For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.
Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
(Hebrews 13:11-14)
As with any form of death, the effect of the cross is to disconnect us. When we die with Christ (Romans 6:1-4) we are disconnected from our old connection with humanity. The cross, of course, is different from the death that would otherwise be our fate, because it does not just mean the end of old things but a new beginning.
Nevertheless one of the things Christians frequently miss is the way the cross disconnects us from the world. Paul says,
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
(Galatians 6:14-15)
In other words, the cross disconnects us from the world along with everything else. It takes us outside the camp, putting us where the unclean things are. Thus Jesus tells us that in following him the world will hate us.
I believe this disconnection is relevant for current events. The recent events in Charlottesville have produced a great outpouring of statements by Christians. In many cases these statements have involved taking a side, mostly against “white supremacy.”
Not that we are to take the side of white supremacy. Rather, we need to see that “this is not our fight.” As Christians, the controversies of the world are not our concern. They mostly involve struggles for power, the marshaling of emotion, the demonization of one side or both. As the song puts it, “Battle lines are being drawn.” In many cases Christians are told to “be angry” about injustice in one form or another.
James, on the other hand, says,
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
(James 3:17-18)
All these attempts to motivate people to do something (not sure exactly what) plainly fly in the face of the teachings of Jesus. Our job is not to find the enemy and defeat him. Rather, our job is to proclaim good news of reconciliation with God. We are to be peacemakers and to point people to the Prince of Peace.
We are specifically told not to judge. In particular, Paul says, “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside.”
Note that Paul does tell us to judge those in the church. He gives an example of this in 1 Corinthians 11, where he says that those who fail to see the poor among them as brethren, members of the same body, can actually “eat and drink judgment” upon themselves. So we as Christians should live in such a way to discern the body — to see beyond external barriers, whether they be social, cultural, racial or other, to the oneness we share as the body that Christ has bought with his blood.
But notice how Paul poses this. He says, “Let a person examine himself….” In the same way Jesus says,
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is the log in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
(Matthew 7:3-5)
I will not venture here to suggest the kinds of logs people might have in their eyes. That is not my job — mine is the log in my own eye. Only by dealing with that can I clearly see the speck in my brother’s eye. But I will say that we all need to go on log hunts in our own eye and clear our vision so we can help rather than harm.
Even more, though, we all need to repent of our own “othering” of people because of their race, class etc.
It is a fact of human life that we prefer being around “our own kind.” Paul, in Colossians 4:10-11, speaks of his own kinsmen and the comfort they brought him. There is nothing wrong with this.
But Paul, in the same passage, talks about the Greeks he knows, and the Romans, and who knows what all other kinds of people. They are his fellow workers and his beloved brothers (Colossians 4:7). In other words, Paul finds it easy to connect with his fellow Jews, but he also goes out of his comfort zone to connect with those who are not Jews. This is the body of Christ.
Rather than looking for people to condemn, for the enemy, maybe we could ask ourselves how we could better show the love that Christ commanded of us to those in his body who are not like us. What are ways we can reveal the oneness that crosses all human barriers because we all partake of one Spirit?
And most of all we should not become embroiled in the scramble for “the scraps of power that fall from Caesar’s table”, as someone put it.
We are not part of all this. It is not our fight. “Here we have no lasting city” (by which the writer means “country”) “but we seek the city that is to come.” Or once more, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…” (Philippians 3:20).