Jesus Unmasked

"Get behind me, Satan!"

Ouch. This is how Jesus answers Peter when Peter expresses that he doesn't want Jesus to die? Sounds rather harsh.

Actually, a lot of Jesus's words in this passage sound harsh and hard ... There is no sugar-coating either his fate or that of his followers. How are we supposed to find blessing and "good news" when Jesus speaks of Satan, crosses, and shame?

Jesus's words begin to make more sense when we realize that he is subverting the most common human ideas of how to bring about peace and justice in the midst of an unjust, violent world. He tells Peter to tell no one that he is the Messiah because many expect the Messiah to violently overthrow the Roman Empire in order to usher in the Messianic age, where the lion will lie down with the lamb and there will be peace, harmony, and justice. How do most people think a violent empire or system must be overthrown? Through superior violence! Jesus doesn't want to rile up an army, or have followers who use him as a rallying point to be over-and-against not only Rome, but others who don't accept Jesus's Messiahship. Jesus wants to subvert "over-againstness" against people altogether. He wants to show that the only way to peace is through radical forgiveness which stimulates repentance: change of heart and mind and vision.goin

So when Peter rebukes Jesus for saying that the Son of Man must be killed, he isn't just saying that he doesn't want Jesus to die... although I'm sure he is concerned for his friend and leader. He is also asking, "How can the Messiah die? What good could possibly come from this? How is this going to help us against Rome?" And Jesus is saying that responding to violence with violence can only lead to more violence. He is rebuking the false way to peace: accusation and violence. That is what he means by "Satan." And there is a degree of "Satan" in all of us. Satan isn't a horned demon -- it's that voice in all of us that tries to solve problems through blame, scapegoating, exclusion, and violence.

Jesus isn't going to lead people to take up swords. To follow Jesus, we have to turn our swords upside-down into crosses. Instead of returning violence for violence, we are called to forgive, to see the potential for redemption and goodness in everyone. (Please note, that doesn't mean continue in abusive relationships. We talk about that extensively in these podcasts.)

The cross is an instrument of shame as well as death. In a violent world, pacifists and people who forgive are often shamed. But when Jesus says, "Those who are ashamed of me... of them will the Son of Man be ashamed," he is not speaking only of himself. He is saying that the shame we pour onto victims of violence and marginalization will return to us when we understand our violence and exclusion for what it is. This isn't punishment, but a consequence of love... when hearts break open, remorse is the natural result. That remorse gives way to better when we move beyond our violence to understanding our interconnection. It's that fundamental interconnection, to each other and to God, that Jesus shows us in his life, death, and resurrection.

Adam and Lindsey further flesh out these ideas in this week's episode of Jesus Unmasked. Our friends always help us wrestle blessings from these difficult passages, so please join us every Wednesday, at 9 am CT/ 11 am PT for Jesus Unmasked live on the Raven Foundation FB page.

"For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come... and they defile a person."

Some pharisees and scribes are wondering why Jesus's disciples don't wash their hands before they eat. Jesus scolds them for teaching "human precepts as doctrines" and then explains that nothing going into a person from the outside can defile, but the evil that defiles comes from the human heart.

Is Jesus anti-hygiene? More like, Jesus is anti-exclusion and anti-judgmentalism. He doesn't want us to make judgments of who is in and who is out. He doesn't want us look at our fellow human beings with disgust just because they may be unwashed. Jesus wants us to truly love everyone, particularly the vulnerable not just in theory but in the full reality of dirt and sweat and smell.

When we make judgments about who is "clean" versus who is "unclean," who is "righteous" and who is "sinful" based on rituals and purity standards, we forget that the incarnation broke every purity rule imaginable. Cleanliness is good and healthy, but is it really next to Godliness? God was born in a barn! God was born among the dirt and sweat and filth of humanity and all creation. God continues to be in solidarity with the vulnerable, the poor, the marginalized. And we can't follow God unless we're willing to get our hands dirty!

