If there is one thing that tragic events like the assassination of Charlie Kirk or the attempted assassination of President Trump over a year ago impress upon me, it is the need for apocalyptic and discerning eyes. These events come with great emotion and energy, so much so that they can serve to galvanize movements in transformative and world-changing ways.
However, it is their immediate effect and strength that make me realize how susceptible I can be to the emotional and seemingly righteous pull of the moment. For example, when President Trump was but an inch away from being assassinated last year, many were quick to point out the seemingly divine protection in it all. After all, had he not turned his head, he would have been killed. I had one person claim as much to me, that God had protected our president for a reason, a good reason at that. On the surface, it’s hard to argue with that assertion, especially when emotions are very high.
In a similar vein, though much more unfortunate, the assassination of Charlie Kirk has elicited many emotional reactions. In particular, his followers and friends are already declaring him a martyr. In one sense, this, too, is understandable, as Kirk, whether you liked him or not, stood up for what he believed in.
Yet the declaration of Kirk as a martyr is yet another example of the conflation of Christianity with American nationalism and patriotism. Kirk was a proponent of an odd mixture of these things. Such a mixture may seem more than okay on the surface to some, even benign, depending on one’s values. Yet when examined more closely, what one will discover is that such a soup of sorts is incredibly lacking in terms of actually being faithful to the Way of Jesus. As an example, readers might consider Jesus’ words that the greatest love one can show is laying down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13). Through a patriotic lens, these words are understood and used to validate and legitimate service in the military, as well as those who died in combat. However, read within the entire context of John’s Gospel, one will quickly discover that such love is non-violent and self-emptying, best demonstrated by Jesus’ death on the Cross.
It is such examples and moments that demand a more discerning eye, or what might be referred to as “apocalyptic eyes.” That is, eyes that are able to lift the curtain and see beyond what is on the surface or what is being claimed by prominent talking heads.
If I may be bold, I think that one such place that can do so for us is the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Simply reading these three chapters can reorient and re-anchor us to the kingdom values of Jesus and his Way, restoring to us an apocalyptic and discerning eye. There we see that so much of what we value as Americans is not valued by the Matthean Jesus (or the three others), from love for enemies to not worrying about one’s life to claiming that the blessed are meek, poor, and merciful. There, we can rediscover the call to non-conformity that the Apostle Paul wrote of in Romans 12.
Until next time.
A Foolish Way 