Jesus - a Rebel With a Non-Violent Cause

 

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The world has always been soaked in violence and lust for power. Wars have always been followed by other wars. Times of peace have been very few and far between. 

Power grabs have always resulted in resistance. Oppression has always spawned rebels. And so it was during the time of Jesus. It is likely that there were many who rebelled against the Romans and their surrogates. What set Jesus apart from the other rebels is his insistence on non-resistance. Meeting violence with more violence will only feed a vicious cycle of escalating violence. Jesus was different.

Apparently, Jesus did not stand out as unique in his own time and nobody found a reason to write anything down about him. It wasn’t until decades later that the gospel writers realized that something extraordinary had happened; what a revolutionary concept Jesus had been teaching. Luke may have honestly tried to write an accurate account of his life, but he most certainly elaborated on it. Matthew, himself a Jew, contributed to this narrative of a larger than life personality who had garnered such a following.

What may have contributed to the masses finally turning on him was that it wasn’t just the rich and powerful who needed to change. We, like the Jews in his time, have to change as well. Looking the other way, refraining from harming others, would no longer be a sufficient standard for doing the right thing. Jesus wanted us to actively be a blessing to everyone around us, people at the lowest levels in society, even our enemies and that was too much of a sacrifice for the Jews as it is for us today. Many claim to be following Jesus, but only few are willing to be all in. Exploitation and violence continue to be at the center of our society to this very day.

The Role of the Bible

 

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Most churches teach that the Bible is the word of God. Some believe this to such an extent that they literally believe the world was created in seven days. The Bible is so holy that you cannot change one tiny bit. Some insist that you have to translate it word for word. Anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language will know that that is just not how translation works. A word for word translation will be largely incomprehensible. Every translation involves some level of interpretation.

When Jesus said that he was not going to change anything in the ancient scriptures, he meant that the Jews were misunderstanding what they said and he was going to help them reinterpret them. 

The Jews were reading the scriptures literally. You had to strictly follow each and every direction to the letter. In their eagerness to follow God’s direction, they had created an angry and tyrannical God instead of the loving and compassionate God he really is. Jesus tried to show them that their interpretation enslaved them. His liberal interpretation would set them free. 

The Bible is not history or factual reporting. The Bible is fiction, liturgy, worship all rolled up into one. It is numerous writers’ attempt to uncover the heart of God as our collective goodness and to give us directions for maintaining the relationships we have with one another as individuals, but also in and as the groups we belong to. God lives in each and every one of us. We are His temple. He is not even a He. He is the emotional, invisible force of love that connects us with each other.

Who Is God?

 

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Is there a god? Who is he and where did he come from? People have been asking that kind of questions for thousands of years. Do we have answers?

Things were happening, earthquakes, storms, rain, drought, illness, death. People began to wonder why and more importantly: What can we do about it? 

Some charlatans began to claim that they knew how to control these things and a new powerful priesthood was born. 

Sometimes they went too far and people resisted them. Jesus challenged the powerful priesthood in his time and paid the price.

In the 16th century, William Tyndale translated the Bible to English. Making the Bible accessible to the common people would reduce the monopoly the priests had on interpreting it for their own purposes, so they had him killed.

Admitting Copernicus’ claim that the earth revolved around the sun, not the other way around, would be a blow to their credibility and therefore their position of power. It took more than a hundred years for his theory to be commonly accepted.

By the 19th century, Thomas Jefferson realized that the gospel writers had seriously embellished the story about Jesus, so he wrote his own version without the miracles.

Leo Tolstoy followed in his footsteps and was excommunicated for it.

Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species really upset the fundamentalists’ and their creation theory. We have all heard about the Scopes trial, aka the monkey trial in 1925.

John Shelby Spong, an Episcopal bishop, began to talk about a God created by humans and Jesus as a revolutionary in his time. 

Even today, pastors around the globe continue to claim God created the universe, Jesus was his son and rose from the dead. Most of them know better, but they need the paycheck every month, so they preach what people want to hear. Christmas will never be the same without angels, shepherds or wise men. For decades, people, especially young people, have become disillusioned with the pretend God and joined the rank of the Nones. 

Jefferson, Tolstoy and Spong may have been the voices in the wilderness and today some brave pastors are beginning to tell the truth about God. God is within us (2 Corinthians 6:16-18), says Tolstory. God is the love and compassion that keeps us from destroying ourselves, each other and the planet we depend on so much.