Jesus Has a Mohawk
Recently, a bunch of teenagers at a punk rock concert in Indonesia were picked up by police and taken to a detention center 30 miles outside of town. These kids must have been doing some crazy stuff, right? Drugs? Fight club? Looting? Satanic rituals? Watching any of the Twilight franchise movies? No, none of that. They were detained and shipped out to a week long prison retreat because they looked different. No joke! The police picked up these kids because of their body piercings, crazy hair and unconventional clothes. Once they arrived at the detention center, police began buzzing off their spiky mohawks and stripping away their body piercings. Why, you may ask? Because of a perceived threat to Islamic values.
Okay, let's stop and make sure everyone is clear on this: 65 teenagers were arrested and driven 30 miles to a prison camp where they were stripped, had their heads shaved, had all their piercings, dog collar necklaces and chains forcibly removed and were thrown into pools of water for "spiritual cleansing." And all of this was because of a perceived threat to Islamic values. No laws were broken. No crimes were committed. Police were afraid of what the individuality of these kids might mean to their religious structures.
My very honest reaction to reading about this is to feel sick on numerous levels, but mostly because these attitudes prevail here in the United States as well. For that matter, these attitudes exist in the church too. We don't do well with "different". When a dog-collared, mohawked teenager with piercings in his ears that are as big and empty as the hole in a Krispy Kreme donut walks through the doors of our churches, what kind of reception do you think he or she can expect? Fear: "Is this kid going to pull out a gun and murder me?" Disgust: "I bet those huge piercings are really stinky." Anxiety: "Please don't sit by me, please don't sit by me!" Confusion: "I have no idea what to say to that dude." Anger: "This kid is going to make my kids want tattoos!"
Our response is rarely as vile as that of the Indonesian police, but can be just as indefensible. We double down on our unwritten codes of acceptable church behavior and dress. We very subtly communicate to this person that the more they change to be like us, the more we will accept them. With our avoidance, we delicately send them off to the detention center that is the lonely corner of the church lobby because the perceived threat they represent to our Christian values is just too great.
Jesus wasn't a perceived threat to the religious values and leadership of his day. He was a very real and active threat. His teachings contradicted the rigid religious caste system that had developed in Judaism to exclude those who were poor, sick or born with the wrong pedigree. His miracles gave credibility to his dangerous ideas. His very presence was that of a dangerous punk rocker who is threatening to upset the apple cart. What's more punk rock than going into the Jewish temple and tossing over the tables of merchants and payday lenders who were taking advantage of religious people for their own personal profit? If the religious leaders in Jesus' era could have shut him down by shaving his head, they would have done it in a heartbeat.
Jesus' followers were poor, uneducated, sinful, disgraced and dangerous. They lived at the outer edges of religious society because they had nothing to contribute. They were nobodies. But Jesus was drawn to them. He saw so much more in them. Jesus sees in people the potential not to destroy religion, but to know and be loved by God. He sees in us the seeds of greatness, whether our hair is green, our skin is tattooed or we have so many piercings we leak like a sieve.
Be like Jesus. Love people who seem dangerous and unlovable. Welcome in those who are different without expecting them to change to be included.
Okay, let's stop and make sure everyone is clear on this: 65 teenagers were arrested and driven 30 miles to a prison camp where they were stripped, had their heads shaved, had all their piercings, dog collar necklaces and chains forcibly removed and were thrown into pools of water for "spiritual cleansing." And all of this was because of a perceived threat to Islamic values. No laws were broken. No crimes were committed. Police were afraid of what the individuality of these kids might mean to their religious structures.
My very honest reaction to reading about this is to feel sick on numerous levels, but mostly because these attitudes prevail here in the United States as well. For that matter, these attitudes exist in the church too. We don't do well with "different". When a dog-collared, mohawked teenager with piercings in his ears that are as big and empty as the hole in a Krispy Kreme donut walks through the doors of our churches, what kind of reception do you think he or she can expect? Fear: "Is this kid going to pull out a gun and murder me?" Disgust: "I bet those huge piercings are really stinky." Anxiety: "Please don't sit by me, please don't sit by me!" Confusion: "I have no idea what to say to that dude." Anger: "This kid is going to make my kids want tattoos!"
Our response is rarely as vile as that of the Indonesian police, but can be just as indefensible. We double down on our unwritten codes of acceptable church behavior and dress. We very subtly communicate to this person that the more they change to be like us, the more we will accept them. With our avoidance, we delicately send them off to the detention center that is the lonely corner of the church lobby because the perceived threat they represent to our Christian values is just too great.
Jesus wasn't a perceived threat to the religious values and leadership of his day. He was a very real and active threat. His teachings contradicted the rigid religious caste system that had developed in Judaism to exclude those who were poor, sick or born with the wrong pedigree. His miracles gave credibility to his dangerous ideas. His very presence was that of a dangerous punk rocker who is threatening to upset the apple cart. What's more punk rock than going into the Jewish temple and tossing over the tables of merchants and payday lenders who were taking advantage of religious people for their own personal profit? If the religious leaders in Jesus' era could have shut him down by shaving his head, they would have done it in a heartbeat.
Jesus' followers were poor, uneducated, sinful, disgraced and dangerous. They lived at the outer edges of religious society because they had nothing to contribute. They were nobodies. But Jesus was drawn to them. He saw so much more in them. Jesus sees in people the potential not to destroy religion, but to know and be loved by God. He sees in us the seeds of greatness, whether our hair is green, our skin is tattooed or we have so many piercings we leak like a sieve.
Be like Jesus. Love people who seem dangerous and unlovable. Welcome in those who are different without expecting them to change to be included.
Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’Let's be the church that welcomes people in with love, rather than forcibly shaves of their unacceptable hairstyles. Because the next time you see Jesus, he may have a mohawk.
Matthew 25:34-40
posted by Chris at
9:45 AM
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