But we also need to be humble enough to remember that every human community has rituals and traditions, including ourselves. Sometimes people interpret this text as anti-ritual and anti-Jewish, thinking that Jesus came to get rid of rituals. But rituals are part of human life, both religious and secular. The point is not anti-ritual, it's anti-exclusion and judgment.

Exclusion and condemnation themselves are the sins of the human heart that Jesus warns us to guard against. When we judge who is "in" or "out" based on conformity to our standards, we devalue and dehumanize others. Every sin of Jesus mentions -- murder, licentiousness, avarice, envy, etc. -- starts with forgetting the humanity of the "other" with whom we interact.

Thus, this a call to humility, to refrain from judgment, and to reorient ourselves from "calling out" to "calling in."

Adam, Lindsey, and friends discuss these verses as they apply to the pandemic today. Even with the real risk of Covid 19 for ourselves and others, how is Jesus calling us to remember the humanity and image of God in those who are skeptical or reluctant when it comes to masks and vaccinations? This is a difficult conundrum, because the call to from condemnation is clear, but exactly how to lovingly persuade may not be so obvious.We ponder and pray on the issue.

And we invite you to ponder and pray with us not only on our podcast, but every Wednesday, live, at 11 am CT/ 9 am PT on the Raven Foundation Facebook page.

"Those who eat of my flesh and drink of my blood abide in me, and I in them."

Okay, Jesus. You've been going on about eating your flesh and drinking your blood for a while now, and it's getting weird.

"The Jews" aren't the only ones asking, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 2000 years later, plenty of Christians and people of other faiths baffled by this metaphor.

Implications of cannibalism may not be that far off. Jesus says this knowing that his body will literally be torn apart. He will be whipped and humiliated and his body will be broken on the cross. And through it all, he will be in solidarity with those who are also marginalized, abandoned, condemned, and broken.

In this graphic metaphor, Jesus exposes the way human beings have "cannibalized" one another. When we live over and against each other -- exploiting, oppressing, or demonizing others -- we feed our sense of identity with a false sense of division. We believe that we are "us" because we are not "them."

Sometimes enmity gives us a sense of who we are. Less consciously, apathy often blinds us to our connection with those we take for granted. Those who live in relative comfort can be unaware of the hardship imposed on the poor and vulnerable. But in so many ways, poor and vulnerable people are "consumed" -- utterly spent and depleted, while so many live at their expense.

How much "nourishment" do we feel like we get from finding our identity against enemies or at the expense of the vulnerable?

Jesus institutes communion as anti-cannibalism. In offering his body, he says, "Don't take your identity over and against others. Find yourself in me, and let my spirit dwell in you. Find your identity and your belonging in the God who loves you unconditionally and provides freely for all your needs. And as you find your belonging in God, you will recognize each other as members of God's body, interconnected and interdependent."

In gathering us together, in calling us to "re-member" him, that is, put his broken body back together in the communal act of consuming the bread and wine, Jesus is calling us to know who we are not because of our division from others, but because of our connection. When we divide, marginalize, exclude, and harm others, we diminish ourselves. We cut off our own limbs. When Jesus calls us to put his body back together, he is calling us into the restoration and healing of a broken humanity.

We know this is a lot to chew on, so we're giving you (and ourselves) a couple weeks to digest! Adam and Lindsey invite you to join them again on Wednesday, August 25, at 11 am CT/ 9 am PT on the Raven Foundation Facebook page!

New Time! Join Jesus Unmasked on FB live Wednesdays at 11 am CT/ 9 am PT! Start your morning with Jesus and friends!

"Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."

More Bread of Life this week, but also more opportunities for exclusive interpretations of scripture that don't affirm life for all. The words of Jesus have been interpreted in ways that make it seem like the fates of our souls depend on a theological test. "Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me." This scripture has been interpreted in ways that can leave us feeling empty, malnourished, and hungry for something better.

