A Spiritual Toxin
The Oxford Dictionary defines TOXIC as simply, “poisonous” or, “very harmful or unpleasant in a pervasive and insidious way”. The members of the Body of Christ have been exposed to toxins from the onset. The Apostle Paul spends a great deal of time in his letters to the early Church dealing with spiritual toxins like Gnosticism, Atheism, The Believers in the Circumcision and other philosophies and teachings in the diverse world and time in which he found himself. The danger of the toxin has always been and still is today in our equally diverse world and permissive society in which we find ourselves. There is hope, an antidote for all such poisons and it just may be a life of Thanksgiving and Gratitude but in what way.
Your standard poison is typically a chemical that causes the body to malfunction. In 19th century England there were so many rats that one such chemical, arsenic was commonly found on store shelves and in homes. It is tasteless, colorless and odorless. That’s right, just like Iocaine powder, which you can build up an immunity to if you are on a pirate ship with time on your hands and are concerned about a future battle of wits with a Sicilian. Unlike Iocaine however, arsenic is real and it has a cumulative affect meaning it builds up in your system over time becoming more and more toxic until it is simply too late. This made it so popular with women in 1800s London trapped in abusive marriages or just wanting out, that at one point it was illegal for them to buy it!
Spiritual poisons are far more insidious, designed to subtly draw our minds and hearts away from the Truths of the Faith and lull us into a mental paradigm that keeps us from genuinely fulfilling our role as the Body of Christ in this dimension. Before we know it, the toxin has permeated our heart, our soul and our mind and we find ourselves distracted and powerless, wondering where God is, or even if He is.
The Jesus is King Toxtheology?
A life of genuine gratitude, focused on the Giver more than it is the gift, is a life of remembrance. A life of remembrance toward the Creator, as we have discussed in Protogratitude 1-3, just may be the key to being established in the faith and abounding in it, the antidote to such poisons. A look at the New Testament reveals thanksgiving to be a basic characteristic of the believer and indispensable if one longs to walk in the kind of joy in the midst of circumstance that ultimately is the source of the strength required to press on in living a life that is worthy of the calling to which we have been called in this fallen and potentially toxic world. I want to take a few minutes to discuss one such insidious poison that seems to be making itself known on the social media circuit. I mean where else does spiritual and emotional toxicity spread as fast? Every good poison needs a name so let’s call this one, “the Jesus is King Toxtheology”.
Life in this wild and dangerous world is difficult. Of course there is always someone who has it better than you and someone who has it worse, but our perceived experience is often more real than reality itself. The current pandemic and our recent election seem to have put a magnifying glass on the fact that not everyone’s experience in America is the same and there are many in our country who just want to be seen (check out the series called SEE). We are at a moment in history where there is more division, anxiety and fear than most of us can remember. The uncertainty around the recent election and the future it suggests seems only to have, for some, bloated fear like a marshmallow in a microwave. The response of many well-meaning Believers of course has been to say, “no matter what happens, Jesus is still King” or “Jesus is still on the throne”.
Social media has responded as anticipated. I have been sent several posts pointing out the toxicity of such a statement. This one is one of my favorites. The fact that the concept of Jesus is King is toxic must be true because this guy, as he points out, is a pastor and they are infallible or course. Also the fact that he clearly isn’t trying to make this a political issue gives it even more credibility (DISCLAIMER: the last 2 sentences should be read with extreme sarcasm).
All of the posts I’ve seen point to the same basic toxic effect, the invalidation of my felt experience. The idea is that telling someone who is struggling with real issues and is afraid of an uncertain future that Jesus is Lord, dismisses the reality of what they are going through. It is like saying, “it doesn’t matter that you face challenges like discrimination or bias or job loss or poverty. . . it doesn’t matter that you lost your business in the pandemic and aren’t sure how you will pay your mortgage or how you will keep your job and also be home with your children who are in virtual school. . . Jesus is still on the throne so no big deal, get over it.”
