This is Not the Jesus I Learned About in Sunday School

Stop Polishing the Tables. Flip Them.

I was raised as a Pentecostal preacher’s kid, spending several days a week in church. The Bible shaped my childhood. I don’t consider myself terribly religious, but the lessons of Jesus’ life. His compassion, justice, and radical love are deeply embedded in me.

As an adult, my struggle was never with Jesus himself, but with how people who call themselves Christian openly supported policies that contradicted everything I was taught about Him. I saw actions that didn’t align with compassion or justice, and it left me questioning. For a time, I pulled away from church. But now I realize this is the moment to speak truth about who Jesus was and how he lived.

This isn’t about my view of Jesus. It’s about how His name has been hijacked to justify hate and oppression.

And let’s be honest: this is nothing new. Christianity has long been used to exploit and control the marginalized for economic gain. What we see today in the nationalized evangelical movement is simply the latest chapter. A bastardization of faith twisted to serve a white supremacy agenda.

I believe in the separation of church and state. But if our government insists on invoking the name of Jesus to justify its laws, then those laws should reflect the Jesus I learned about in Sunday School.

1. Jesus Welcomed the Stranger.  Not Walls or Family Separation

Jesus identified himself with the stranger, the immigrant, the displaced.

Our government does the opposite: shutting people out, detaining them, separating families. The Jesus of Sunday School crossed boundaries, sat with outcasts, and called strangers neighbors.

And it’s not just policy. It’s the lie of white supremacy, passed down for generations, convincing us that some people deserve welcome while others deserve rejection. Healing requires confronting those lies both in our systems and in ourselves.

2. God Is a God of Family and Restoration.  Not Separation

“God sets the lonely in families.”  Psalm 68:6

The Jesus I learned about restored families. He healed children and reunited loved ones. But our government has perfected the art of separation, destruction, and harm through child welfare, mass incarceration, immigration, and policies that uphold modern-day slavery.

Too often, we even celebrate these separations in courtrooms while ignoring the grief of families torn apart. Anything that destroys families is not of God.

3. Jesus Defended the Poor. Hatred Toward the Poor Is Anti-Christ

“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”   Luke 6:20

Jesus never shamed the poor or criminalized poverty. He fed them, sat at their tables, and warned that nations would be judged by how they treated “the least of these.”

Yet in the United States, poverty is treated like a crime. Parents are punished for being poor, safety nets are slashed, and policies enrich the wealthy while the poor are left with crumbs.

Even worse, poverty is not random. It is engineered. Black families were pushed into neighborhoods shaped by redlining and disinvestment, reinforced by predatory lenders, underfunded schools, food deserts, and lack of healthcare. Black people built this nation’s wealth through slavery but inherited exclusion instead of prosperity.

Poverty is not personal failure. It is manufactured and it fuels industries that profit from suffering and separation.

Hatred toward the poor is not Christian. It is anti-Christ.

4. Jesus Taught Radical Equality

Jesus made it clear: no one is above another. To value one life over another defies the radical equality he taught. He welcomed outcasts and women shamed by society, and healed those despised in his day.

Yet our government still picks and chooses whose lives matter. We mourn some wars while ignoring others. We elevate one race or one nation as if God plays favorites.

Let’s be clear: God is not a nationalist. Jesus wasn’t waving any flag. He came to show that every human life carries equal worth.

5. Jesus Broke Chains, Not People

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17

Jesus’ ministry was about freedom. Not just from sin, but from oppression and bondage. That’s why he went first to the marginalized: the lepers, the women cast aside, the imprisoned.

But modern-day slavery is alive and well in child welfare, in prisons that profit off cheap labor, and in government systems built on exploitation.

To call policies that perpetuate bondage “Christian” is blasphemy. It advances the devil’s agenda against God’s people.

6. Jesus Flipped Tables. He Had No Tolerance for Exploitation in God’s Name

One of the most unforgettable stories from Sunday School is when Jesus flipped tables in the temple. The poor were being exploited, and what was holy had been corrupted by greed.

This wasn’t a loss of temper. It was righteous anger. Jesus refused to let exploitation hide under the banner of faith. He overturned what was corrupt and demanded change.

Today, we see the same tables: churches exploiting people in poverty, preachers chasing prosperity while ignoring the poor, politicians invoking Jesus’ name while passing laws that harm the very people he came to serve. Systems profit from family separation and incarceration, all disguised as “Christian.” Pastors line their pockets and pose for photo ops with politicians whose policies contradict the values of Christ.

Too many of us have grown content with polishing the tables making injustice look respectable. We cling to comfort, fear retaliation, and tolerate the status quo, all while claiming we trust God and follow Jesus. But Jesus wasn’t polite. He overturned what was corrupt.

And if we call ourselves Christians, we cannot stand by polishing the very tables that are crushing the poor. We are called to flip them.

Who better to fight for the vulnerable than those who claim to follow Christ? It’s easy to follow Him when it costs nothing.

But the true test comes in moments like this.

In a political climate defined by fear, retaliation, and retribution.

Stop Polishing the Tables. Flip Them.

“Faith without works is dead.”  James 2:26

This is not the Jesus of family separation, nationalism, and oppression. This is the Jesus of love, liberation, and healing. The one who gives us the courage to flip the tables and the vision to build something new.

Because polishing is what the bystanders in the temple did. They saw the exploitation, they knew it was wrong, but they let the tables stand. They made peace with injustice.

Today, we’re doing the same. We see detention centers, family separation, poverty traps, and systemic racism, and too many still sit silently.

But Jesus didn’t polish tables. He overturned them.

He demanded something better. And so must we.

Anything less is not following Christ.

The question is:

will we answer that call?

Because if not us, then who?

And if not now, then when?