The Danger of Jesus

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. 

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            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.  

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            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.   

 

Wisdom of Jesus, Confucius and Gandhi

Things just work themselves out if you let them.  A major disease in our culture is pride.  People think that their “hard work” and “effort” is to thank for their good fortune, but there are factors responsible well out of our control.  Many want to control the uncontrollable and this leads to stressful days and sleepless nights.  I attempt to avoid this as much as possible and I feel like I have been rather successful in this.  Our culture may think of me as lazy or not motivated, but in fact it is just that I realize my limitations and trust things will work out.  If there is something you can do solve a problem, then do it.  If not, then nothing you do, especially stress, will solve it.  Typically in the West it seems that people think that they and others can do a lot more than they actually can.  (This is a paraphrase of what Confucius taught)

 

            Our culture is desperately lacking in wisdom.  I teach History and my favorite quote is from historian Jakob Burkhardt, “We do not study history to be smarter next time, but to be wiser forever.”  We do not study people like Confucius, Jesus and Gandhi enough.  These men were wise.  They knew that to be human, and a good human at that, was much more significant than gold or silver. They knew the limitations of man, but also the great power that we have to collectively make this a world in which we could all hope.  These men sought wisdom and taught its values.  Our country has sadly bought into the myth that what’s in your bank account is worth more than knowledge, soul and love.  It’s not that we don’t value these things, it’s that we de-prioritize them in an effort to attain power and wealth.  I wonder what our world would look like if we could somehow rearrange the priorities in society and individuals. 

            All major changes start with individual action, but swimming against a tsunami is impossible.  We need more than just a few dedicated individuals; we need wholesale change in our communities and world.  How does that happen?  I don’t mean to sound like a total downer and cynic, but I’m not sure it can.  People have tried, with mixed results at best. 

            About 1/3 of the world and much of the West claim in one way or another to be a follower of a man who lived on Earth 2000 years ago and claimed to be God.  He was Jesus of Nazareth, I’m sure you’ve heard of him.  He lived in what we call Israel today, which at the time was controlled by the Roman Empire.  His message was wise , but it was amazingly counter-cultural for his time.  Roman culture at this time was very self-indulgent, materialistic, militaristic and proud.  Sound familiar?  He told people that they should not kill their enemies, but pray for them.  He told people that if they were hit in one cheek, they should turn the other to be hit as well.  He said it was the duty of people to care for those that needed care the most.  He said that we should look after the widows, orphaned and imprisoned.  He said that you should never worry, especially about money.  He said that we should never judge others and worry about our flawed actions first and help those who need our help. 

These are very difficult things to put into practice for any human being, but it seems the worst part is that very often we don’t even attempt to do these things.  It seems our culture and world are very much the opposite of what the wisest men ever to live actually thought our world could and should be like.  It seems that we have given up on the possibility to make our world wise and given into economic data, political infighting and unbending ideology.  The irony is that if we emphasized wisdom more in our culture, daily lives and educational systems our economy, political system and irrational beliefs would all work themselves out naturally.  One can’t solve economic problems, political crisis or seek truth without seeking wisdom first.  Our priorities are backwards and the callous way at which we treat those who are different from us shouldn’t shock us.  We love those closest to us but do not worry about those that exist far away.  We typically see them as victims of their own lack of success and fail to ever see our role in creating dictatorship, hardship and poverty across the globe. 

I’m looking for new ways and ideas to get our culture and society to reprioritize wisdom that will lead to more value on wisdom for the sake of bettering all of our situations and not lead us down the dangerous path that we have chosen of rugged individualism, which has led our society to be extraordinarily wealthy and powerful, but empty of wisdom.  Gandhi encouraged people by emphasizing individual action that would better the community.  Gandhi said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”  I couldn’t possibly agree more, but how can we then swim against that tsunami of self-indulgence, pride and greed and create a more empathetic and wise society.  Any thoughts on how this change could be achieved?

            

Growing up Catholic

As a young boy I actually enjoyed going to mass several times a week.  I grew up in a typical American suburb with a good Catholic family.  I didn’t have a choice but to go to a Catholic school in grade school, but I really didn’t mind.  I liked the uniforms, or more accurately, I liked bending the uniform rules as much as possible without stepping across that line.  I liked the religion classes.  Religion and discussion of religion always fascinated me.  The concept of an all knowing and powerful entity somewhere out there that nobody could even prove if he, she or it even existed dazzled me.  And yes, I liked attending mass.  I liked kneeling in a quiet church and talking to God.  When I was young I knew that he heard me.  When I was young I felt answers.  When I was young I had no doubt.  

