“O Amelia Bedelia, your first day of work and I can’t be here. But I made a list for you. You do just what the list says.” Miss Rodgers to Amelia Bedelia

Stop saying you take the words of Jesus literally because you don’t.

We hear this here and there. “We take what Jesus says literally, we don’t explain it away like some churches.” 

“The real Anabaptists took Jesus’ words literally, do we?”

We don’t. I don’t and you don’t. Let me show you. 

Labor not for the meat that perisheth…

When the work crew shows up for you tomorrow let me see you wave them on and spend your day with non-perishable meat: relationships, serving the poor, studying scripture. No more time spent in the cash economy or changing oil, right, because Jesus said not to.

And whatsoever ye ask in my name….

Pray it, you’ll get it, because Jesus said so. Start with world peace and end up with that coffee maker you want. Let me know how it goes.

Go and sell that thou hast, and give it to the poor….

I will personally attend the public auction where you sell your goods. Let’s wait to sell the clothing off your back until last.

Give to him that asketh thee…

When the Foundation for Justice for Kittens mails you a flyer asking for a donation of $10, $100 or $1000, which will you choose?

Let him have thy cloak also…

When the local felon lifts your daughter’s birthday bicycle, leave the keys in your new truck the next night. Lay the title on the console as a second mile gesture. 

If thy right hand/eye offend thee…

Take no thought for the morrow…

Let’s take these two together. After you’ve practiced adjusting the patch where your offending right eye used to be with your remaining left hand you’ll need to not think about tomorrow’s needs. Use your right arm’s stump to push those notices the power company has been threatening you with into your overflowing trash can. Take no more thought of them. 

You’ve taken these words out of context, you tell me, and indeed I have. But this town isn’t big enough for both literalism and contextual considerations. We can’t have it both ways.

So what are we to do with the words of our Lord? The seemingly extreme rhetoric, the calls to radical, almost suicidal action? 

If taking His words literally isn’t possible, or doesn’t seem possible while functioning in our world, do we simply dilute and qualify these commands until they work in our middle-class, American lives without too much disruption? 

There are guiding principles to rest our understanding of Jesus’ words on, elevating our engagement of scripture above Amelia’s linguistic limitations. These principles are becoming to mature, thinking, Spirit-guided followers of Jesus. Here’s a few to prime us.

To borrow a phrase from our politicians: We need to take Jesus seriously, not literally. What did he mean, not what did he say. Your wife asks if you can run to town quick and get sour cream. Do you love your wife? Will you do this for her? Of course you’ll go but will you run on foot quick? Literalism is not a quality of love or obedience, or an indicator of devotion. It is a hermeneutical cul-de-sac out of which one must shuffle backwards.

The Gospels were written for us, but not to us. They were written to a narrow slice of humanity in a specific time and culture, and they need to be read that way. Study, concentration, and a good faith orientation is required to map them onto our world today.

Jesus was a Jew. He looked, lived, thought, and talked like a Jew. He taught as did the Jewish rabbis of his time, with extravagant, rhetorical flourishes. Jesus’ hyperbole would not have confused His listeners. It was the instructive religious air they breathed. 

The page-to-heart bedrock, the first and final engagement with His words turns on a relationship. How would you live His words if you loved Him? Not as if these were the rules of an Ironman event, or the convent laws of a monastery, or the goals of a weight-loss program. Not as if the most radical, most disciplined, most extreme fanatic wins. Not as if one overlooked or misread fine-print requirement would pitchfork you into a lake of fire.

Live the words of Jesus as if someone afar who caught your eye in a time of need suddenly appeared and caught you up in his arms. He took you home, cleaned your wounds and gave you a life you could never had had, without him. And then He left you with a book of stories, letters, instructions, words of love and promises of His return. Live His words like that. 

When someone asks about you and Jesus, just say you love Him, or that you try to be like Him. Or that what He taught means everything to you. 

Don’t say you take His words literally, because you don’t.