SPOILER ALERT: A follower of Jesus said something that a bunch of people who aren’t following Jesus didn’t like.
In a recent interview with GQ (which is really good even if it is full of words that you don’t want to say even if it’s only in your head while you’re reading along silently), Phil Robertson of Duck Commander and Duck Dynasty fame, came right out and said a bunch of stuff that no one should be all that surprised about, because he’s been saying stuff like this ever since he became a follower of Jesus way back in 1972. Things about sin and how “if the human race loved each other and they loved God, we would just be better off. We ought to just be repentant, turn to God, and let’s get on with it, and everything will turn around.”
Of course, it was his more specific comments about what sins we should repent of that ignited the firestorm that by now you’ve all heard about, read about, and posted about. In fact, the Twitterverse, Blogosphere and Facebook World are all covered in duck as everyone – and I do mean EVERYONE – weighs in on what he should or shouldn’t have said and what A&E should or shouldn’t have done. And all this time, Phil is sitting at home wondering what all the fuss is about. I mean, surely this stuff came up in the interviews with A&E execs before they ushered in the apocalypse by making the bearded wonders the biggest thing to hit television since color, right?
In other shocking news, Tim Tebow is a virgin and believes that sex before marriage is wrong (he’s right, of course, but that’s not the point).
The point here is that we probably shouldn’t be so up in arms about any of the following:
- a devout Christian thinks homosexuality is a sin, or
- a non-Christian network like A&E would respond in a politically correct way to limit the financial impact of #1, or
- the apparent attack on free speech
This isn’t about free speech at all. No one is telling Phil Robertson that he can’t say whatever he wants about body parts and other things that many may wish he wasn’t so free about. What they are saying – and Jesus followers need to understand this – is that the message of the Gospel is offensive.
Why in the world this surprises us is pretty, well, surprising.
Jesus told us to expect it, not lobby to change it. Here, in case we’ve all forgotten, is a sampling of the things Jesus said:
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)
Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. (Matthew 24:9)
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. (John 3:20)
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. (John 16:1)
So while everyone is up in arms over free speech, Jesus warned us that anytime we talk about the exclusivity of the Gospel, it would be offensive speech. And make no mistake about it, it’s the exclusivity of the Gospel that rings in Phil’s words. In fact, here’s the last thing that he said to the interviewer from GQ, right after he asked him if he believed the Bible:
If you simply put your faith in Jesus coming down in flesh, through a human being, God becoming flesh living on the earth, dying on the cross for the sins of the world, being buried, and being raised from the dead—yours and mine and everybody else’s problems will be solved. And the next time we see you, we will say: ‘You are now a brother. Our brother.’ So then we look at you totally different then. See what I’m saying?
The world loves Duck Dynasty because this family just seems real. They would have loved Jesus, too, right up until the part when Jesus would have said one of those statements that got written down in a book far more important than GQ magazine. And then, they would have killed Jesus.
Wait, they did.
The shocking part of all of this isn’t that a follower of Jesus actually believes and lives the same things that Jesus taught. It isn’t even that A&E suspended Phil Robertson indefinitely from his own show or that Phil and his family are bold enough to say – to anyone who will listen – that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to peace with God.
The shocking part is that so many other believers are surprised that the world didn’t like it.
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