Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus

What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion
What if I told you voting republican really wasn't his mission
What if I told you republican doesn't automatically mean Christian
And just because you call some people blind
Doesn't automatically give you vision
I mean if religion is so great, why has it started so many wars
Why does it build huge churches, but fails to feed the poor
Tells single moms God doesn't love them if they've ever had a divorce
But in the old testament God actually calls religious people whores
Religion might preach grace, but another thing they practice
Tend to ridicule God's people, they did it to John The Baptist
They can't fix their problems, and so they just mask it
Not realizing religions like spraying perfume on a casket
See the problem with religion, is it never gets to the core
It's just behavior modification, like a long list of chores
Like lets dress up the outside make look nice and neat
But it's funny that's what they use to do to mummies
While the corps rots underneath
Now I ain't judgin
I'm just saying quit putting on a fake look, Cause there's a problem
If people only know you're a Christian by your Facebook
I mean in every other aspect of life, you know that logic's unworthy
It's like saying you play for the Lakers just because you bought a jersey
You see this was me too, but no one seemed to be on to me
Acting like a church kid, while addicted to pornography
See on Sunday I'd go to church, but Saturday getting faded
Acting if I was simply created just to have sex and get wasted
See I spent my whole life building this facade of neatness
But now that I know Jesus, I boast in my weakness
Because if grace is [water](undefined), then the church should be an ocean
It's not a museum for good people, it's a hospital for the broken
Which means I don't have to hide my failure, I don't have to hide my sin
Because it doesn't depend on me it depends on him
See because when I was God's enemy and certainly not a fan
He looked down and said I want, that, man
Which is why Jesus hated religion, and for it he called them fools
Don't you see so much better than just following some rules
Now let me clarify, I love the church, I love the bible, and yes I believe in sin
But if Jesus came to your church would they actually let him in
See remember he was called a glutton, and a drunkard by religious men
But the son of God never supports self righteousness not now, not then
Now back to the point, one thing is vital to mention
How Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums
See one's the work of God, but one's a man made invention
See one is the cure, but the other's the infection
See because religion says do, Jesus says done
Religion says slave, Jesus says son
Religion puts you in bondage, while Jesus sets you free
Religion makes you blind, but Jesus makes you see
And that's why religion and Jesus are two different clans
Religion is man searching for God, Christianity is God searching for man
Which is why salvation is freely mine, and forgiveness is my own
Not based on my merits but Jesus's obedience alone
Because he took the crown of thorns, and the blood dripped down his face
He took what we all deserved, I guess that's why you call it grace
And while being murdered he yelled
"Father forgive them they know not what they do."
Because when he was dangling on that cross, he was thinking of you
And he absorbed all of your sin, and buried it in the tomb
Which is why I'm kneeling at the cross, saying come on there's room
So for religion, no I hate it, in fact I literally resent it
Because when Jesus said it is finished, I believe he meant it.

Thank you brother Jefferson Bethke.

NOW IT MUST BE STATED...

A lot of people I really like and respect have read this poem and some even watched and shared the video. And I realize I may bug a few of them by what I’m about to write. But it keeps getting posted on Facebook, and the more I see it, the more I realize: I’m not a fan.

I think he has several good thoughts, but his opening statement is not true. His entire premise starts there–and it’s not right. Jesus did not come to abolish religion, but to fulfill religion. He didn’t come to tear apart the Temple or the priesthood, but to fulfill everything that religion represented.

Jesus did not hate religion, as is asserted in this video. The rules and regulations of the Jewish faith were His creation, after all. As part of the Godhead, He was the one who established the length of a garment, the feasts and festivals, and the Sabbath, and all the other rules found in Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. What Jesus hated was that the leaders of that religion had so inserted themselves into the process that they made it even more difficult for man to reach out to God.

It was not the religious man doing his best to offer a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord that Jesus railed against. It was not the woman giving her mite in the temple that He spoke out about. The “white-washed sepulchers” Jesus called out were religious leaders who made it difficult for that man and that woman to reach out to the God who had established the religion in the first place.

The problem here is that his poetry slam is not about religion per se, but his issues with the modern American church. And yet, even then I would argue that his theory is unfounded. Are there dead churches where what you say and do and what you watch and don’t watch are more important than being the hands and feet of Jesus? Of course there are.

But there also hundreds, if not thousands, of local churches–religious centers, if you will–who show the world every day the reality of a life changed by Christ. Churches that reach out and serve food to the homeless, who share gifts and love with single moms, who stand against sex trafficking and slavery. Churches whose people give hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to help feed the hungry, provide education, and build wells in villages where there is no clean water.

The problem with religion is that Jesus has fulfilled it, so the rules and regulations–which are about making you justified before God–no longer have meaning because Christ himself justifies you. Is Jesus greater than religion? Of course He is. Because everything religion is about–man reaching out to God, to make himself better and worthy–is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.