Do Liberals Resemble Jesus? (Yes, but Very Imperfectly.)

In The Whites of their Eyes, historian Jill Lepore tells of her experience with the Tea Party. Her book is in no danger of being sold at Tea Party rallies, but Lepore sometimes speaks warmly of the people she met, and she credits their sincerity.

But at one point, she writes, a Tea Party woman asked her if she was a liberal. Before she could fully answer, the woman grabbed her and demanded fifty dollars. This was because, according to that woman, liberals give money to everyone who asks for it.

Ms. Lepore didn’t say what she said back. But she might have said, "You’re thinking of Christians". (See Luke 6:30.)

In what ways do liberals imitate Christ? I can think of ten ways.

1. Liberals care about the poor.

When someone takes up the cause of the poor, it's usually a liberal.

See Matthew 25:40,45. ("[W]hatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.") See also the story of poor Lazarus and the rich man. (Starting at Luke 16:19) The story ends happily for Lazarus, not for the rich man:

"Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.’"

2. Liberals sit down with sinners.

Republicans agitate and foment about Bill Ayers. Their claims about Ayers and Obama are greatly exaggerated. But this guilt by association is a uniquely Republican argument, like what the Pharisees said about Jesus. And, of course, conservatives, more than liberals, berate criminals and those who defend them. Criminal-defense attorneys skew liberal.

Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" [Luke 5:29-30.]

3. Liberals care about health care, even health care for the poor.

I can hunt down many, many cases in the Gospels of Jesus healing - the blind, the leprous, the paralyzed, the chronically bleeding. Jesus might have performed healing miracles more than any other kind.

Liberals passed health-care reform, with help from Democratic moderates. Health care reform will mean that sick will not die because they are poor.

4. Liberals believe in paying taxes.

Conservatives seem to want to throttle government by cutting off revenue to it. Liberals typically believe in paying for programs through funding that includes taxes.

Jesus approved paying taxes, and he paid taxes. Matthew 22:16-21:

“Teacher,” they said, “we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are.  Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?  Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius,  and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

  “Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then he said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

Also Matthew 17:27: Jesus pays the temple tax with a coin from a fish’s mouth.

5. Liberals believe in reasonable restraint on business.

Under the rubric of "free enterprise", conservatives beat the drum of repealing virtually all regulation of business. Liberals believe that reasonable regulation is necessary.

Jesus didn’t have an idolatrous regard for free enterprise. See, Matthew 21:12:

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.

6. Some liberals are rich, but, like Jesus, they don’t adulate the rich.

Jesus wasn’t real crazy about the rich. I referred to the story of Lazarus and the rich man already. Also Mark 10:25: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."

And Matthew 19:30: "[M]any who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."

7. Liberals believe that the poor, if they contribute little, are equal to the rich who contribute much.

Liberals believe in the progressive income tax. Conservatives often want a flat tax.

Jesus believed that the poor who contributed little were entitled to more honor than the rich who contributed much.

Luke 21:1-4:

As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. "Truly I tell you," he said, "this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on."

8. Liberals are open to other cultures and nationalities.

Conservatives often hate foreigners. (Lately, especially the French and the Mexicans and the Muslim.) Liberals, not so much.

Jesus loves all nations. Matthew 28:19: "[G]o and make disciples of all nations . . .."

 9. Liberals believe in mercy.

Liberals, more than conservatives, believe in second chances and mercy. Liberals, more than conservatives, oppose California’s Three Strike law, under which a man with two serious prior felonies can get a life sentence if he steals a packet of aspirin for his ailing wife. Liberals, more than conservatives, oppose the death penalty.

The mercy of Jesus breaths in the Bible.

His life was mercy.

John 8:1-11 is the story of the woman caught in adultery, who was about to be killed. Jesus wrote in the sand, and the crowd peeled off until they all were gone. Jesus asked who was left to condemn her. She said nobody. Then he told her: "Then neither do I condemn you," . . ... "Go now and leave your life of sin."

He told the criminal dying on a cross next to him: "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43.)

Matthew 9:13: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

Luke 11:4: Jesus teaches us to pray: "Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us."

Luke 7:3-4:

"If a brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them."

In the story of murderous Saul called to become an apostle to preach the gospel, mercy is huge. (Acts 9.)

10. Liberals believe that private property can be appropriated for the common good.

Conservatives consider private property sacrosanct. Liberals, within reason, not so much.

And Jesus: not so much.

Matthew 8:28-32:

When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. "What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?"

Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs."

He said to them, "Go!" So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water.

Of course, one of many differences between Jesus and liberals is that liberals have to compensate owners who’s property is taken. (They know they’re not Jesus. And they aren’t.)

Honestly, I've listened to conservative preachers and liberal preachers, and I prefer the conservatives. But there's something in liberalism that imitates Christ.

Now, I'm only half-serious here, so I assume that my conservative friends will be only half-angry. (If that.)

________________________________

Biblical quotes are from Today’s New International Version.