When most think of Catholicism they think of the Pope or ‘catholic guilt,’ but upon reflection I think many Catholic kids see the Church as just some rules that they don’t care to follow.  When I closed my eyes and prayed at mass I felt a divine connection.  As I got older I felt self-conscious that other kids were watching me or making fun of me as most kids rolled their eyes each time that it was announced we were off to mass.  I didn’t like it.  I couldn’t understand how others wouldn’t want to talk to God and feel his presence.  I couldn’t understand why a person would ignore such a loving and powerful being.  Eventually I got it.  It was the structure they didn’t like.  It wasn’t God they were rebelling against, it was the shit in their lives that they couldn’t understand that seemed it could be God’s fault, or that there must be no God because he wouldn’t let this or that happen.  

What the apathy toward God is really about then is the structure and unquestioning nature of a Catholic grade school and the shit kids realize about themselves, their parents, their family and the world as the curtain gets pulled back on life.  Most kids come to realize that life sucks.  I never thought that when I was young.  I loved life.  Not until I hit my teenage years did I realize that life sucked and that it didn’t appear God was doing much about it.  It just so happens many kids beat me to that realization.  

People don’t like responsibility.  Nobody would ever admit that, but deep down we all would like things to be a bit easier and not have to worry about this or that or have to live up to some ideal we have imagined ourselves to be.  To the best of my reckoning it seems God has given us free will.  With that free will comes a lot of things that we do not want, most poignantly, the truth about our world.  At some point we all realize that nobody is perfect and the world is full of really crap stuff that seems to happen to so many undeserving people.  Yet the catch is that we all feel that we are just a bit better than most other people.  We think, “I’m not Hitler, I didn’t kill anybody,” but we also fail to realize that this world is made up of 6 billion other people all making as many choices as we are at the speed of light and that those choices can have a butterfly effect that we may never see.  

Throughout much of its history the Catholic Church chose (maybe correctly) to limit the choices of its followers.  What I mean by this is that the Church decided what was “true” and as a Catholic you were and are obligated to believe it or else.  The or else part was always intriguing to me.  This or else happened to be the threat of excommunication or not being allowed to be part of the community.  One who was excommunicated was not allowed and is not allowed to participate in the most important practices of the church.  The root of that word is community.  In essence the Church is banning you from participating in their community.  Something that you said or did was so grave that you are now shunned from God’s bride on Earth.  

This flabbergasted me.  That an organization could essentially ban someone from heaven because they disagreed on a particular issue seemed like something God could never endorse.  I remember that when I first learned about excommunication I started having my first doubts about the Church, not God, but doubts about the Church.  It just didn’t add up to me.   

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Growing up Catholic in a fervently Evangelical suburb which is in the Guinness book of world records for most churches per capita wasn’t easy.  Having said that, it was nothing like growing up black in Jim Crow south, but a week rarely went by when I was told that I was going to hell or that i wasn’t a “real Christian.”  Once I was even called a Papist (totally kidding).  

I grew up in Wheaton, home of Wheaton College where Billy Graham went to college.  Until I was 17 I didn’t even realize it was a real college, I didn’t know what it was or how highly rated of a school it was.  In all honesty I had no clue who Billy Graham was.  When one of my childhood friends found that out he couldn’t believe it.  I slowly started realizing that there was this other religion (now I know there are 100’s) out there that was similar to Catholicism, but yet very different.  I couldn’t tell how it was different yet, but the overwhelming similarity was Jesus.  The belief that he was and is God and that he came to Earth lovingly to release all of us from the bondage of all those awful and silly choices we have made, are making and will make.  

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Jesus always seemed so radical to me.  When I forgot the spin around him and just read and listened to what he said I was shocked.  I always saw him as the ultimate human being.  He would close himself off to nobody and love everyone.  He could party, he could discuss, he could heal, he was the most amazing person ever.  I have studied history and I teach history and I have never seen anyone like him.  If the accounts in the Gospels are true, then he is unique.  This analysis made me believe that he was God.  But where is he now?  I would give anything for a one hour conversation with that guy over coffee, a beer or a mountain hike.  Even though that has always been my number one dream, I know (deep down) that will never happen, just like I know (deep down) that he is always there for me.  

I can’t rationally or scientifically prove this of course.  When I say that I know he is there for me, it’s a bit different than when I say I know the world is round.  Jesus has proven himself to me (though I still have frequent doubts), but that proof was for me, it is not empirical data for others.  Therefore, I feel a tug.  I love thinking and discussing, but to be able to do that you have to master the liberal arts skills, yet those won’t help too much in proving to myself that God is out there.  It is the classic battle of head versus heart.  But I’ve learned that maybe it’s not a battle.  Maybe just maybe the two go together better than I or many think.