What if the Bread of Life isn't about exclusive beliefs, but something else altogether? What if it is about seeing that there is a way to be human that doesn't exclude anyone?

When Jesus calls us to believe in him, he is asking us to believe in the way of generosity and abundance. That's why it is particularly egregious to use these passages in a stingy manner that demands conformity on threat of hell for nonbelievers. As Adam, Lindsey, and friends discuss in this episode, there is no hell except what we put ourselves and each other through by believing that God's love has limits and then trying to impose those limits.

Jesus is calling us into the fullness of life by recognizing that God's love is for everyone.

When Jesus calls himself the bread that came down from heaven, he references the manna in the wilderness. He reminds the people how they came to know that God loves them, through liberating them and providing for their needs. He explains, "The way you experience the fullness of life is by remembering the love of God that provided for your material needs and understanding that that love is for everyone. I am the Bread of Life for the whole world. Anyone whom you may have considered excluded from God's love -- the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the demon-possessed, the tax collectors, everyone... God's love is all-inclusive. And that means you are to live as if all people are your brothers and sisters, because they are."

Jesus says the bread he gives for the life of the world is his flesh. That means God cares about flesh, and that means we are to care for each other not just as if our souls, but also as if our bodies and minds and all our human needs matter, because the do. Jesus gives his flesh unto death to show us that God's love extends even to those executed in God's name, and its from our forgiving victims that we recognize and are set free from cycles of violence in which we have been caught up. But Jesus's flesh does more than die -- it embraces, breaks bread, washes feet, and is physically present with the most vulnerable.

Feasting on the Bread of Life is about living in the kind of love that feeds and heals and befriends all.

Adam, Lindsey, and friends know that we are called to feast on the bread of life together, so join us every Wednesday at our new time, 11 am CT, 9 am PT for Jesus Unmasked on the Raven Foundation Facebook page. Jesus Unmasked is also available whenever you are wherever you listen to your podcasts.

"I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty." -- Jesus.

"I am here because I stole something that was never mine to take -- precious human life." -- Daniel Hale.

Whistleblower Daniel Hale is feasting on the bread of life.

This week's Gospel has a powerful message, but too often it has been interpreted through a dogmatic, exclusive lens. Like many of Jesus's statements in John, it has been used as a proof text for Jesus's divinity and a condition of salvation. But this verse is not about belonging to a particular religion or affirming a particular creed. It's about trusting in the forgiving, nonviolent love of the crucified and resurrected God.

When Jesus says, "Whoever believes in me," he isn't asking for intellectual or emotional assent to any kind of theological doctrine. He is asking us to trust in his all-inclusive, all-forgiving love.

The way of Jesus is love for all, including enemies. It is subverting the Powers that Be in order to go beyond all limits and conditions placed on love, erasing lines between "us" and "them" that divide the world into worldviews, tribes, or nations. Jesus asks us to trust in this boundary-defying love where we find our belonging in the universal Love of God and come to recognize those we had once feared or despised as children of God just like us.

Daniel Hale, who exposed the high civilian casualty rate of the US drone program, partook of the Bread of Life when he repented of his role in killing defenseless individuals as a drone-target identifier for the US military. He has been sentenced to four years in prison for exposing classified documents that show, among other things, how for a 5-month period, 90% of the people killed by drones were not the intended targets. He is being slandered as a threat to national security, when in actuality, he has made us safer by exposing and trying to stop the terrible cycles of violence that drone warfare perpetuates.

Living at war is feasting on the bread of death. We believe that violence toward our enemies will make us safer, when it instead plunges us all into destruction.

The Bread of Life is the love of the forgiving victim. On the cross, Jesus shows us that all harm done in the name of God is actually done to God. When we truly see the humanity of those we harm, when we truly see the image of God reflected in the people we exclude, oppress, fight, or kill, we are shocked out of our violence and into repentance, into a turning around that restructures our world on a foundation of togetherness and love rather than opposition and fear.

