Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile

JESUS WANTS

TO SAVE CHRISTIANS

A MANIFESTO FOR THE CHURCH IN EXILE

ROB BELL & DON GOLDEN

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Preface

Introduction to the Introduction

Introduction: Air Puffers and Rubber Gloves

Chapter One: The Cry of the Oppressed

Chapter Two: Get Down Your Harps

Chapter Three: David’s Other Son

Chapter Four: Genital-Free Africans

Chapter Five: Swollen-Bellied Black Babies, Soccer Moms on Prozac, and the Mark of the Beast

Chapter Six: Blood on the Doorposts of the Universe

Epilogue: Broken and Poured

About the Authors

Endnotes

Discussion Guide

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

Preface

Part One

I remember the exact moment when I knew that Don and I had a book on our hands.

We were eating our usual once a week burrito discussing our usual topics—revolution, Jesus, our favorite British bands—you know, average sorts of things friends talk about, when Don asked me how King Solomon had built his temple.

How Solomon built his temple? What an odd question.

I had read that story about Solomon building a temple for God in the Old Testament Book of Kings, but I had no recollection of how he built it.

The answer? Don pointed out that Solomon built the temple using slave labor.

Hearing that for me was like a bomb going off.

Slaves? I’d never noticed that. The implications were stunning.

The earlier parts of the Bible, the ones about empires and power and liberation from slavery, suddenly took on new meaning. The prophets, and then Jesus, began to mean something different. And then the church, and the New Testament letters connecting Jesus and the Exodus began to make sense in ways I’d never considered.

And then Don kept going. He made connections between Solomon’s slaves and Egypt and Sinai and Jerusalem and Babylon and America and Iraq and politics and economics and churches and media . . . it was overwhelming. As we discussed more and more over the next weeks and months, rereading the stories of Jesus through this lens, I often felt like I was reading the Bible for the first time.

And the story that it was telling blew me away.

Reading the Bible through this new lens was so much more current and volatile and true and interesting and dangerous and subversive and hopeful and big than how I’d read it before.

Yes, I kept telling Don, there is a book here.

So that’s my hope for you with this book: I hope you have a series of those “bomb going off” kind of moments as you read this book. I hope you see in our reading and interpreting of this ancient book, the Bible, a new way of seeing our world. I hope you see that there is a common humanity we share with everybody alive today, and everybody who has come before us. I hope you see in the way the writers of the Bible critique their own use and abuse of power and blessing a way for us to think about our power and blessing.

And then, most of all, I hope you see Jesus’s invitation to be a force for good in the world, to wake up to our calling, to be saved in all of the ways that matter most.

—Rob Bell

November 2011

Part Two

On Christmas Eve 1968 the first humans orbited the moon. Highly trained Apollo 8 astronauts were ready for every eventuality—except one. The first photo of Earth from outer space unexpectedly shook the imagination of the world. This one shot of our fragile blue orb alone in the infinitude of space revealed our majesty and our vulnerability. By going to the moon we discovered ourselves.

We hope a similar change in perspective happens when you read this book.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians offers a different perspective on the Bible and on how we see ourselves at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Since we mostly retell the Bible’s story through a new lens, the book’s message hasn’t changed since it was first released. But there are new challenges and new questions in a world that seems somehow scarier today than it did during the fires of President Bush’s wars.

For some, President Bush was an easy parallel to Solomon and Pharaoh. We argued that power exists for the cause of the poor and that America will be measured by the voices we fail to hear. Since the book was first published in 2008, some major punctuation points have been added: Arab Spring—what Bush tried with bombs, social media masses achieved with their thumbs. The Hummer dealership on 28th Street in Grand Rapids closed. In many ways, the world seems changed.

But the Bible still has a lot to say about empires. The Bible is always asking about the prospects of the poor. The vulnerability index is the measure that matters most in God’s economy. Read seriously, the Bible confronts the reader with the God of the oppressed.

We want you to discover the Bible as its own best commentary. We offer you a way to read the Bible that doesn’t require a library or a preacher or a politician or an academic to interpret for you. Once justice is seen as the thread woven into the fabric of biblical history, the whole Bible becomes much clearer. Justice is the issue when God redeems Israel from Pharaoh. Justice is at the heart of the Sinai law and justice is what Israel must show the world as a kingdom of priests. Justice is the measure the Jews failed to meet in their days of power and empire in Jerusalem. It was justice the prophets proclaimed as the way of return during the exile of the Jews in Babylon and it was justice that Jesus incarnated.

