It was not very pious but in the seminary we would have a “sweetest Jesus” contest. When Christmas cards came in we would compare them and decide which one was the “sweetest,” the most sentimental of the lot. The Jesus of the gospels was not sweet at all. He was a hard-nosed realist. When he pronounced a “woe” he hoped to provoke a response, a change in behavior. Because he loved them, he wasn’t content for people to continue to think and act in error. He was in their face. Our culture has become so respectful of individuality that we have lost our ability to say hard things to one another. “You do your thing and I do mine” was never the way of Jesus.
