Luke 6:46-47
To say “our kinde Lord” was to say “our kin Lord.” Jesus the Lord is our kin. The kind Lord is kin to me, you, all of us – making us one. This is a subversive deconstruction of the image of kingdo and kings, replacing forever the pretensions and politics of earthly kingdoms with Jesus’s calling forth a kin-dom. King, kind, kin.
- Diana Butler Bass, Freeing Jesus (p. 150)
Let’s review the ways Diana Butler Bass has suggested we might understand Jesus now that we’ve passed the half-way point in our series. We’ve considered Jesus as friend and as teacher. Last week we thought about Jesus as Savior, and suggested that meant not that we were “saved” from the world into heaven, but that the world was redeemed so we lived in community in a new, more holistic way. This week we’re asked to examine what it might mean to say, “Jesus is Lord.” In the first century, this was a claiming of the common phrase “Caesar is Lord” which would have been required of everyone in the Empire. Caesar was the one and only ruler, whose will and every whim were followed. He was seen as becoming divine because he was so worthy to rule over everyone. When Christians said instead, “Jesus is Lord,” they were giving their ultimate loyalty to Jesus. Some of them died for saying it publicly.
We are inclined to hear “Jesus is Lord” as the equivalent of saying “Jesus is Caesar.” Not only does Jesus take first place in our lives, but he takes it in the same way Caesar ruled the Empire. He should replace Caesar as ruler. That would indeed have been treasonous, and surely the phrase was understood that way in the first century, too. But that’s not the only Christian way to understand Jesus as Lord. Bass quotes Julian of Norwich as calling Jesus “our kinde Lord” using the middle English word “Kinde” to describe Jesus. You’ll recognize the connection to our contemporary word kinde. Even more than just being nice or “kind,” the word describes Jesus as being the merciful and just one who connects us as one family. We’ve sometimes used prayers from the UCC worship resources which replaces the word “kingdom” with the phrase “kin-dom,” and “kinde” carries that connotation. Jesus is the one who makes us “kin” and when we follow him we are related, one people, one community.
These are two very different options for understanding Jesus as Lord. A powerful ruler, imposing his will on everyone versus the one who claims our loyalty because of his kindness and goodness, who unites us as one. Bass doesn’t comment on the issue of Christian Nationalism in the context of Jesus as Lord because her book was written in 2021, when we weren’t focused on the rise of Christian Nationalism, but the difference in the ways of understanding Jesus as Lord illuminate the difference between following Jesus and being a Christian Nationalist. Christian Nationalists say “Jesus is Lord,” meaning that Jesus should rule the earth, or at least our nation, as the supreme leader. It’s a claim of power. It suggests that only those who follow Jesus are right and all others must sign on to being Christian, or at least agree to follow the Christian rules. For some in that movement the rules include male superiority, white supremacy, the primacy of the oligarchs and wealth, the end of programs which help people who might be ill, or poor, or struggling in favor of rewarding those who seem successful – even though no one really succeeds without a little help. This Jesus IS Caesar. He’s in charge and he’s rewarding those loyal to him with wealth and power. The problem is, this is a Jesus made in the image of those who worship wealth and power and not anything like the Jesus who lived and taught before the birth of Christianity.
That Jesus said things Christian Nationalists find disgusting:
Love your neighbor.
Welcome the stranger.
Share your food and clothing and shelter with those who are without.
Use power to help others. Do justice.
These are the principles the first Jesus followers practiced in their kin-dom because it’s the way he taught them to live.
Saying “Jesus is Lord” isn’t about changing who is in charge – Jesus instead of Caesar. It’s about changing what being in charge means. We follow Jesus’ principles rather than living by the values of the world. Jesus is Lord is about being kind and merciful. It’s about having compassion for people rather than judging their circumstances and dismissing their pain. It’s about sharing bread and work and economic equity. It’s about practicing peace, turning the other cheek, and forgiving.
Christian nationalists want the United States to be a Christian nation by giving Christians, especially white, male, straight Christins, the upper hand. Those who follow Jesus practice living the way he showed us to live. Then the nation, or all nations, become fair and just and loving – a good place for everyone. And if folks want to call that way of life Christian, so be it. But if they want to call it Jewish or Moslem or Buddhist or humanist – that’s ok too, as long as the values are shared and benefit everyone. Jesus isn’t Lord in order to make rich white Americans the best game in town. Jesus earns authority among us by showing us the best way to live. We say, we’re part of his kin-dom because he’s inviting us all to this good life. He becomes our Lord by helping us create the world which works for us all.