Jesus is NOT a Golden Ticket

Call me weird, but I've become accustomed to not watching TV or going to the movies.  So it's not surprising that on plane rides, I usually bring a few books with me.  It's heavy, but my brothers were always complaining about how I don't work out.  Well, here's an excuse to do so.

I chanced by a paper written by an evangelical theologian almost a decade ago (2002), and I cannot but note that it represented the worst in evangelical scholarship.  I should note that the paper in question is definitely substandard, and even at a place like Wheaton College, I cannot see it getting more than a B... and that's only because the professors there are nice.  To put it bluntly, the paper accused liberals of being totally tolerant and, even more outrageously, Roman Catholics of syncretism (because they affirm the Abrahamic status of Islam)!

I read the paper because it allegedly had to do with how Jesus is the "Named Tao."  But the author did not bother discussing Tao in its Chinese context!  He simply assumed that he knew what it was based on one small passage in the Tao Te Ching, and then moved on to assert that Jesus is the only Way to heaven.  I was shocked at the lack cultural sensitivity.  What if I had said that all Texans were gun-wielding racists?  That was essentially what the author did to Chinese people - they all believed in the Tao, and they were all relativists in philosophy!  Worse, he didn't even get the Gospel right, which surprised me because I would think of all groups, evangelicals would have the Gospel down pat.

For the author, Jesus was the only Way to Heaven.  That, essentially, was the Gospel, according to the paper.  Unfortunately, I think he really made a crucial oversight that pushes his version of the Gospel out of biblical orthodoxy because he essentially interpreted Jesus' statement "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life" from a materialist perspective.  Yes - I am accusing him not for liberalism, but for ascribing to free market capitalism instead of Christianity!

Of course, as an evangelical myself, I don't necessarily disagree with that, but I don't like how it's put.  To say "Jesus is the only way to Heaven" suggests that our goal in life is not Jesus but Heaven.  We don't really love Jesus - he's only the means to our one true love: heaven.  Unfortunately, the Bible does not provide an exhaustive description of Heaven and for that reason, we start going ga-ga over what Heaven may look like (and, 99% of the time, people think about nice suburban neighborhoods with Jesus at the center).  I must emphasize this: Christianity is not about heaven.  Heaven is a nicety; it's like sprinkles on an ice cream sundae.  The sprinkles do not make the ice cream sundae; it is the ice cream that makes it the ice cream sundae.

The Gospel, if I can put it in a few short words, is the adoption of a narrative that is not of our own.  This is the story of God's work in the world.  For us to be on the Way to Heaven means that we make Heaven our ethic.  That is what the Chinese conception of Tao implies.  For that reason, for Jesus to be the only Way to Heaven requires us not to think of Jesus as a means to a place.  Jesus is not the captain of an airplane ferrying us from where we are to Heaven.  Jesus is Heaven brought to us!  Which, of course, is troubling because many of us have the notion that Heaven is a nice free market paradise.  No - Heaven is Jesus.  To have perfect fellowship with God is entering Heaven.  We cannot enjoy that perfect fellowship yet thanks to sin.  But we can get a taste of it when we see what Jesus has taught us.

Of course, many of us probably don't like what Jesus has taught us.  Sell our possessions?  Leave our careers and follow him?  Nonviolence?  What?  And so many of us try to rationalize it.  Oh, Jesus can't be against wealth.  Jesus can't be against us pursuing after prestigious colleges and lucrative careers!  That is why I suspect many Christians probably wouldn't like heaven when they see it.  Some will expect Fifth Avenue, what they will get is Jesus.  Some will expect Harvard, what they will get is Jesus. Some will expect mansions, what they will get is Jesus.

Some of us might be concerned - won't I see my dead dad there anymore?  First, I do think that there will be a reunion of those on both sides of the resurrection.  But this reunion must be seen in its proper perspective - it is the consummation of Christ and his Church, his Church who has prepared herself for this occasion.  For that reason, we cannot see Jesus outside of his Church.  Thus, Jesus' ethic is the church's ethic.  And when we fail to rise up to that ethic, we not only fail to live up to Christ's expectations for his bride, but we fail to live up to the standards of heaven.  Jesus is heaven brought to us - if we choose to live like it.  If not, I don't think heaven (or hell) really matters. In that sense, Rob Bell's book makes sense - we live in a world where hell really doesn't matter because a scarce few are willing to take seriously the witness of Jesus.  Those in ministry should know what I'm talking about.