Anachronism is taking any historical custom, person, object, or event into a time period other than its own. The Biblical narratives exist in time. (Narratives are those passages that relay specific events in the form of a narrated story). They are to be heard and read from within their contextual window.
There was a common refrain around twenty years ago: What Would Jesus Do? The notion was that Jesus, as revealed in the scriptures, could be used as a moral guide to aid your decision-making process. If you would just imagine Jesus in your situation, the correct answer would become clear.
The anachronistic fallacy here is that Jesus does not walk the earth in my time. By trying to drag Him here into my situation, I’m ignoring the teachings in their context. And, I’m about to put my words into Jesus’ mouth to somehow sanctify my choices into biblical truth.
Let’s try another fitment. “Jesus was a socialist, distributist, capitalist, or anarchist.” Jesus lived 1800 years before most of the codified economic systems we know developed. His experience with taxes, market forces, production, and consumption looked far different from our own. The application we should pull from “render unto Caesar” is simply: be a faithful Christian first and the best citizen, resident, or alien you can be second. Anything further pulls Jesus into our temporal context.
For a more timely application, that will likely age poorly, would Jesus wear a mask? He came healing the sick. So, surely, that means that he would wear a mask. Again, our specific time and concerns applied to Jesus. We couldn’t discern the answer to that question.
Moreover, this one dials in more tightly upon the problem with that question. It’s not a good question. Jesus came healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, casting out demons, and forgiving sin as signs of what was to come. These signs demonstrate the fullness of God in human flesh subsisting. Jesus healed, recreated, forgave, and even raised dead to life again to teach what His death meant.Jesus died to forgive the sins of the world. All of the brokenness and other evidence of the corruption of sin will fade away in the blinking of an eye at the resurrection of all flesh. His life and ministry testify to that. Who cares what political system, hand sanitizer, or chicken sandwich he may or may not have preferred?
Dear Baptized, let us abandon anachronism and bless the Lord of time and eternity!
Thanks be to God!
Rev. Jason M. Kaspar – Sole Pastor
Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church & Preschool
La Grange, TX & Mission Planting Pastoral team,
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Bastrop, TX
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I never liked the “What would Jesus do” question. Now I understand why. The more pertinent question would be “what would Jesus HAVE ME do?”
Harold,
You’re definitely narrowing in on it. “What would Jesus do or have me do” are both falling into anthropocentric soteriology.
Jesus would live a sinless life, and died for my sins and the sin of the world, which He did. Jesus would have me turn from my sin, but I do do not successfully accomplish that either.
Yet, despite my sin and failure to fully turn from it, Jesus DID die for my sin and continues to refresh and restore me in that forgiveness, preserving me in the true faith to the resurrection of all flesh in Him.