But He Actually Is On The Throne!!
The idea that saying Jesus is King is toxic, and that the very idea invalidates a persons felt experience is the real toxtheology, the real poison. It is dressed up as food that eases our hunger and validates our desire to be seen. However, this idea is laced with a dangerous poison that ultimately accumulates in the system as it is spoken over and over. Eventually, trust is moved from a sovereign God who has plans and purposes far beyond our understanding, to fallen humans elected by other fallen humans holding temporary positions of power. The idea that declaring Jesus is still on the throne is toxic, actually moves our eyes from the throne of grace in eternity from which rivers of life flow and where we find true help in times of trouble. It quite literally lowly invalidates the part of the Gospel that let’s us know that “it is finished” and should be our source of confidence when confidence wains.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:16
At Christmastime we focus on the coming of Christ in the form of man, a gift to His fallen reflection, and we are thankful. At Easter we remember with gratitude His sacrifice on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead, the ultimate victory over sin. I wonder if you might be like me though, often forgetting that this is not really the end of the mission. The mission was not complete until Jesus returned to the Father and was seated at His right hand for eternity.
Paul the Apostle writes this to an Ephesian church that was not only struggling with external persecutions but also internal poisons as well:
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him, 18 —since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened—so that you can know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength. 20 This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms 21 far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things.23 Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 1:17-22
It is not in simply remembering that Jesus was raised from the dead that we fully comprehend the greatness and power of God showed toward us and the living hope we have been called to . Lazarus was raised from the dead too, and Elijah and Elisha may have pulled that trick out as well. Acknowledging this step alone will not result in the life of faith, joy, peace and hope that we all long for. It is in a heart of gratitude that sees the greatest demonstration of God’s immense strength may not actually be what is revealed in the creation itself, but rather in the fact that He raised Christ from the dead AND seated HIM at His right hand for all the ages AND gave Him authority over all AND that we who believe, the Body of Christ, have Him as our King. In this we find the living Hope that Peter writes about. You can go through the New Testament yourself and you will find over thirty references to either the throne or the right hand of God. Why? Because it is important. A heart of gratitude toward God because Jesus is King, is not a writing off of your experiences, your struggles, your heartbreak and disappoints, the abuses you may have faced or are facing, the scars that you bear or the fear you have as you look ahead to an uncertain future.
Paul looks at the very real and felt experiences of the Ephesian Church and tells them that Jesus is still on the throne. Later on he tells them to put on the full armor of God that they may stand and fight for their King. No, Jesus being on the throne is not a deadly toxin designed to kill the soul of the one’s who are enduring the greatest suffering while the rest of us are hoping we can find the new video game system before Christmas. It is not the shortened version of saying, “Don’t worry, God will make it all better”. The author of Hebrews later on (12:2) says we ought to be:
“Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:2
The Antidote
In verse one the author tells us we should lay aside every weight and run with endurance the race set before us, looking unto Jesus’ example – The hope that allowed Jesus to endure such rejection that He cried out “My God My God why have you left Me”? It was the Joy He saw in front of Him. He knew where He had come from and where He was going, that one day He would be seated on the throne in Heaven and in that moment we would be set free. Not free from pain in this life, but free to, like Paul, endure all things through Christ, who is seated on the throne and gives strength to me for the Joy set before me.
Understanding the hope and strength to be founnd in the throne of Grace makes it a perfect target for the poisoner. If the enemy can convince the Church that the authority of Christ and the throne of Grace is toxic, then we become nothing more than a lifeless religion, a self help program that cannot even help itself. If there is one thing in this very strange time that we MUST be thankful to God for it is that when everything around us is being shaken, we can be confident that Jesus is King and He is still on the throne. Because He is still on the throne, we know that He shares in all our struggle and is with us in them all to give grace and strength to endure.
COMING SOON: Protogratitude 5: Thankful for What We Deserve
The Drum Speaks 