The Tolerance of Christ

Like many of you, I was shocked by the bizarre opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics held in Paris a few weeks ago. Numerous news outlets decried the production as a mockery of Jesus and all of Christianity. 

Others published stories with outraged headlines calling the performance blasphemous and accusing the producers of portraying Divinci’s painting of the Last Supper with Jesus and the Apostles in drag and other “demonic” looking costumes. 

Social media feeds immediately lit up with angry comments from Christians describing it as an attack on God and all Christians with calls to “rise” and take a stand against it.

However, subsequent news stories reported that the producers stated they were depicting a scene from The Feast of the Gods by 17th-century Dutch painter Jan van Bijlert, based on Greek Mythology, not Christianity. 

Either way, the performance was strange to my American mind, but the explanation makes sense for two reasons. First, it is the Olympics, so it seems logical that it would involve something from Greek mythology rather than Christianity. 

Years ago, I visited the ancient stadium in Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the first Olympics. Amid the centuries-old ruins lay long disintegrated columns and portions of now fallen walls with murals depicting similar scenes, with the Greek gods engaged in different types of combat, competition, and, yes, various forms of celebratory debauchery. 

Second, well, let’s be honest, they are French! The French have long ago jettisoned the niceties of a Christian-based society for a more secular one that is undoubtedly less religious and, therefore, less sensitive to this kind of issue. 

Whether designed to offend or not, what got my attention was the reaction of many Christians to this event. In his weekend sermon, one of the pastors I follow stated,  “The biggest problem with our society today is tolerance. Society tells us that we must tolerate everything going on. Just look at what this tolerance has brought us.”

The words tolerance and its opposite intolerance are often used (conveniently) by both the left and the right when one offends the other. According to the Oxford Dictionary, tolerance is the ability or willingness to allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of (something that one does not necessarily like or agree with) without interference. 

There are many synonyms for tolerance, such as permissiveness, patience, and lenience. The one that caught my eye is forbearance. It’s not a word often used in today’s vernacular, but it is a significant word with a deep scriptural meaning. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “forbearance” as patient self-control, restraint, and tolerance; forbearance from taking action. The act of forbearing is patience, and the quality of forbearing is leniency. 

The Collins dictionary states succinctly, “If you say that someone has shown forbearance, you admire them for behaving calmly and sensibly about something that they have a right to be very upset or angry about.” In this respect, there is a clear relationship between forbearance and mercy in that mercy also requires withholding punitive action when a deserved punishment is due. 

In Galatians 5: 22-26, Paul lists forbearance as one of the nine fruits of the spirit. As Jesus points out in Matthew 7: 16-17, we cannot determine the health of a tree (the roots) by observing its trunk and branches. To decide whether or not it’s healthy, we look for the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5: 22-23). 

So, what does this mean for us today? How can we show such forbearance, patience, and tolerance in a world that often does not show us the same?

Luckily, we don’t have to look any further than the beautiful example given to us by our Lord when His enemies mocked, beat, and crucified Him. 

You see, it’s not just the murder of  Jesus and who He was (and is) that sets Him apart. After all, the Roman Empire crucified hundreds of thousands of others in precisely the same manner. In addition to being the incarnation of God, Jesus also set Himself apart by how He endured it. 

On the night Jesus was arrested by the temple guards in the garden, Matthew tells us that “one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. ‘Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:51-52).

In rebuking Peter, Jesus is reminding him of his instructions on how to deal with enemies by referring back to the Sermon on The Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also” (Matthew 5:38-39).

 Jesus then goes on further to expand this commandment by telling them to whom this applies: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43).

Once again, in Luke 22:63-4, we see the tolerance and forbearance of Jesus showed to those who were persecuting Him: “The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” And they said many other insulting things to him.” 

Notice what is missing here? It doesn’t say that Jesus cursed them back. Instead, He displayed the exact opposite by enduring it, not for His sake, but for the sake of His torturers. At any moment, Jesus could have ended it, striking them back with all the power of God. Now, that is tolerance!

Later, Pilate asks Jesus if He is a king. Jesus responded, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” 

Once again, Jesus contrasts the Kingdom of God with the kingdom of the world by pointing out that citizens of  God’s kingdom are not to be involved in retributive violence or revenge.  

To the Romans, crucifixion was the ultimate way to mock and shame a person, mainly as a warning to the colonized populace they wanted to control. Therefore, I doubt anyone present at the crucifixion of Jesus, including the apostles, thought that this ultimate defeat and humiliation was some kind of victory. 

However, unbeknownst to all of them, it was by tolerating their treatment of Him, including His crucifixion, that He would ultimately achieve victory over the cycle of violence that permeated the world from the beginning. 

The spirit of intolerance is rampant in our world today. As our Lord’s example shows, as citizens of His kingdom, we are not to fight injustice with more injustice, violence with more violence, and intolerance with more intolerance. Instead, we are to respond as Jesus did by showing forbearance and tolerance even when we are (or perceived to be) mocked by others. 

We need to stop looking for opportunities to be offended and outraged. Stoking outrage is the job of Satan, and he is doing everything in his power to co-opt us into his demonic plan of division, hatred, and violence. 

Instead, we should look for opportunities to show love and tolerance to a world full of hate and intolerance. 

It is not easy. It is costly. It cost our Lord His human life. It is what Jesus meant when he said we must carry our cross daily to follow Him.  

However, by following the example of Jesus, we can project the light of His love and mercy into a world of darkness and be the beacon of hope that draws all to the one kingdom that really matters.

 

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” Martin Luther King, Jr.