Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. (Matthew 24:23-28)
I don’t know if you have noticed it or not, but Christ has been cloned. Not just once or twice, mind you, but cloned myriads of times. Perhaps it is appropriate that the first living thing to be cloned was a lamb named Dolly. The Cloning of the Lamb – it sounds like a horror movie but it’s not. It is far worse than a horror movie. The real Jesus is hidden amidst a myriad of cloned Christs.
I’m talking about the makeovers Jesus has been given by nearly every special interest group imaginable. Our religious culture offers a “made to order” messiah personalized to your own preferences and politics. You can choose from “the gun-toting second amendment Jesus,” the “tree-hugging, green Jesus,” the “gay-affirming, if not gay himself Jesus,” the “Bible-thumping, evangelical Jesus,” the “Republican, pro-life Jesus,” the “Democrat, pro-choice Jesus,” or the “socialist, reparation giving, wealth redistributing Jesus.”
People used to wear bracelets that asked the question “What would Jesus do?” Now everyone it seems is wearing invisible phylacteries that boldly answer, “Jesus would do what I’m doing.” Instead of being conformed to Christ’s image, we are conforming Christ to ours, and as a result bowing down at altars erected to our own veneration and glory – the worst kind of idolatry.
None of this should come as a surprise. Jesus warned us this would happen. He said that false Christs would appear each with his own following, calling Christians to join them in the wilderness or in the inner rooms of whatever focus group, click, or subculture hangout happens to attract the minority du jour.
Jesus prepares us to distinguish the authentic risen Christ from all the Christ clones with two terse proverbs. The first has to do with lightning. Lightning is sudden and obvious. It requires no PR team, requires no explanation. It lights up the sky from one end to the other warning of the coming storm. When wise people see the lightning they know what to do and take appropriate action to find shelter from the storm as Jesus has just instructed his disciples to do. Jesus seems to be saying that those who really know him, those who have cultivated an intimate relationship with the crucified, risen, and reigning Jesus revealed by the Spirit in Scripture and Sacrament cannot be fooled by the Christ clones. They know the difference between themselves and Christ, between their beliefs and his, between their political commitments and his commitment to the kingdom of God – a difference they seek to eliminate not by cloning Christ, not by conforming him to their image, but by dying to all of that nonsense and being conformed, no, being cruciformed to his image.
The second has to do with vultures converging on a corpse, and I believe is a picture of the Christ-clone followers showing their true colors. The Christ-clones are, in the end, all the same, and lead to the same spiritual death. Their followers will continue to feed on them even after their demise picking the foul, defiled flesh from the bones of their fallen idols. This is a sign to true disciples to stay away and await the powerful, life giving, obvious appearance of the Son of Man which will be impossible to miss.
Father,
Give us eyes to see the truth about your son, our Lord Jesus, to see him as he is and not as we would have him be. Make us a reflection of him and prevent our making him a reflection of ourselves. Lord Jesus, forgive us for the ways we clone and reinvent you after our preferences. We humbly submit to your counter-cultural and cruciform way of life, forsaking all other loyalties and ideologies. Holy Spirit, cultivate in us the instincts to recognize the authentic Jesus and the courage to reject the Christ clones. Help us endure to the end that we might enjoy the real kingdom, the true inheritance of the authentic, risen Son.
AMEN