“Jesus was the greatest social justice warrior ever.”

An acquaintance said that to me, as we were conversing about a lot of the societal ills that seem to plague the United States: homelessness, racism, sexism, the failings of our legal system, substance abuse, etc. Our conversation eventually turned to discussing what the role of the Church should be in shaping culture and the world around us. Does the Church have an obligation to fight for widespread societal change, to be the public defenders for what we believe? Did Jesus really come to stand up for the marginalized and maligned people of society?

The answer, of course, is a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no. Jesus spent a lot of His earthly ministry with the people the society of His day considered “less-than” – tax collectors, adulterers, Samaritans, widows, children. He purposely took His disciples into Capernaum, an area that would’ve been considered the ancient Sin City by orthopractic Israelites. Jesus was intentional with His earthly ministry, showing His disciples then and now that everybody needed Him and nobody was too poor or worthless to receive it. Jesus, through His words and actions, overturns the value-system of His society.

And throughout this, Jesus is very clear in the goal and purpose of His ministry. In His conversation with Zacchaeus, a tax collector, Jesus told Him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:9-10 ESV). Jesus was not sent to heal the world of its social issues, but its spiritual ones. The apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19). The whole point of Jesus’ earthly ministry was to reconcile us to the Father through His lived-out righteousness, His substitutionary death, and His resurrection (which is applied to our spiritual state).

This ministry of reconciliation, which Christ has now entrusted to us (His Church), is why Christ came to Earth at all. We see in the New Testament just how focused Jesus is on this Gospel mission. At a dinner in Bethany, Jesus’ feet are anointed by Mary with a jar of expensive oil. Judas questions her actions – “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” Judas isn’t asking with an altruistic attitude – he’s thinking of himself. But the question does raise an important question – why doesn’t Jesus rebuke her? The jar of oil in question was worth approximately one years’ salary. That kind of money could make a huge impact on the lives of many people. But Jesus’ answer might shock modern readers. “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me” (John 12:5-8). Jesus isn’t telling His audience to ignore the poor – the Torah commanded the Israelites to care for the poor among them (Leviticus 19:9-10), the Proverbs considered it foolish to mistreat the needy (Proverbs 14:20-21, 31), and Jesus elsewhere commands His followers to treat the least-valuable people among them as they would treat Him (Matthew 25:31-46).

In this interaction, though, Jesus reveals to the dinner party that He is the ultimate priority. Nothing else takes center stage. Nobody else wears the crown. Everything else is second to Him. Jesus’ Gospel mission, His commandment to us to “make disciples of all nations”, follows from that priority. When we take our eyes off Jesus, we lose the heart of Gospel. And our hearts ARE prone to wander away from the Lord, because even in our redeemed state we are not yet free from sin. That’s why it becomes so easy to substitute Jesus’ Gospel for something else, or to muddy it with non-essential things.

Whenever we work to share the Gospel with others, we naturally present the Gospel in a way our audience can understand it. Using terms like “sanctification” or “hypostatic union” when explaining the Gospel to a first grader is probably going to confuse them. Talking about Jesus being the Logos to someone unfamiliar with Greek philosophy wouldn’t relate the Gospel to them personally. In a similar way, we sometimes pair the Gospel with a means of sharing it. For example, we invite people in our community to a free pancake breakfast and a vintage car show in the church parking lot. We could package food boxes for low-income families on Thanksgiving. We might even explore ministry opportunities as an extension of Jesus’ command to make disciples. Think of George Muller and his Bristol orphanage, William Wilberforce and his fight for abolition, or Mother Theresa and her ministry in Calcutta. There are many men and women who were passionate about issues plaguing their society. But for them, the social issue was a means of spreading the Gospel. The Gospel expressed itself in their work. But whatever their passion, whatever God had lain on their heart, it ultimately didn’t replace Jesus. Without Jesus, it just doesn’t work.

Let me explain. Jesus, in a rather morose metaphor, referred to the Pharisees as “white-washed tombs.” The idea here is that the Pharisees had taken great efforts to ensure the exterior, public-facing part of their lives looked clean, while at the same time neglecting the interior. There is absolutely nothing wrong with focusing on social issues and working to improve our society. But fixing societal ills will not heal the world. It’s like treating the symptoms of an illness instead of fighting the source. There are many terrible issues facing our world today. Poverty, homelessness, drug addiction, slavery, corruption, climate damage, racism, sexism – the list goes on and on. None of these are the ultimate, root cause of what is wrong with our world. They’re all symptoms of sin. They are a result of living in a fallen world that exists in a spiritual state of death. New life cannot grow from dead things. A bad tree cannot produce good fruit. A building built on sand will not last. Without treating the cause of societal issues – sin and separation from God – all our work is ultimately vapor in the wind.

Some people describe Jesus as a rebel against culture, leading a counter-cultural revolution. In some ways, this is true – Jesus is clearly not afraid to speak out against the customs and traditions of the Pharisees. Other people describe Jesus as the pinnacle of culture, creating the new perfect society. In some ways, this is true – Jesus instructs His followers on how to live, commands them to treat others with love. Both descriptions miss the point of Jesus’ life. Jesus wasn’t leading a cultural revolution or reformation. Neither does He call His followers to be champions of social change. Jesus was focused on spiritual resurrection. Any social change He brought was a by-product of the spiritual change He brought. Any social change we bring as the Church is secondary to the spiritual change we bring. Fixing society in this temporary life means nothing if people spend eternity in hell.

Without Jesus, all our works are worthless. It is Jesus’ blood that has the power to cover our sin. It is Jesus’ love that has the power to restore people to the Father. It is Jesus’ resurrection that has the power to offer new life. It is Jesus alone who has the power to heal, save, and deliver. We dare not exchange the life-transforming power of the Gospel for anything less.