Mark 2:15-16 New International Version
15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. 16 When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
Any day at the office that starts with me thinking of a way to use a Star Wars analogy to make a theological point is a good day...
In Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope, the young naïve farm boy Luke follows the world weary Obi-Wan Kenobi into a bar in the town of Mos Eisley, as Kenobi called it, "a wretched hive of scum and villainy." One would think that just about anyone would be welcome in a dive bar in such a town, but when they enter the bartender angrily yells, "We don't serve their kind here!" while pointing at Luke's droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO. They evidently have a problem with droids, the reasoning for which the movie makes no attempt to explain.
It isn't a mystery, however, why the Pharisees of Jesus' day didn't like 'tax collectors and sinners' (in other passages prostitutes are thrown into the same list of 'off-limits' people). The Pharisees saw such people as a stain upon society, a visible manifestation of the ways in which the Jewish people were not sufficiently committed to the Mosaic Law. One one level they were right, those who break the Law of Moses are indeed sinners and that Law takes such things very seriously. A response is necessary.
And what was their response to those who didn't live up to God's standard? Treat them as outcasts, revile and denigrate them, make sure everyone knows you are better than they are.
And how does Jesus respond to these lost souls? He ate with them. He treated them like real human beings, like people who, although they had made poor choices in life thus far, still mattered to God, still had worth. Jesus responded to the sinfulness of others with a kindness and compassion designed not to push them into a corner, but to offer them the hope of repentance.
Which brings us to 'Christian' Nationalism. Recall the rhetoric of leading 'Christian' Nationalist voices. How do they describe those they view as a threat to a 'Christian America'? Certainly as an enemy, often with pejoratives, insults, and venom. The anger is real, the hostility is palpable, and so is the fear.
Where is the outreach to the Lost? Where is the compassion for those living in darkness? Where is the confidence that God can save even the vilest offender? These have been tossed aside as a weakness we can't afford to indulge {See: The folly of the "Sin of Empathy" - A self-inflicted wound to Christian Fundamentalism}. The goal of 'Christian' Nationalism is to crush the enemies of God's people, not to convert them, not to love them, not to treat them like Jesus did.
Let me end with one more Star Wars quote, this time from Empire Strikes Back: "That is why you fail."
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