Jesus Died as a Social Reformer
Many in the elite class in Judea, saw Jesus as a threat to their social customs and standing. They saw Him a danger to their established Temple practises. They organised His crucifixion. Lord Macleod, of the Iona Community in Scotland wrote: Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a Cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap; at a cross-road so cosmopolitan that they had to write the charge against him in three languages at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse and soldiers gambled because that is where He died and that is what He died about. And that is where churchmen should be and what churchmen should be about.
This is the conclusion of some scholars. Some argue Jesus was as a radical reformer as were the revolutionary Zealots. Yet there is no Biblical evidence to substantiate this. Others see Jesus as a counter-cultural social reformer breaking barriers and bringing change into the life of society.
There is a great deal of Biblical evidence that Jesus proclaimed a new way of living and broke down the social barriers between people. John Dominic Crossan sees the provision of free healing without any commitment to a system of village patronage and His wonderful way of inviting just anybody, male or female, rich or poor round his meal table, as evidence of Jesus being a social reformer. Further, he says, when Jesus healed people, it was not so much their physical disease He was healing, but their social alienation. Richard Horsley sees Jesus as a critic of His society, attacking the Romans for false religion and the priests of Israel for betraying the essence of their faith. Neither group would feature in God’s kingdom which would soon transform Israel’s social conditions and end Rome’s political dominance. His revolution was a grass-roots one, working from the peasants up rather a political revolution working from the top down to overthrow the current regime.
They see Him as the founder of a Galilee peace party. Unlike the other revolutionaries from Galilee, His methods were non-violent. The meek inherit the earth. The peace-makers are blessed. He would establish an egalitarian society where all would have a place, to replace patriarchal oppression (eg Matt 10:34-37; Mark 12:18-27). Discipleship meant casting aside everything for the social revolution.
Yet the theory that Jesus was just a social reformer neither fits the social factors of neither Galilee nor the Gospel evidence. Jesus was never just a political agitator put to death for His revolutionary message. He was the Lamb of God dying for the sins of the world. Today we still work for social change in line with the scriptures. Some working for social change want Jesus to baptise their particular ideas. The liberationist, feminist, and homosexual theologians all point to some truth in their theories, but they also fall short of other Christian requirements.
For example, Jesus did not advocate social change which was morally wrong. This is why the homosexual lobby wanting their sexual behaviour approved is wrong in claiming Jesus the social reformer blesses their crusade. The scriptures are clear: homosexual life style is not acceptable to God. It is not a question of homosexuals not understanding the scriptures: they just ignore them. Evangelicals cannot do that. They obey the rules not look for loopholes. Immoral people not only change the goal posts. They discard the rule book.
Jesus is a social reformer. But Jesus is more! He is both Lord and Saviour! His reforms were always in line with the scriptures and with God’s expressed word on morality. Just because some people ignore morality, does not mean that it does not exist. To call Jesus just a social reformer, is to miss entirely His claims to be God’s Son, to be the Messiah. It is to ignore the central theme of the Cross and Resurrection. Social reformer? Yes – but more! He is Lord whose word and morality is to be obeyed. He is Christ, whose death and resurrection is to be believed. That is the way God’s biggest revolution takes place in our lives.
