The Secret Message of Jesus: A Critical Reading - Chapter 1

McLaren starts this chapter as you would expect a book of this title to start, by questioning our understanding of Jesus' message. He asks "what if the core message of Jesus has been unintentionally misunderstood or intentionally distorted?" I suppose this is a valid question to ask, though I'm skeptical of anybody who is so presumptuous as to believe that they could read the same scriptures as Aquinas, Spurgeon, Wycliff, et al. and find something huge and transformational that they all missed.

McLaren goes on to ask:

What if Jesus' message reveals a secret plan? What if he didn't come to start a new religion - but rather came to start a political, social, religious, artistic, economic, intellectual, and spiritual revolution that would give birth to a new world?

Wow, this guy must really be on to something. I'll be interested to see what scriptures he uses to back all of this up. Especially in light of John 18:36-37:

36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” 37 Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

What was the truth that Jesus spoke of? Jesus tells us in several places, such as Matthew 16:

16 Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

And Paul confirms for us in Ephesians 1:

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both[a] which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who[b] is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Now none of this is to say that I don't agree with McLaren when he says:

What if his secret message had a practical implication for such issues as how you live your daily life, how you earn and spend money, how you treat people of other races and religions, and how the nations of the world conduct their foreign policy? What if his message directly or indirectly addressed issues like advertising, environmentalism, terrorism, economics, sexuality, marriage, parenting, the quest for happiness and peace, and racial reconciliation.

Indeed, I believe that Jesus does address all of these issues either "directly or indirectly" as McLaren puts it, I just don't think that there is anything that secret about it. Many books have been written on the subject of living the christian life, some good, some not so good (ahem, Joel Osteen), but very few, if any, have claimed to have found some heretofore unknown secret message in the gospels.

McLaren posits that:

If the [Christian religion] discovers, understands, believes, and lives Jesus' message - if it became increasingly faithful to the reality of what Jesus taught in word and example - then everyone could benefit: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, atheists, everyone."

Again this is undoubtedly true. The question is, what does McLaren think the message of Jesus is? Clearly he thinks that the rest of Christianity is missing it, which means that salvation, and reconciliation with God is not it, since that is the commonly accepted message of Christ as believed by the Church. No, McLaren's version seems to be much more carnal in nature, being concerned with politics and the like as evidenced by his earlier quoted statements above. Again, while I believe that Jesus addressed all the issues that McLaren does, I don't think that it was secret, nor do I think that it was the main point in his message, after all:

What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

Am I really helping "Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc." if I don't tell them about redemption through Christ? Is it beneficial to bring about a cultural revolution if it doesn't result in more people being saved? Jesus tells me to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but he also tells me to spread the gospel. I look forward to discovering where the gospel, sin and redemption, fits into McLaren's version of Jesus' message.

The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren: A Critical Reading

This is the first in a series of posts where I will provide critical analysis of The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren. I am critical of the Emergent Church Movement which McLaren is a leader of and have decided to read this book to find out what the man himself thinks. It is my intention to hold this book up to the light of God's word and we will see what is revealed. If what McLaren says falls in line with scripture, I will acknowledge it, if it does not, I will expose it. Simple as that. Without further ado, on to the introduction.

Introduction:

McLaren starts by stating that he is on a spiritual quest to understand Jesus and his message. Commendable.

No I don't think I can contain [Jesus' message] in my little brain. It's not so much that I'm trying to get his great big message into my little head; it's more that I'm trying to get my little head fully into Jesus' message.

Humility is a good thing and McLaren shows some here. He goes on to state that many people think that they have Jesus all figured out and that he believes they are likely wrong. I agree with him here that the modern depiction of Jesus by the church largely misses the mark. I doubt however that him and I will arrive at the same conclusion as to how Jesus should really be portrayed.

He states that he is one of many people who have a:

...shared frustration with the status quo, male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone, organized Christian religion.

Talk about over-generalizing! While I do not consider myself an apologist for organized Christianity, I do know that that in my 20+ years of attending churches across the country the only status quo upheld by any of them that I attended was that of spreading the gospel of Christ, most of them were actually female dominated if anything, and none of them were in pursuit of power or cover-ups. I know that churches like this exist, but they are not the only option out there like McLaren implies in his book.

Here is where I start to get really skeptical about what we are going to encounter in this book. McLaren says:

[I have] an unshakable intuition that both He and his message are better than anything [I've] heard, or understood, or figured out so far.

Since the message of Jesus as I understand it is: Man is separated from God and sinful. Man cannot redeem himself or reconcile himself to God. God loved us so much that he did that which we couldn't do, provide a way for us to be reconciled to him through Christ. Because of this act of love those who accept it will be spared from the just result of their sinful lives, eternal torment in hell, and instead Jesus has prepared a place for us in heaven with him. In the mean time Christ gave us the tools that we need to live a righteous life here on earth, and commissioned us to spread the gospel to the nations. Jesus tells us to serve one another, love our neighbors as ourselves, love our enemies, and to care for orphans, widows, clothe the naked, and feed the hungry.

That's a pretty good message! Jesus tells us a lot more than what I have listed above, and I don't claim to have a 100% firm grasp on all his teachings, but I do understand these things. My point being that I will be shockingly amazed if McLaren is able to top that, and stay accurate to scripture, but we shall see.