Mike Tyson is retired American boxer who caused controversy both inside and outside of the ring. He can divide opinion hugely. I stumbled on this quote a while a go and it intrigues me.
“Everybody says they believe in God but they don’t do God’s work. Everybody counteracts what God is really about. If Jesus was here, do you think Jesus would show me any love? Do you think Jesus would love me? I’m a Muslim, but do you think Jesus would love me … I think Jesus would have a drink with me and discuss … why you acting like that? Now, he would be cool. He would talk to me. No Christian ever did that and said in the name of Jesus even … They’d throw me in jail and write bad articles about me and then go to church on Sunday and say Jesus is a wonderful man and he’s coming back to save us. But they don’t understand that when he comes back, that these crazy greedy capitalistic men are gonna kill him again.” Mike Tyson
Here we see Mike Tyson questioning the nature of Jesus and challenging our Christology. Let me know what you think?
Its a fair point, and not a favourable one to be told because it rings true for most
Christians!
Good Job 🙂 x
I think when Jesus returns, as Mike refers to, he’s going to come in power to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is not your ‘best drinking buddy’, he is the Alpha and Omega!
I don’t appreciate him using the expression “these crazy greedy capitalistic men” synonymously with “Christian”. To me that speaks more about his ignorance and hard heart than what Christians are really like. Since when do outsiders get to define what the Christian community should look like?
I don’t think they should get to define what the Christian community should look like but I think Tyson makes a good point here.
We’re not called to judge ‘outsiders’ – we’re called to love them. When Tyson’s talking about sitting with Jesus I don’t think he means “when Jesus comes back He will do this…” more “If Jesus was sat with me…” and I reckon Christ WOULD sit with him and love him and ask him why he did that and call him on to greater things. I know he goes on to talk about when Christ comes back but I don’t think that’s what he means before then.
And I think it is our place as Christians, as the church, now to do that. To sit with the least and the lost, to show them that there is a better way.
I don’t know if any of you read Asbo Jesus but there’s a discussion on church going on on there at the moment and there was another very perceptive comment (from a someone who is coming from a non-faith perspective) about what church should be, what Christian’s should be doing. He said this:
“Re-read your bibles and take it back to basics, show the world that your human actions can speak louder than your spiritual words and make people think again.”
We, as church, are told that people will know we are Christ’s disciples by the way we love one another (John 3). And we are told too to love our neighbours… I think we’re in a sad position at the moment where a large majority of non-Christian’s see the church as either being irrelevent or being too closely linked to the “greedy capitalistic men”…
I think, ultimately, that Tyson isn’t so much questioning the nature of Jesus as questioning the nature of His followers today.
Wow. That was long. Sorry.
Hey Ian and Andy,
Think Mike Tyson is laying out for us all, here a sad fact of the state of worlds view of church. I agree with Ian that no outsider should define the Christian community. In fact they should be inside of it, all of them should be. But in some senses those people are not outsiders they are very much insiders, inside of Jesus’ love.
I have been grappling with re-Jesus for a little time now. And have been challenged for a while with my view of Jesus and what I truly believe about him. Then at what point does my belief, at what point does my Christology, affect my view of others and my missiology and in turn my ecclessology.
Andy, thats a really interesting point of view from that guy on Asbo Jesus. I am struck by those words of Acts 2:42-47 and wonder what it meant to truly devote ourselves to one another both inside the walls of community and outside. What does the Jesus we follow look like??
Reminds of this, God created us in His image and we returned the favour.
Howdy,
Some interesting points, I agree with Andy in that I do think that Tyson was making more of a comment on the Church than opposed to the person of Jesus. Both that and the comment on Asbo Jesus serve as a much needed wake-up call to the “Church” to get back to what it should be doing, which is focusing on biblical truths about Jesus and then living that out.
Ali hits the nail on the head when he asks “What does the Jesus we follow look like??”
I think that the terrible truth is that if we were to do a survey across multiple churches throughout the nation, we’d find a horrific mix of results. The current trend to saturate Jesus into a less offensive version that accepts all people and all lifestyles verges at times on idol worship, where we’ve made a God in our own image that suits our lifestyle and agenda. To add to the idolatry, we’ve also dared to call him Jesus.
Ali is absolutely right when he says that Jesus loves people, not just believers, but all people. The “church” needs to understand that this is not the same as Jesus accepting all people. We’re the bride of Christ and are supposed to glorify Jesus in word and deed.
Tyson hits the Church on two points. Number one is that he speaks about us needing to live the life (as does the guy on Asbo Jesus). The Church needs to make an impact in the world and not just sit in the churches getting fat on scripture whilst the poor struggle for food and jobs and whilst people get attacked in the street yet no-one steps in to help.
The other point is that Tyson clearly has a muddled view of Jesus. The church needs to step back from preaching about “hippy Jesus in a nappy who is oh-so-meek-and-mild”. I joked with Andy that when Tyson meets Jesus, he probably shouldn’t try to bite his ear, because Jesus would own him in a bout of fisticuffs. Jesus loves people but he isn’t soft. Ian is right on when he makes the point that when Jesus comes back, he’s coming back in power and the believers will rejoice and the unbelievers will be terrified. This is why there is a double urgency to go out and make an impact on the lives of others, both out of the love that we, and Christ, have for them, but also out of a desire to see them saved. To do that we need a heartburning desire for social action and outreach as well as a clear gospel message based on biblical truths. Driscoll put it best when he said, “I couldn’t worship a God that I could beat up”. We have a mighty God and we shouldn’t be afraid to go out and not just tell others about him, but show Him to them through our actions.
Ha. That is a very long post when basically all I said was that everyone who has commented thus far is right.
Why use one word though when you can use several hundred? It’s quantity not quality right? Oh… er… I’ll get my coat.