WWJD with the Church of England?

Feb 27

After sixty years of the sexual revolution, the bishops of the Church of England have finally succumbed to the spirit of the age. They have shown themselves to be unfaithful to the teaching Scripture affirmed through 2,000 years of church history and by the vast majority of world anglicans today.

What would Jesus do with the Church of England? How would he confront a corrupt religious institution?

Jesus placed his life and ministry under the authority of God’s Word. He came to fulfill the Scriptures, not overturn them. In his teaching on marriage and sexual morality he intensified the demands of law, expecting his disciples to be faithful in marriage (the lifelong union between a man and a woman) and chaste in singleness.

He warned that temptation will come, but God will judge those who cause his “little ones” who believe in him to stumble.

Jesus stood against the religious authorities of his day who controlled the temple and the priesthood. They were wealthy, politically aligned with the dominant power and keen to protect their privileged status.

How did Jesus deal with them? For most of his ministry he ignored them. When Jesus was presented at the temple there was no High Priest to welcome the Messiah. Jesus was received by two elderly prophets, Simeon and then the widow Anna who had spent her life before God, praying in the temple. They welcomed him.

Jesus didn’t return to the temple for his baptism, he went out into the wilderness. There he identified with repentant sinners seeking God’s mercy in the face of the coming judgment on unfaithful Israel.

Through his baptism and wilderness testing Jesus was shown to be true Israel—obedient to the Father’s Word, dependent on the Holy Spirit and faithful to the core missionary task to be a light to the nations.

His first disciples were not recruited from among the learned scribes and the priesthood, but among ordinary people who obeyed his call to follow and learn to fish for others.

Jesus doesn’t try and capture the institution. His life and ministry fulfills Israel’s destiny and calls disciples whom he forms into true Israel. God has abandoned the institution, and judgment will fall, but his mission continues.

That’s what Jesus did, it’s what he still does today.

From 2008: What should the Anglicans do?