Longing for a Jesus Not Fed to Us by Empire

This summer there are four City Church book groups reading through Kaitlin Curtice’s Native. As she writes about what it might mean to decolonize our faith and to disentangle our theology from all the ways that political power and financial gain has seeped into it, she has this great line that Brenna Rubio quoted on Sunday:

We are just longing for a Jesus that hasn’t been fed to us by empire, but the one who stood against it with his life, death, and resurrection. - Kaitlin Curtice

Too many of us were fed a blond-haired-blue-eyed Jesus who blessed the status quo… and it felt strangely like some sort of religious drug to dull the senses and control the masses (almost makes you wonder if Marx was onto something in his critique…). But when we run into the Jesus that the Gospels present us was the exact kind of savior that we always wanted and needed - one who flipped the tables of the empire and redistributed God’s favor towards those who had been excluded from it. One shorthand summary of it comes in the midst of yet another squabble amongst his followers about who was the biggest and best:

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. - Matthew 20:25-26

Can you list a few ways Jesus has been ‘fed to you by empire’? Can you think of a few stories of Jesus resisting empire, disrupting the status quo, and fomenting various forms of discontent? What does this tell you about how we tend to handle Jesus? Try this, or some form of it, as a healthy antidote to controlling Jesus to tame him and subject him to our agendas:

Jesus, forgive me for the ways I try to use you to protect the status quo, to control others, or even to condemn myself. Help me see you more clearly this day and to follow you in your work to overthrow the empires of this world in bringing justice and love to all.