Can we see the Bread of Life not only in Jesus, but in the victims of our drone bombings? Can we, like Daniel Hale, take in the truth, feast on the bread of coming to terms with our violence, repenting, and living lives of courageous peacemaking and love?

Adam and Lindsey and friends invite you to chew on this mystery with us, and feast on the life-giving wisdom of Jesus on Jesus Unmasked every Wednesday. Please check us out at our new time, 12 CT/ 10 PT, on the Raven Foundation Facebook page!

"Who are my mother and my brothers? ... Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother."

Jesus's family is trying to "restrain" him, because rumors are starting to fly. He and his disciples are healing the sick and casting out demons, and the scribes are saying that the demons are only listening to Jesus because he has Belzebub, the prince of demons, within himself. To avoid this scandal, Jesus's blood relatives are trying to quiet him down, but Jesus won't stop and he won't shut up. He's going to keep healing, keep casting out demons, and keep loving everyone.

Is Jesus out of his mind? Of course not. But by spreading love to the most marginalized, by embracing demoniacs to cast out demons and expanding the definition of family to all who follow in his way of Love, he is breaking down the boundaries that have made "insiders" feel protected and special. What authorities are calling irrational is simply Jesus's universal, unconditional love in action.

This is the perfect passage to kick off pride week. Family goes far beyond blood. Can't you just hear Jesus singing Sister Sledge's, "We! Are! Fam-i-ly!"?

Jesus also brings the logic in addition to the love. When he's accused of casting out demons with his own demons, he asks, "How can Satan cast out Satan?" But the truth is, that's been happening for thousands of years. Fighting fire with fire. The problem with that, though, is that it leaves the whole world in flames.

Jesus comes to teach us another way.

Jesus transforms violence by stopping it in its tracks. By embracing the marginalized and healing the sick and casting out demons but restoring the people who had been haunted by demons, Jesus transforms a whole world built on sacrificing outcasts into a world of mercy. And by answering violence with forgiving love. He "binds the strong man" by putting Satan, the spirit of accusation, in a bind. By refusing to return violence for violence, Jesus stops violence in its tracks. He renders it impotent with the resurrection. The flames of violence burn themselves out, but the fire of the Holy Spirit ever kindles new life.

There's a disturbing verse about how those who blaspheme against the Spirit can never have forgiveness. It sounds scary, but what does it mean? It doesn't say God doesn't forgive. Rather, continuing to live in accusation and blame is refusing the Spirit of Forgiveness. The question becomes, how do we live into the Holy Spirit so others may dare to as well? How do we transform a world of blame and violence into trust, vulnerability, and compassion?

Once again, friends helped channel the Spirit and guide the conversation this week. If you'd like to join Adam, Lindsey, and friends, your presence would enhance our dialogue! We welcome you every Wednesday on Jesus Unmasked at 5 CT/ 3 PT on the Raven Foundation FB page!

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but so the world might be saved through him."

These verses fall on Trinity Sunday, and the combination of the most famous Bible verses with one of the most bewildering doctrines may trigger salvation anxiety for many. So often, John 3:16 is used as a litmus test for faith. The key to not perishing is believing in Jesus. And what must we believe? That Jesus is God and the Son of God and that he died to satisfy God's wrath and there's a Spirit too and one plus one plus one equals one and if we can only force our minds and hearts to accept all this contradictory and impossible information, we can go to heaven, but if not...

Breathe. That is not what this means. If we unlearn exclusive, violent interpretations attached to these verses, Love really does shine through and cast out all fear.

God loves the whole world, utterly and completely. So much that God comes and shares our human nature, to show us perfect love in the language we can best understand -- embodiment. Beyond words to presence and action and heart-to-heart connection. Relationship.

God "gave" his Son doesn't mean God "killed" his Son. Usually these verses take us straight to the cross. But before we get there, Jesus embodies love for everyone, especially the marginalized, throughout his life. He embraces women and children and lepers and the poor. He heals the sick. He feeds the hungry. He casts out demons... rather than cast out people haunted by demons. He shows that no one is beyond redemption.