Some readers have told me that after reading the book it was still not clear what they should do with this new perspective on the Bible. Mostly, I think that is part of the adventure of discovery that we hope God leads you on. For me, though, I can say that when I look around and see what God is doing in the world, I tend to see, first, the people and ministries who incarnate this Exodus ethic. I’m thinking of friends like David and Marianne and Sam and Dr. Pieter.

David is a forty-two-year-old man in northern Kenya who does whatever it takes to help the Turkana suffering without food and water. David embodies the cry of the oppressed that God uses to kick-start redemptive history. David is pouring his life out to save Turkana.

Marianne is a recent Bible college graduate who travels the world photographing development professionals, capturing their amazing work in images that motivate people to action. Marianne’s eye for the human story makes the plight and the possibilities of the poor live in high definition. Marianne helps us hear the cry of the oppressed.

Sam is a teacher from rural Pennsylvania who moved to Baltimore’s inner city with a tribe of others just like him. Sam and co., with all their middle-American gifts, have set out to love on Baltimore neighborhoods most people abandoned a generation ago. Sam is the man who hears what God hears and joins what God is doing.

Dr. Pieter left his home in Johannesburg to discover the causes of child mortality in Mozambique. Dr. Pieter and his alternative community of life-giving workers have literally moved the needle on child mortality in southern Mozambique.

A doctor battles the mass murdering, malarial mosquito. A teacher spends his education on embattled Baltimore public schools. A poor Turkana man tries to save his ancient people from extinction. A young suburbanite with a camera takes aim at American indifference. Each one and countless others following Jesus out of the exile of irrelevance into what God is doing in history—redeeming people and using them to save others.

We hope this paperback edition of Jesus Wants to Save Christians helps you encounter the Bible in a new way. Like a trip to the moon, may you see the big picture and may the God of the oppressed lead you through these disorienting days of teetering empire.

—Don Golden

November 2011

Introduction to the Introduction

This is a book about a book.

The structure follows the narrative of the Bible, which means that there is a progression here, each chapter building on the one before it. If you skip ahead, it’s not going to make much sense.

Before we begin, a disclaimer and a shout-out or two.

First, the disclaimer.

In the scriptures, ultimate truths about the universe are revealed through the stories of particular people living in particular places. As this book explores, the nation of Egypt and the Jewish people feature prominently in the biblical narrative. When we write of Egypt then, we are not writing about Egypt today. When we mention the Jews then, we are not speaking of our Jewish friends and neighbors today. We realize that some of these words, such as Egypt and the Jews, have power to evoke feelings and thoughts and attitudes about the very pain and division in our world that this book addresses. We join you in this tension, believing that the story is ultimately about healing, hope, and reconciliation.

And now, a shout-out. This is a book of theology. The word theology comes from two Greek words: theo, which means “God,” and logos, which means “word.”

Theology, a word about God.

Anybody can do theology.1

This book is our attempt to articulate a specific theology, a particular way to read the Bible, referred to by some as a New Exodus perspective. One New Exodus scholar is a British theologian named Tom Holland, who has done pioneering work in this approach.2 We are grateful to him for his groundbreaking take on the story of Jesus. He has liberated profound truths about what it means to be human, and we celebrate that with him.

One more shout-out, which is actually a massive shout-out. We are part of a church, a community of people learning to live the way of Jesus together. For their love and support and critique and questions and example and insight and hope, we are deeply grateful.

You know who you are.

Grace and peace to you.

And thanks.

Now, on to “Air Puffers and Rubber Gloves.”

Introduction Air Puffers and Rubber Gloves

The first family was dysfunctional.

At least, that’s the picture painted by the storyteller in the book of Genesis.

The first son, Cain, was angry with the other first son, Abel, because “the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.”1

Cain said to his brother, “Let’s go out to the field.” And when they went, Cain killed Abel.

According to the story, Cain “worked the soil” while Abel “kept flocks.” One was a farmer, the other was a shepherd.

