The Radical Middle? Rejecting 'Left' and 'Right'

Those whom Jesus first called to be his followers knew both the challenge and the potential cost of living as citizens of the kingdom of God in a political world that boasted the kingdom of Caesar and Rome, and in a religious world that borrowed at least some of its coercive power from that dominant kingdom. For them, living under the reign of God as taught by their master, Jesus, meant rejecting several opposing options, to which many of their contemporaries succumbed.

On the one hand, what we might call the right-wing option, it meant rejecting collusion with the political power and wealth of Rome . That was the choice the Sadducees had made, who were among the most insistent that Jesus of Nazareth posed a threat to their surrendered accommodation with Rome. Later, of course, Paul and Peter told followers of Jesus who had no option but to live within the Roman Empire that they should be good citizens, pay their taxes, and honor the emperor. That remains a Christian ethical duty, in relation to human governments. But when followers of Jesus are tempted, like the Sadducees, to praise, justify, and collude with corrupt and greedy political regimes for their own religious protection and privileges, to such an extent that they jettison the values of the kingdom of God and the teachings of his Christ, then the warning lights of insidious idolatry begin to flash.

On the other hand, there are a number of what we might call the left-wing options; the kingdom of God for disciples of Jesus meant rejecting other radical alternatives to collusion with Rome. These might be religious (such as the Essenes, who withdrew into the wilderness to pursue a separatist kind of eschatological purity) or revolutionary (such as the Zealots, who waged violent guerrilla warfare against occupying Roman forces on behalf of the oppressed poor).

Collusion, withdrawal, violence — these are not options Jesus commends to his own followers, then or now. Rather, they were called to practice the values of God’s kingdom, as taught and modeled by Jesus himself, even while they necessarily had to live in Caesar’s kingdom. They were to be “in the world but not of it” (see 1 Jn 2:15). Such practices included the things Jesus himself did or told them to do—breaking down social barriers, practicing costly forgiveness and table fellowship with those whom society despised, canceling debts, turning the other cheek, offering generosity to the poor and the outsider, loving even the enemy, welcoming the outcast. These were radical and subversive of the established order, the social boundaries, and the religious codes of their day, both Jewish and Roman.

Disciples of Christ are called to a very different way of living and relating, shaped by Jesus and his kingdom, not Herod’s or Caesar’s.

Chris Wright's iconoclastic 'Here Are Your Gods!' Faithful Discipleship in Idolatrous Times publishes at the end of September. You can save £2 on the paperback by pre-ordering now!