"Eternal life" is not "afterlife." It's full, rich, meaningful, courageous life. Life not circumscribed by fear of death. What would we do for each other if we weren't afraid of losing or dying?

That's the kind of life we can live now if we trust in Jesus. To trust in Jesus is to trust in the one who destroys all the limits to love.

We set limits to love, love those in our "in groups," and know who we are by who we keep out. But by going to the margins and loving enemies, Jesus shows that true love is boundless. Even when he is so thoroughly dehumanized, shunned, abused, and publicly executed, he rises from the dead to say, "I love you."

Nicodemus learns this love. Utterly clueless when Jesus first speaks to him of "flesh" and "Spirit," he comes to see the true love of God in Jesus. He comes to Jesus first by night, unwilling to be seen. But after Jesus has died, he helps to bury the body in broad daylight. Moved by love to courage beyond shame and fear. And that's what it means to be born "of the Spirit."

That's the kind of Love that Jesus shares with God the Father, a perfect relationship of trusting, mutual, non-rivalrous love. And it's the Love the Holy Spirit opens to us. God is the Relationship of Love that empowers us to love fearlessly.

Lindsey and Adam invite you to join us and share the love every Wednesday on Jesus Unmasked at 5 CT/ 3 PT on the Raven Foundation FB page!

"When the Advocate comes... he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment."

The Holy Spirit is Coming! Fire and speaking in tongues and a heavenly Advocate. What does it all mean?

Pentecost was an ancient Jewish celebration before it became known as the birthday of the Christian church. It refers to 50 days after Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt, when he delivered the 10 Commandments. So when the Holy Spirit descends upon Jews gathered from every part of the known world, a connection is made between the Law and the Spirit. But what is the Spirit?

The Spirit is the Holy Wind that carries the message of God's redemptive love in Christ to the ends of the earth. It is wild, free, uncontainable. It is the Spirit of Compassion.

Connecting the Law to the Spirit means understanding God through the lens of Love. The Law cannot be an instrument of condemnation when is carried on the life-breath of mercy.

Jesus says that the Spirit will prove the world wrong about sin, because from the beginning, people have set themselves up over and against "sinners," when the original sin is over-againstness, or accusation, itself. God Incarnate is judged to be a sinner and is condemned, ridiculed, and murdered. The world was wrong about sin. The world is also wrong about righteousness when we think we find it in condemning, incarcerating, executing, or going to war with others. Judgment itself is judged, and condemnation is sentenced to transformation.

The Holy Spirit is the Advocate, the Heavenly Defense Attorney, who sees through all our mistakes and shortcomings to the core of who we are - reflections of Love. The Holy Spirit is the power that brings out the best within us and shows us the best in one another, so that we move from conflict to cooperation, from enmity to embrace.

Even before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends upon the Roman centurion, a member of the army of Jesus's executioners. He gazes upon the cross and sees Jesus as the Son of God. Truly, God is in every condemned person, and the centurion finally saw that in Jesus. An "enemy" recognizes the truth of who God is. That is the Spirit blowing where it will.

On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends in tongues of fire upon all the people gathered. Then they hear each other in their own native languages. That's what the Holy Spirit does... it allows us to hear and understand one another. "Speaking in tongues" is not about babbling, but about communicating through Love, so we finally understand one another.

Happy Pentecost! Adam and Lindsey invite you to many more fiery conversations every Wednesday on Jesus Unmasked at 5 CT/ 3 PT on the Raven Foundation FB page!

"The world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world."

Ah, the infamous "Be in the world but not of it," saying. How dangerously these words have been misunderstood!

In this final discourse to his disciples before his death, Jesus has a lot to say about contrasting his way with the way of the world. His words have been twisted to make it seem as if God hates the world and has destined it to burn, except for those who are raptured out or otherwise "saved." It can set up an us-against-the-world mentality -- judgmental and condescending. This can't be what Jesus meant.