A farmer is settled.

A farmer has chosen a piece of land and settled there because he’s decided that this land can best support his crops. He has a strong sense of boundaries—this land, the land that he lives on and farms, is his land.

A shepherd is nomadic.

A shepherd goes wherever there is food for his flock. A shepherd wanders from place to place. A shepherd doesn’t have a strong sense of boundaries, because he sees all land as a possible spot for him to stop and feed his flock.

It wouldn’t take long for the shepherd and his flock to cross onto the property of the farmer. And that would raise the question, Whose land is it, anyway?

This question would have many dimensions—economic, political, religious, social—let alone the personal aspects of ownership and property and progress and wealth. The story of these two first sons is actually a story about progress, innovation, and the inevitable forward movement of human civilization.2

This Genesis account reflects the transition that was occurring in the time and place in which this story was first told. A seismic shift was occurring as human society transitioned from a pastoral, nomadic orientation to an agricultural one. This was a huge change that did not come without a lot of strife.

And, occasionally, murder.

As a result of the murder, the text says, “Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”3

East of Eden.

There is a place called Eden, a paradise, a state of being in which everything is in its right place. A realm where the favor and peace of God rest on everything.

And Cain is not there. He’s east of there.

And he’s not only east of Eden, but in chapter 4 of the book of Genesis, the text says that he was “building a city.”4

It’s not just that he’s east of where he was created to live, but he’s actually settling there, building a city, putting down roots. The land of his wandering has become the location of his home. And then several chapters later, the Bible says that the whole world had one language and a common speech “as people moved eastward.”5

The writer, or writers, of Genesis keeps returning to this eastward metaphor,6 insisting that something has gone terribly wrong with humanity, and that from the very beginning humans are moving in the wrong direction.7

God asks Adam, “Where are you?”8

And the answer is, of course, “East.”

East of where he’s supposed to be. East of how things are meant to be.

___________

There is a new invention at the airport. Before we board our plane, we have to go through security. Many of us have had the joy of standing there in our socks, with our belt off, desperately searching our pockets for anything metal that could set off the detector and cause us to be subjected to the wand, a handheld device that is passed over the body, beeping when it detects anything made of metal. The wand is difficult enough, but when the person using it is wearing rubber gloves . . . it just doesn’t help the experience, does it?

One of us, after being selected for a random security check, was asked with a straight face by a Transportation Safety Administration official, “Would you like me to give you a full-body pat down here? Or we could step into a private room off to the side, if you’d find that preferable.”

But enough of our traumatic airport flashbacks. There’s a new invention at the security checkpoint called the air puffer. It’s only for people who have been “randomly” selected for extra security measures. The air puffer is about the size of a phone booth. We step into it, it makes a low buzzing sound, and then it shoots bursts of air all over our body. A green light then comes on, the glass doors in front open, and we’re free to exit. We are given no instructions and receive no explanation as to why exactly being shot with little bursts of air all over one’s body makes the world a safer place. Apparently, it has something to do with detecting the presence of explosive substances.

What is most frightening about the air puffer is not the unexpected puffs of air. What is most frightening is that we do it. Thousands of us each day step in, feel the breeze, wait for the light, exit, and then set off in search of our belt and shoes. Because if we were to protest, we would immediately be escorted into “a private room to the side” for who knows what.

And besides, we have to catch our plane.

Now, as we leave the air puffer, collect our belongings, and make our way toward the gate our plane is departing from, the first thing we hear is a television. There are many of them all over the terminal. They are set to the same channel, a news show that is custom-made for airports. The length of the segment before it repeats is about the average length of time a person sits waiting for their plane. This news channel gives up-to-date pictures and reports on news from around the world, including the latest word from the government on just how safe or unsafe it is to travel.

Which takes us back to the air puffer. On the side of the air puffer is a logo. A large logo of a very well-known, very large American company that has made hundreds of millions of dollars over the years selling convenient, time-saving devices for every aspect of our lives. And now, in addition to toasters and irons and refrigerators, they manufacture and sell air puffers.

Keeping us safe is very, very profitable.

