No matter your thoughts or views on religion and
spirituality it is difficult to argue with the wisdom of several of the
“founders” of various religions throughout history. Many of these individuals were radical, nuanced, deep and
counter-culture and yet they are often used to defend seemingly mainstream
unthinking ideas or even politics by uses quotes or sayings whose meanings are
still and should be debated to this day.
Today in America Jesus is often quoted by both the right and the left to
justify their self-righteous political convictions. Both sides of the political argument misrepresent the
wisdom of Jesus and try to craft him in their image, either liberal or
conservative. This is a futile
attempt in that it is almost impossible to know what Jesus would have thought
of a modern Republic of 300 million people and how citizens should act within
this system. The Religious Right
puts Jesus up as a gun loving, nuke dropping, lover of individuality and the
Christian Left seems to think that he is clearly in favor of every social
program a modern country can afford and that Jesus was undoubtedly
“liberal.” I would love nothing
more than to sit down over a cup of coffee or a bottle of Whiskey with Jesus and
get his thoughts on numerous things, but to hear his opinions on these various
groups who “know” exactly what he would want today would be enjoyable.
I’m
a big Jesus fan. There’s no
question to me that he is on the short list of most remarkable and wise
individuals in human history. He
understood people and the world in a way that few ever had. He knew that everyone has deep
struggles and needs others to get through this life that can often be a
difficult journey. Jesus’s own
life was not absent of struggle, desperation and sadness all the way to his
crucifixion where he begs for help and to be released from this fate that
awaited him. He experienced human
pain, longing and suffering to a great degree and that’s only from the little
that we actually know of his life from Scripture. Regardless of one’s religious views it would be hard pressed
for anyone except a hard-core Machiavelli or Ayn Rand disciple to take issue
with the wisdom of the man Jesus.
* * * * * *
Last
summer I attended a church whose lead pastor had implied that he had this Jesus
guy all figured out. When this pastor
talked about what the church believed as a whole and what their theology was he
simply said, “It’s easy, we just read what he said.” I personally found this hilarious. It’s not easy!
It’s not what he said that is important, but what he or anyone
means! What Jesus meant is much
more important than what he said.
When he said that a person’s faith could move mountains or that the
Kingdom of God lives within you he didn’t literally mean you could will a
mountain to move or that there was an entire country within your body. He used all sorts of literary and
speaking devices to make points and they are not always easily discernable. If it was easy, then it would be
logical to assume that all Christians would agree on everything, but after 2000
years of Christianity there are 100’s of denominations all having different
beliefs and the new en vogue thing of rejecting the label “Christian” all
together in favor of an attempt to recapture the early Church practices.
* * * * * *
As
people we always want things to be easy and black and white. However, when we look at someone like
Jesus and his life it should be obvious that life is not that way. He embraced story telling, nuance and
speaking against the various systems of the day. Too often people have done and do things in Jesus’ name that
would be hard to justify with the way the man spoke and lived his life. I have read so many articles and
studies recently about how the “millennial” generation is seemingly leaving the
Church in mass numbers, but not leaving their faith behind. For more and more of this younger
generation (that I am just barely part of) Jesus represents aiding the poor and
loving your neighbor, not building bigger and bigger Churches that get more and
more exclusive and claim to “know the answers” to the most divisive issues for
the past 2000 years. I can’t tell
you how many times I have been in Churches where I hear a pastor say something
along these lines, “For 1000’s of years people have interpreted this passage
this way, but what it really means is…”
This arrogance to think that you have broken some code that has been
misinterpreted for centuries really strikes me as strange.
Jesus’
message can appear simple, but is really nuanced and complicated. When asked what the greatest commandment
is, Jesus responds to love God and to love your neighbor. Easy right? Not quite. What
does that look like? What one
person may think of as loving another may not be to another? It’s not as simple as we’d like,
especially when the Greeks have multiple words for love and we only have one,
but we do know that Jesus wants us to love God and each other. Even if we did know how to love, it is often
times difficult to love, especially our enemies who Jesus commands his
followers to love. How do you do
that? How can we show love to
people who hate or want to harm us and the ones we love? I’m not sure, but I do know Jesus wants
his followers to do that.
The
point is that what Jesus said is not easy to do, but it is wise. IF a group of “Christians” actually think
that torture, war and arrogance are “Christian,” then that is not a team that I
want to be on. It’s ok to not have
all of the answers and Christians need to be willing to admit that. There is one church in my life that I
absolutely loved attending and being part of. There was a pastor at that Church that would often start his
prayers by admitting, “I don’t know…” and continue to admit that we have some
good ideas what God wants and expects from us, but he often pleaded for God to
somehow make that clear to us and for us to keep a humble and open mind towards
God and the world. I admire that pastor and I miss that Church. That Church avoids the major danger in
following Jesus, thinking that you have him all figured out.
