Walking with Jesus through Lent, Pt.3: Jesus Stands against the Commodification of Religion

Next, we must guard against judging people by their appearance before getting to know them. Oh, friends, this is so hard. This is one of the hardest areas for me. I fail at it consistently. I see someone in old, dirty clothes, and I draw assumptions about them. They smell bad and they act weird or difficult, and I want to back away. I want people to be neat and clean and put together. Not fancy, just neat and clean. But Jesus loves dirty people. A local pastor here in my area tells the people who reach out to their community to invite them to church, “I want the stinky people.” I can’t write that I get this. All I can pray is: Jesus, change my heart. Help me want that too.

Finally, we must guard against the ways we suggest to ourselves and to others that a “real” Christian has bought into the commodity of the faith because they have all the right Christian products. When we begin to identify ourselves more by the products we consume instead of by the Lord who has saved us and who we follow, we can twist the Gospel’s message. We also begin to divide ourselves into camps. The only person who is truly “with” us the person who consumes the same religious products. We unknowingly engage in idolatry by establishing multiple lords who we must follow, instead of One.

Recently, a progressive blogger, Ana Marie Cox, wrote publicly for the first time that she is in fact a Christian and new to the faith. Her faith in Christ seemed unimpeachable, but she worried that fellow Christians would criticize her as “not being Christian enough.” Although she did receive some of this, she wrote a follow-up piece in which she rejoiced that most of the feedback to her profession of faith was positive. She writes:

With a week’s worth of responses behind me, I can report that my fear of judgment was legitimate—haters gonna hate—but also that I was proven wrong in the most wonderful way: I found amazing warmth and generosity that far outweighed criticism and negativity. Support came from the right and the left, believers and non-believers, dog people and cat people.

I get really discouraged about American Christianity sometimes. It seems we are so vapid, so self-centered, and so politicized. But for once, I can rejoice. Many of my fellow Christians set aside their deeply-felt politics for a moment and simply rejoiced that another person had been found by grace, had been embraced by the Gospel. This is what we need more of! I’ll find other days to disagree with Cox on some of her views, but for today, I just rejoice that she is a fellow sister in Christ. I rejoice that the same welcoming embrace of God has found both of us, though we do not deserve it. I give thanks that I serve a Lord who doesn’t drive out the person who needs grace, but the person who thinks they already deserve it and are free to withhold it from everybody else. I serve a Lord who is much harder on me, the religious person who tends to get her nose bruised against the Bible’s pages as I try to be a “perfect Christian” than the person who maybe gets some things wrong (we all do) but simply loves Jesus and knows he needs Him.

Jesus is simply amazing because He is a power-toppler. He is a hierarchy-ender. He is going to get down in the dirt and the muck with people. He’s not interested in power and prestige and credentials. He’s the kind of God who empties Himself in order to be near the ones He loves (Philippians 2:6-11). He’s the kind of Leader who is willing to get a bad reputation based on the people He hangs around with. He could care less about His reputation. He loves us.

So, what about you? Where have you seen the commodification of religion? Has it been a barrier for you? Have you been a participant in it? What do you think of Jesus’s subversive Gospel? How does it topple hierarchy and barriers and bring people near? How might it be threatening to religious people? How might it impact your own life?

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