Which takes us back to the televisions, where a reporter is showing us pictures of a brand-new plane the American military has just unveiled that cost fifty billion dollars to create. This plane can do what no other plane can do—it can hover like a helicopter and then fly like a jet—and this particular television network has been granted the privilege of taking the first civilian flight aboard this wonder of technology and innovation.9

Which takes us back to something that’s next to the air puffer: a fully equipped security checkpoint that is not in use and has been roped off. It is brand-new and next to it is a sign describing the advanced features of this new machine and how this is the security checkpoint of the future. It even has little walls with detectors in them that you walk between so you don’t have to take off your shoes.

Being safe is getting more convenient by the moment.

Which takes us back to the television. The reporter is now talking about a recent debate among government leaders concerning funding for homeland security. Various members are arguing for and against certain sums for increased security measures, and somewhere in the course of the broadcast it is stated that the war America is fighting is on its way to costing a trillion dollars. For purposes of the debate, a distinction is being made between the cost of the war over there and the cost of ensuring our safety here. The nearly trillion dollars is for the effort over there, and there’s another budget for our security here, and it is an equally mind-blowing amount of money. When we hear it, we think, “That’s a lot of air puffers and rubber gloves.”

Which takes us back to the air puffer. The air puffer that we paid for with our tax dollars. To keep us safe, with our tax dollars, from the people we’re fighting. To hear about every day on the news we’re paying for with our consumption of the products advertised during the commercial breaks from the news—the news that tells us how unsafe the world is.

Which takes us back to the television, to a report they are now doing about how gas prices are going to go up again and global supplies of oil simply aren’t what they used to be.

We hear this news as we walk by an advertisement on the wall for a large American-made automobile. It seats seven people and has a television. This vehicle does not get very many miles to the gallon.

One can’t help but wonder, Is there an enemy of America, hiding somewhere in a cave, laughing? Already plotting some other way to harm us that will have nothing to do with airplanes?

Or are they plotting nothing?

Because they realize that whatever they might do next, it would be nowhere as destructive as what we’re already doing to ourselves.10

We are east of Eden.

Something is not right.

The Germans have a word for this. They call it Ursprache (oor´shprah-kah). Ursprache is the primal, original language of the human family.11 It’s the language of paradise that still echoes in the deepest recesses of our consciousness, telling us that things are out of whack deep in our bones, deep in the soul of humanity. Something about how we relate to one another has been lost. Something is not right with the world.

Back to the television in the airport. On the news are sound bites from a speech by the president of the United States. He’s on the deck of an aircraft carrier, proclaiming victory in a recent military effort. Not only was the mission accomplished, according to the leader of the world’s only superpower, but American forces are now occupying this Middle Eastern country until peace can be fully realized within its borders.

This puts a Christian in an awkward place.

Because Jesus was a Middle Eastern man who lived in an occupied country and was killed by the superpower of his day.

The Roman Empire, which put Jesus on an execution stake, insisted that it was bringing peace to the world through its massive military might, and anybody who didn’t see it this way just might be put on a cross. Emperor Caesar, who ruled the Roman Empire, was considered the “Son of God,” the “Prince of Peace,” and one of his propaganda slogans was “peace through victory.”12

The insistence of the first Christians was that through this resurrected Jesus Christ, God has made peace with the world. Not through weapons of war but through a naked, bleeding man hanging dead on an execution stake. A Roman execution stake. Another of Caesar’s favorite propaganda slogans was “Caesar is Lord.” The first Christians often said “Jesus is Lord.” For them, Jesus was another way, a better way, a way that made the world better through sacrificial love, not coercive violence.13

So when the commander in chief of the most powerful armed forces humanity has ever seen quotes the prophet Isaiah from the Bible in celebration of military victory,14 we must ask, Is this what Isaiah had in mind?

A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage.

And the Ursprache continues to echo within each one of us, telling us that things aren’t right, that we’re up against something very old,

and very deep,

and very wide,

and very, very powerful.

For a growing number of people in our world, it appears that many Christians support some of the very things Jesus came to set people free from.

It’s written in Genesis that when Cain killed Abel, God said to Cain, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”15

God can hear Abel’s blood?

Blood that cries out?

To understand this cry, the noise that it makes across human history, and its importance to the times we live in, we have to go back to the first book of the Bible, the book of Exodus.

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