Posted by
grad_1986 on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 3:31:49 PM
As a Christian I am tired of non-Christians ( and yes, I include our President in this group ) using this tag line as an argument for why I should take out my wallet and give them more money to waste. Do I know what Jesus would do? Frankly, I don't think Jesus would give it more than 10 seconds of his time as his purpose here on earth was to take care of a MUCH more pressing issue: our eternal health. His perspective on our lives is very different from our puny view for what is 80 or 90 years when compared to eternity?
One good example of Jesus lack of concern about THIS life is shown in Luke 12:13-15
"13 Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
14 Jesus replied, "Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?"
15 Then
he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of
greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his
possessions."
The man had no legal right to the inheritance for it was the father's decision on how his possessions would be handled after his death. Often it was decided to leave all of it to the oldest son so that it would not be divided down over years and years until nothing was left. The man in the crowd obviously sees this as an injustice and demands Jesus "change the system". But what does Jesus point out instead? He points out the problem of greed (ie coveting) and that your abundance of possessions (I guess we would add in health care into this). Jesus always was pointing people to what lay beyond this life and to not get caught up into this one too much.
But didn't Jesus care you the health of his followers? After all, he did HEAL a lot of people. Yes that is true, but again his purpose was to not just take care of a persons current medical needs, but instead was to show who he REALLY was and that he was not just another rabbi but was the actual Son of God.
But don't you as a Christian have a moral imperative to take care of others? Yes I do. But this is as ME a person. It is not my responsibility to take YOUR money however (no matter how "moral" the need is) and use it for MY needs. I, as a person, can only respond to another persons needs. And this is really what is missing in this whole argument. You see, Jesus wanted us a people to help meet each others needs on a one on one basis and not as some nameless-faceless-you-are-a-government-number-system. Jesus set us an example, as he met with each and every person to hear their needs and to fill them with his love and power. That is the main point of his ministry. He never (although he could have) waved his hand and healed everyone in the world at once.
Also, people often miss the reason why Jesus engaged with people on their physical needs. When all is well , we don't see a need for God in our lives. But when our bodies betray us and we see how truly weak and fragile we are, we run crying to God to help us. God then can use this time to reach us and show us that MORE than our bodies need healing and that our very souls need forgiveness that only HE can provide. Jesus never meant for HIS mission to be used as a political ping-pong-ball to be slapped from one end of the political table-top to the other (and I mean that by BOTH the LEFT AND THE RIGHT).
Finally, if the left is going to push God out of our schools, courts and laws. Then they have no business peddling God as a reason to pass on of the biggest power grabs in our nations history. President Bush would have been lampooned on every late-night talk-show and ever cable news channel (except Fox) for using this angle, yet since it's Obama and it's desperation time we let him off the hook. Frankly this makes me want to puke my guts out.
I think that Obama should be asking us "What would George Soros do" rather than "What Jesus would do", as I believe he spends more time talking to him rather than to Jesus.