Whom Would Jesus Cancel?

Rev. Douglas Taylor

May 19, 2024

Sermon Video: https://youtu.be/syGdJrre53Q

So, the obvious, and easiest, answer to this question is: Jesus would cancel anyone with whom I disagree. This is how a lot of people use God for their ethics and moralizing. It is Anne Lamott who said “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

Let me unpack this idea of ‘cancelling’ here at the beginning, because it is a relatively new way of describing a human social behavior that’s been around for a long time. You know I don’t do this a lot but I went to the dictionary for help. Merriam Webster says to cancel is: (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cancel#h1; particularly entry 1, sense e).

To withdraw one’s support for (someone, such as a celebrity, or something, such as a company) publicly and especially on social media … as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure.

To me, that sounds quite similar to boycotting or protesting, with a heavy dose of shaming thrown in. It is an effort to exert control by having someone or something removed, silenced, or shut down. I think that is the newer element in ‘canceling’ – the work is not just to refute or oppose a person, company, or an idea. The work is to shut them down, to silence them. This morning, my question is this: what is the spiritual value of canceling? Whom would Jesus cancel?

Here is my first answer: No one. As Peter Mayer says in the song we had just now – Jesus said let everybody in.

Jesus is a kind and forgiving person. All that stuff Paul says about Love in 1^st Corinthians, most people think that all applies to Jesus’ character too – and serves as a list of the virtues we want to embody in ourselves.

“Love is patient; love is kind.”  Well, say the same for Jesus. Jesus is patient; Jesus is kind. We want to also be patient and kind. Right? I’m not just making this up from nowhere, right? This is what Paul was aiming at when he wrote this. Paul was saying we should be like Jesus, we should be loving. And what that looks like is for us to not be “envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.”

Whom would Jesus cancel? No one. Whom should we cancel? No one. Because love “does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth.”

Cancelling someone is about keeping that record and maybe a little rejoicing when it works, when someone who deserves to be canceled gets canceled.

But that’s not the way Jesus would do it. Jesus is all about forgiving those who persecute us. He calls us to love our neighbors, to love even our enemies. Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers.” He didn’t say blessed are they who can prove they are right on the internet.

Blessed are the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted … He said

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt 5:11-12)

He called on us to turn the other cheek. There is not a lot of room for rejoicing in people getting canceled, let alone for us to be doing the cancelling. So that is my first answer: No one.

On the other hand … Here is my second answer. A careful reading of scripture reveals that Jesus did get into it with some folks. He rebuked people, he called them hypocrites, he argued with them. He flipped tables and chased people out of the temple.

In a 2022 article in the Atlantic on this very question, ethicist and editor James T. Keane writes: “Even a cursory look at Scripture shows that Jesus was not at all afraid to repudiate those who deserved it.” https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/03/18/jesus-cancel-culture-242588 So this idea that Jesus is just a really nice guy who loves everyone and is sweetness and light to everyone is just not true.

He rebukes his disciples (Matthew 8:23-27, Luke 9:37-56,) and Peter specifically (Mark 8:27-38), and at one point he rebukes the wind and the sea (Mark 4:39). But those examples are usually about Jesus getting frustrated with his disciples and wanting them to be better people, more faithful and good. He wasn’t trying to ‘cancel’ them

But there’s more. Jesus is often portrayed as criticizing and condemning the Scribes and Pharisees of the church (Luke 11:37–54; Matthew 23:1–39; Mark 12:35–40; and Luke 20:45–47). He says ‘woe unto you …’ and he calls them hypocrites. Jesus did that because he said they were preaching the law but not practicing it, because they were enriching themselves off the people, because they gave the appearance of being godly, clean, righteous, loving, and yet they did not behave as such. Then there is all the name calling Jesus does. He calls the Scribes and Pharisees names like vipers, serpents, fools, blind guides, “whited graves…full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness”

In all four gospels, Jesus is seen getting very upset at the merchants and money changers in the temple (Mark 11:15–19, Matthew 21:12–17, Luke 19:45–48, John 2:13–16) and in John it describes him not only flipping the tables but also using a whip to chase people out.

It feels like Jesus, when pressed, singled some people out based on their hypocrisy; he expressed his disapproval and he exerted pressure to get them to change. So, perhaps there are some people Jesus would cancel. That’s my second answer: maybe there are some people – hypocrites perhaps – who Jesus would cancel.

And here is my third answer: No. Canceling is not what Jesus was doing in the gospels. He was challenging them, arguing with them instead of silencing them. Jesus was not shutting them down or silencing them. He argued with them, debated them, tricked them when they tried to trick him.

Jesus argued with people, prophesied against them, called them names; yes. But he never demanded their silence. Keane, again, in that article from the Atlantic:

The only times Jesus tells someone to shut up, to get lost, it’s Satan or it’s his pal Peter—’get thee away from me.’ Everyone else is free to argue with Jesus.

Jesus would not advocate ‘canceling.’ He would certainly advocate for argument, for consequences. But he didn’t silence people. He engaged with them.

Look, this level of biblical interpretation is always fraught with personal bias. Our modern interpretations are always loaded with our modern expectations and assumption. In truth, what Jesus was saying and doing 2000 years ago has very little that is directly applicable to most of what we’re dealing with today. Not directly. It always takes a few steps, a few leaps, of interpretation.

So here is the hermeneutic behind my statement that Jesus would not cancel anyone. I’m doing that thing where I have a guiding value – to be clear it is the idea that God is Love – and this guiding value is the lens I use in every interpretation. Period. I don’t look at scripture to figure out how to be loving. I look at love to figure out how to interpret scripture. If you have a different way of interpreting, that’s great. Own it. Be up front about it. Mine is love.

If there is something going on in the world or in your neighborhood that bothers you, the lesson from Jesus is not to shut it down or try to silence your adversary. The lesson is to engage and come up with a better argument.

Now, here’s a grain of salt – most of the time, on the internet, such arguments are not real and designed to waste your time and energy. Just like most complaints about ‘being canceled’ are fake – like complaints about the ‘war on Christmas,’ such complaints of being canceled are exaggerated and contrived so conservatives can appear like victims. In such cases, it is wise to not engage and not waste your time and energy.

But if the situation is real, then I encourage you to move closer to the situation and engage! That’s what Jesus would do. I’m not going to recommend you call people names or flip tables – but to be fair, that is what Jesus would do in certain situations. So there is that.

Truly, my advice is this: when you see trouble, move closer and engage. Life is messy. My life is messy, my heart is messy – yours is too! I still encourage us to emulate the side of Jesus that is the embodiment of kindness, patience, and love. As Adrienne Maree Brown said in our reading: “If the goal was to increase the love, rather than winning or dominating a constant opponent, I think we could actually imagine liberation from constant oppression.”

We are not going to build the Beloved Community by kicking some people out or shutting them down. We can change the world, but we’ll do it through relationships. That includes some arguments and conflict, some consequences and calling for people to be better. But the good parts of all of that happens only if we move closer to each other when we have trouble.

Let us start here, among ourselves. Let us engage across our differences, through the conflicts that arise, moving closer when we begin to see trouble. Our experience can then be a model for each other out in the world as we work to become more of a Beloved Community together. Let us start here. Let us begin again today.

In a world without end, may it be so.