If I live another few weeks, I will soon turn 70 years old. Like anyone who has lived that long, I have seen many things come and go and change, one of the most bewildering of which is the degree to which such a wide stripe of popular North American Christianity has somehow managed to distance itself from the spirit of the Jesus of the four Gospels.
Like the rest of the Bible, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are neither inerrant nor infallible, nor are they God’s last word — designations that belong not to the Holy Bible, but to the Holy Spirit.
Chuck Poole
Having acknowledged that, the truth remains that the four Gospels are the best look we ever have had at the words and works of Jesus, which is why we can say with clear, quiet confidence, Jesus spent his life sitting down with and standing up for whoever was most marginalized, ostracized, stigmatized, victimized, demonized and dehumanized.
Jesus, drawn to pain like a moth to flame, sat in solidarity with those on the edges. Jesus stood in resistance against those who wanted to keep them there.
Read the four Gospels over and over and over again, all the way through, and that is what you see: Jesus, living a life of fierce empathy and compassion, relentless welcome and embrace, courageous kindness and love.
Or, if you don’t have time to read the four Gospels all the way through, which takes about eight hours, just sit for a few moments each day with Matthew 22:34-40, the passage where Jesus is reported to have said what matters most is that we love God with all that is in us and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
“These are gospel words that call Jesus followers to get up every morning and live lives of empathy and kindness, welcome and love.”
We have a tendency to get sidetracked by the complexity of what it means to “love ourselves,” which is unfortunate, because Matthew 22:34-40 probably means nothing more or less than that those who wish to follow Jesus are called to love all others as we would want all others to love us — not unlike Matthew 7:12, where Jesus is reported to have said all the holy words in all the holy books can be squeezed into a single simple sentence: Treat all others as you wish all others to treat you.
These are gospel words that call Jesus followers, then and now, to get up every morning and live lives of empathy and kindness, welcome and love.
Which is why it is so bewildering to see so much of popular Christianity respond to those who embody that kind of love with a lexicon of ridicule that has become so ubiquitous in 21st-century North America: Derided and dismissed as “woke.”
All of which sometimes makes me want to ask those who speak in that way, “What if it’s just Jesus?”
For example, when people fight for basic health care access for all through full Medicaid expansion, what if it’s just because we’ve decided to take seriously what Jesus is reported to have said in Matthew 25:31-46?
When people protest the deportation of noncriminal undocumented immigrants, what if it’s just because of what Jesus is reported to have said in Matthew 22:34-40?
When people long to find the most kind and thoughtful ways to welcome and include gender nonconforming people, what if it’s just because of what Jesus is reported to have said in Matthew 7:12?
When people name white supremacy as sin and strive to right the wrongs of racial injustice, what if it’s just because of what Jesus is reported to have said in John 13:34-35?
Whenever I see someone in public life proudly wearing a cross as a sign of their Christianity while simultaneously dismissing serious calls for empathy and compassion as “politically correct” or “woke,” I always assume they sincerely believe what they are saying, which makes me wonder what their kind of Christianity does with the Jesus of the four Gospels.
Because to read the four Gospels, over and over and over again, or even just to sit prayerfully with Matthew 7:12, Matthew 22:34-40 or Matthew 25:31-46, is to know at the deep-down center of your soul that when we sit in solidarity with people on the margins and stand in resistance against powers that want to keep them there, that isn’t political correctness, it’s gospel correctness. It isn’t wokism, it’s baptism. It isn’t performative liberalism or progressive politics or any of those other dismissals that belong to the lexicon of diversion that so much of popular Christianity has embraced.
It’s just Jesus.
Chuck Poole retired in 2022 after 45 years of pastoral life, during which he served churches in Georgia; North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; and Jackson, Miss. He has served as a visiting preacher and teacher on the campuses of multiple universities, seminaries and divinity schools. He was the founding teacher of the Wood Street Bible Class in Jackson, which he led for 21 years. The author of nine books, numerous published articles, one gospel song and the lyrics to three hymns, Chuck has served as a “minister on the street” and as an advocate for interfaith conversation and welcome. He and his wife, Marcia, now live in Birmingham, where he serves on the staff of Together for Hope.