What is New and What is Old: Is Jesus a Liberal or a Conservative?

Jesus said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13:52)

We live in a profoundly divided society. One glance at the news or a scroll through social media reveals people of vastly different perspectives expressing views diametrically opposed to one another, united only in the shared passion that their particular opinion is absolutely correct. These divisions are exacerbated by politicians who reinforce extremist positions to provoke support from their base and a daily avalanche of information from our digital devices, much of which has no basis in fact. Wear masks or don’t wear masks? Protest racial injustice or decry looting and violence? Defend America against the growing hegemony of communist China or denounce the creeping fascism of a toxic American nationalism?

This growing polarization is not just an American phenomenon; similar dynamics are at work to lesser degrees in societies around the world. The stark divisions caused by this contradictory absolutism leaves many people feeling deeply confused, disoriented, and insecure. Add to this a global pandemic which is disrupting life on every continent and you have a planet filled with people who don’t know where to turn for truth, perspective, and assurance. This reinforces the impulse to grab ahold of simplistic black and white points of view for security, no matter how irrational or extreme they might be, which in turn contributes to the vicious cycle of division among us.

For those of us who follow Jesus there is a compass that helps us find our way in the midst of such cultural earthquakes. We have the timeless Word of God, the incomparable example of Jesus, and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. It is in times such as this that we must rely on this unshakable foundation on which to build our lives and from which we can invite others to join us in the unifying vision and values of the Kingdom of God. As Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.” (Matthew 12:25) And so we find ourselves asking the question, how are the followers of Jesus called to bring unity to our fractured and faltering society today?

It is good to know that Jesus lived in a profoundly divided society as well. The Romans had conquered Palestine and installed the Herodians as their vassal rulers. Herod the Great and his sons ruled with an iron fist and funded their lavish lifestyles with a crushing tax burden. In response, a religious and nationalistic movement of Jewish revolutionaries developed which carried out an ongoing program of violence and terror aimed at overthrowing the Romans and Herodians.

The religious leaders were comprised primarily of the Sadducees and Pharisees. The Sadducees represented the aristocratic priestly families of Jerusalem who colluded with the pagan rulers in order to retain control of the Temple and its sacrificial system. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were aligned with the common people and taught the local synagogues. However, their harsh legalism nurtured a zealous separatism that reinforced the ideology of the revolutionary Zealots.

The ordinary people of the land were caught between these two political and religious wings and often left wondering what to believe and who to follow. The polarization of these powerful groups is illustrated in the loaded questions they would ask Jesus in an effort to trap him and manufacture accusations against him. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” “Which commandment is the most important of all?” “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” The only thing that united these groups was their desire to hold onto the power they had accumulated and their determination to eliminate Jesus as a threat to that power. Jesus’ response to these groups and their controversial questions is instructive for us who seek to follow Jesus in our polarized society today.

It is important to note that Jesus refused to be forced into any of the political or religious molds of his time. Although he taught regularly as a rabbi in the synagogue, he was highly critical of the Pharisees’ conservative legalism (Matthew 23:1-36). Although he made the Temple courts the center of his Jerusalem mission, Jesus pronounced judgment on the liberal priestly establishment by his prophetic action of turning over the tables of the moneychangers and foretelling the impending destruction of the Temple (Matthew 21:12-13; 24:1-2). Following the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, when the crowd moved to install Jesus by force as a king in place of Herod Antipas, Jesus slipped away into the anonymity of the wilderness (John 6:15).

We should be careful not to conclude from this that Jesus was apolitical. In fact, Jesus’ teaching was filled with highly charged political terminology. The core message of Jesus was his teaching of “the Kingdom of God” which stood in stark contrast to the kingdoms of Rome and the Herods. In the course of his ministry Jesus addressed political issues such as paying taxes, taking up arms, fair business practices, the abuse of authority, the treatment of women and slaves, racial equality, the legislation of sexual morality, and many others. In light of this, it is no accident the Roman governor’s main question when interrogating Jesus on the morning of his execution was, “Are you the King of the Jews?” (John 18:33) The earliest Christian confession, “Jesus is Lord,” had profound political implications in an Empire where the confession of Caesar as Lord was the test of true loyalty.

