religion” and that “Jesus and religion are on opposite sides of the spectrum”.

As exciting and galvanizing as that sounds – it just doesn’t hold up when tested against scripture.

Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” And

“Anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The truth of the matter is that Jesus came to redefine what acts of righteousness and devotion were – but he didn’t come to abolish religion. He came instead to call us to lives of lawfulness in response to his free gift of grace upon the cross. Yes, he challenged legalism and yes, he seemed to be in constant conflict with the Pharisees over their hypocrisy and blind adherence to rules – but that wasn’t because he was against religion; it’s because he wanted them to understand that God calls us to a different type of religion.

James 1:27 says: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

This is a different definition of religion than the ones the Pharisees and teachers of the law had, and it is also a different definition of religion than our poet purports. Jesus’ sort of religion looks markedly different than what the Pharisees were practicing – than the Sabbath laws that Jesus was constantly accused of breaking; than the ritual purity codes that Jesus was continually running afoul of – but it is still religion.

True religion, as Jesus modelled and James describes, helps us fulfil the two greatest commandments – to love God, and love our neighbours. I’m really simplifying things here but the reality is that religion according to Scripture is a good thing. And for that reason Jesus came to fulfil the law – not abolish it.

I applaud the work of our internet poet who has rightly called the Church out for some of her hypocrisy and exhorted her to resemble more the redeemed community of God’s people while at the same time bringing the Gospel message back into the public consciousness through this well produced video. I admire his evident passion for Jesus and his love for the church – but we need to be careful how quickly we allow ourselves to get carried along in the latest internet fad and swallow whole an explanation of the Gospel without critically taking it back to the Bible for evaluation.

I’m a religious person who loves Jesus –and I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be.