Initial reaction to A Jesus Manifesto

Earlier this week, Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet released what they dubbed “A Jesus Manifesto: A Magna Carta for Restoring the Supremacy of Jesus Christ.” The Manifesto’s release seems to be in sync with recently published books for both of the contributors (linked to at the bottom of the Manifesto’s page, labeled “The Manifests”). I want to share just a couple thoughts about the Manifesto in this space, but I‘ll leave the rest to Julie Clawson’s review, which I think is great.

Honestly my first reaction after reading the Manifesto was, “How did Leonard Sweet (whose work I tend to really enjoy) get roped into this?” The document reads completely like Viola’s repertoire – an at-times reductionistic longing for primitive, anti-establishment Christianity – and nothing like Sweet’s passion for hi-fi, multi-sensory liturgical experiences (a fervor not too different from CNN’s love for holograms and magic maps).

I could be really off-base – for all I know Sweet wrote the entire thing – but it just seems like the Manifesto took on Viola’s agenda and Sweet just agreed to it.

Without dissecting their intentions beyond that, I think the Manifesto, on a Trinitarian level, fails completely. The authors’ call for Christocentrism is misguided. [Gasp.] What I mean is that if we examine the words of Christ we won’t find a call to Christocentrism. The work of Christ (and, I’d say, Christ’s expectation for the Church) points in a thoroughly Theocentric direction. Contrary to the Manifesto, Jesus did not become the Father. He came to make the Father known, and to make us the sort of people who make the Father known. He is our Brother Jesus.

The Manifesto’s Trinitarian shortcomings continue as “the living Jesus” is depicted as our Helper, while the Spirit is hardly mentioned throughout the Manifesto. It is the Spirit and not the “living Jesus” (let alone canonized Scripture) that the historical Jesus called his followers to lean against as they progressed in their kingdom-building work. Jesus didn’t fake the Ascension. He went so that the Spirit could come.

Then again, am I getting too sensible? The authors write, “[Academic knowledge of Christ and "personal knowledge of the living Christ"] stand as far apart as do the hundred thousand million galaxies.” I guess it takes some anti-intellectual posturing to be able to get away with some of things Sweet and Viola claim in the Manifesto.

They have it as backwards as backwards can be – it’s all about God’s Kingdom. It’s been about the Kingdom since God’s covenant with Abraham. The Old Testament is filled with stories of people experiencing injustice and crying out for the Kingdom to come. The Messiah’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection happened to enable the Kingdom within all peoples (God kept His promise to Abraham). That same Messiah’s exemplar prayer was a petition to the Father that the Kingdom would come to earth. The Apostle Paul’s ministry was fixated on answering the question, “Who participates in this Kingdom?” Our entire future, the eschatology of God’s story, points in one and only one direction – a fully renewed creation and a fully-arrived Kingdom.

If you want a Kingdom-less Gospel, you’ll need to find a different Scripture and a different Messiah. The Judeo-Christian story is a story about the Kingdom.

We are not called to simply walk around with a giggly crush on Jesus. We’re called to participate in his exodus and in the Kingdom. This is obvious if we use the language of marriage: what wife wants a husband who twirls around and writes her love songs if the guy is unfaithful or doesn’t do any of the things she asks him to do? Jesus doesn’t want a bunch of song-writing sluts. Read his words: he wants people to make disciples who walk in his Way. His prayer is, “Kingdom, come.” I’m willing to go out on a limb and speak for Jesus in saying that he would rather see hunger and poverty put to end than to see a few more people getting all hot and bothered by him and shouting about how they’re “in love” with him.

Oh, wait, I’m actually not speaking for Jesus – he said it himself: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”