Matthew 8:26-27
“26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O men of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.  27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
Matthew 22:37-40
“37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

In the news lately “Jesus is Lord” bus benches are to be stopped because if the Colorado Springs Transit Authority allows that, they’d have to allow hate speech.  Jesus is hate speech? In Sweden and Canada sermons have been branded hate speech.

How did we let it get to this point? How have we taken the words of love and convoluted then into something that can be considered hate? There are rights and wrongs that aren’t defined by humans, but are we walking the same path as Christ?

Since when is Jesus hate?

How did we let the message of Christ become framed up as hate speech? We did it by our actions that are more about legalism than love, when we made it more about self-righteousness than the teachings of Christ, when we made it about our power and not God’s.

When did being a Christian become different than being a Christ follower? What happened and how do we get Christian to mean love, forgiveness, justice; to be followers of Christ?

When do Christians stop pretending like the Pharisees (cleaned up on the outside, dirty on the inside) and admit we’re as broken as the rest of the world?

When does being a Christian mean you follow what Christ said and did, not take snippets out of context to forward an agenda?

When did Christ and His message become hate speech and what are we going to do about it?