If God so *loved* the world, what do these words mean? What does Jesus mean by "world" and "hate" and "joy?"

The Powers that Be are about to crucify Jesus for being in solidarity with the poor, marginalized, and exploited. Jesus has shown the powerful and the vulnerable alike a way of living in love that defies the powers of exploitation and marginalization. He has shown that poverty is not punishment or condemnation from on high, and that a status quo of excessive power and wealth for a few at the expense of many is not God's intention. He has shown a new way of living, and a path to that way that comes not through violence -- a tool of the fallen Powers -- but through love. And the Powers want to crush this new way to maintain control. That's what Jesus means by "the world."

Jesus is not talking about the planet or creation or even the people who uphold systems of injustice, but the injustice itself when he speaks of the "the world." Even the people who wield power unjustly are made in the image of God, the image of Love. If by "Powers," we mean the way in which people structure and organize themselves in order to live together, then the Powers -- human relationships -- have been corrupted, and must be redeemed.

A broken humanity can be redeemed when people live in love. Jesus prays that the disciples will live in love and not succumb to the temptations of the fallen powers which set people up over and against one another. He prays that the disciples will find unity in Love just as Jesus and God the Father relate in such perfect love that there is no rivalry between them.

A note on Judas -- John sets Jesus and the rest of the disciples over and against him, in a prayer about resisting the temptation toward over-againstness! Adam and Lindsey and friends discuss further.

As our friends point out, Jesus demonstrates trust and vulnerability toward his disciples with this prayer. In fact, our friends at our Facebook Live conversation shared so many insights and taught Lindsey and Adam much this week. We encourage you to add your voice and wisdom to the conversation every Wednesday at 5 CT/ 3 PT on the Raven Foundation Facebook page!

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."

What a beautiful commandment!

But when you're struggling in your faith, especially when you're most familiar with exclusive interpretations that seem to shut most of the world off from God's love or salvation, and these interpretations cause anxiety or even dread... when you long for comfort but feel uncomfortable in your faith... even a commandment as beautiful as this can carry the dreaded unspoken words "or else."

So forget the word "commandment." Jesus EMPOWERS us to love one another.

When we understand God not as a judgmental deity who rewards obedience and punishes disobedience or doubt, but rather as Love dwelling within and surrounding us, Love as the ultimate power in which the universe abides, everything changes.

Abide in love. Let love be your state of being, the lens through which you see the world.

Jesus is saying that we have the power to love and enjoy one another as God loves and enjoys us, and he is unleashing that power within us. Jesus loves us no matter what. But we are his friends when we live in friendship, abiding in the trust of love so that our actions are moved not by fear or guilt or even duty, but the sheer love of helping and uplifting one another.

"I do not call you servants any longer... but I have called you friends." The disciples were never chosen to be mere servants. But Jesus was teaching them to serve, to live lives of service. Feeding the hungry, healing the sick, comforting the poor and marginalized. Now Jesus is taking it to the next level, modeling to the disciples not only how to serve the world, but how to befriend it.

Befriend the poor. Befriend the marginalized. Be in such solidarity and comradeship that social distinctions disappear. And build up a world from this foundation in which everyone has enough, and everyone thrives.

The powers and principalities of a fallen world will rail against all you. The risk to reputation, livelihood, and life itself is great. But to abide in God's love is to know that you are so dearly loved, and that love sustains you even through death, that joy is not diminished.

We follow the way of Jesus not because we are afraid of what will happen when we don't, but for the joy that comes when we do.

Also, a blessed Mother's Day to all. Mother's Day is meant to celebrate the motherly love that makes the killing of any mother's child anywhere in the world unthinkable.

We warmly invite you to join the conversation every Wednesday afternoon at 5 CT / 3 PT on the Raven Foundation Facebook page.