Politics are the affairs that affect people as a whole. Jesus was deeply engaged with the issues that affect people on every level, both personal and corporate. It is not that Jesus avoided politics; it is that he was profoundly non-partisan in addressing political realities. Jesus refused to identify himself with any political party, conservative or liberal, because he understood the Kingdom of God transcends all the kingdoms of this world. When he told Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world,” he did not mean his kingdom was somehow disconnected from the realities that affect this world, he meant that his kingdom functions in a completely different way than the kingdoms of this world (John 18:36). On the eve of his arrest Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples, saying “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” But he also prayed, “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:16-18)

To follow Jesus is to address the political realities of our time as people who are “in the world” but “not of the world.” In a profoundly divided society this means we will engage with the affairs that affect all people as Jesus did without exacerbating unnecessary division, but rather offering a vision of the Kingdom of God that brings people together into one human family. We often label people and perspectives as either “conservative” or “liberal” as a way of making sense of differing points of view or sometimes to discredit those views. It is true that many perspectives can be understood according to these categories if we examine the philosophy behind each one.

• Conservatism is mainly interested in preserving (or “conserving”) wisdom and insight gained through past experience and applying that in the present for the benefit of future generations. Conservatives generally base their views on tried and true documents, teachings, and practices, highlighting the valuable lessons learned from history and seeking to conserve those values in religious, cultural, and political practice for the benefit of society today.

• Liberalism is focused on innovating social constructs in order to solve problems in the present and create a better future. Liberals generally base their views on what needs to change and are ready to throw off the shackles of tradition to experiment more “liberally,” trying new approaches to old problems in an effort to make progress and move society forward.

Was Jesus a conservative or a liberal? He said, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” (Matthew 13:52) In biblical times extended families lived together and carried out a family business together. The savings of the family was often kept in a strong box in the most secure room of the house or even buried in the floor. Jesus is giving us the picture of a parent who knows the value of both the wisdom of the past (“what is old”) and the innovations of the present (“what is new”) and is able to combine both to create a better future for the family.

We see Jesus functioning this way as the spiritual parent of his disciples. He consistently demonstrated the posture of looking back to the past and treasuring the unchanging truth and wisdom of God’s Word. He brought out this old treasure when he said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18) Over and over again Jesus draws his teaching and insights from the Hebrew Scriptures and demonstrates he is seeking to restore God’s good plan and purpose using the ancient truths and wisdom of the past. In this we can see Jesus was profoundly conservative. But this is not the only way Jesus functioned.

Jesus also demonstrated the posture of looking to the future and challenging the assumptions of the present to make radical changes. He was very critical of the Pharisees’ habit of making up religious rules that oppressed ordinary people, particularly their practice of ritual purity which reinforced a judgmental culture of insiders and outsiders. Jesus brought out new treasure when he said, “Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Mark 7:18-23) Jesus was not afraid to repeatedly challenge established traditions when they were intended for a certain time and place and were no longer helpful. In their place he offered radically new and powerful insights. In this was can see Jesus was profoundly liberal.

Clearly it is reductionistic to try and define Jesus either as a conservative or as a liberal. But nor would be accurate to say Jesus is neither conservative nor liberal. Perhaps it would be closer to the truth to see Jesus as encompassing both a conservative and liberal perspective at the same time. This also does not mean Jesus is a kind of wishy-washy average, a middle of the road kind of compromise. Quite the contrary, what makes Jesus so powerful is that he is able to hold both the old and the new treasures together in a constructive tension. This radical middle is where we find the Kingdom of God. Jesus confronted the conservative Pharisees with their legalistic hypocrisy when he said, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!” (Mark 7:9) Likewise he criticized the liberal Sadducees with their lack of spiritual foundation when he said, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” (Matthew 22:29) Jesus relentlessly held true to the never-changing truths of Scripture which apply everywhere and at all times and applied these with the guidance of the Holy Spirit in creative new ways to the ever-changing current reality that confronted him on a daily basis.

This is the task of “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven.” Living a Jesus-shaped life means learning to discern which are the treasures of the past which need to be carefully conserved and which are the new treasures that need to be liberally brought forth, so God’s will can be done more fully here on earth as it is in heaven. To be a disciple of Jesus is to be neither conservative nor liberal but rather one who holds both perspectives together in a way that transcends the political and religious categories of this world. In a time of increasing extremism where absolutism unnecessarily divides people, we are called to build on the unchanging foundations of truth and wisdom of the past which is God’s Word, while applying this truth and wisdom in new ways to an ever-changing present. This is what it means to be mature spiritual parents who are being led by Jesus “further up and further in” to the coming Kingdom of God.