When contemplating the life of possibly the most influential human to ever walk planet earth, I like to look at what made Jesus so amazing in those days. It wasn't his miracles or that he healed people, others have done very similar things, or history at least claims they did. Paul performed miracles and healed people, but he is only known by people because of his relationship to Jesus, not because history itself remembers him, outside of the bible anyway. It was not these incredible actions that made Jesus so amazing, what made Jesus so incredible was his message for the time. Think about it. Jesus was preaching a 21st century message to 1st century people. They had never heard anything like it before. Jesus' ability to think outside the box and to come up with something so radical that it changed all of society, that is why He is remembered to this day. Even if you don't believe in Jesus and don't believe his miracles, you cannot argue with me on this point. His message was so powerful that it has withstood the test of the ages. Over 2,000 years and all the world still knows something of Jesus, even if it is just his name.
People came to him after he fed the 5,000 and they asked for bread, they didn't care he had performed the miracle, they acted in a very 1st century way and wanted an easy meal, even though they were not hungry, they acted rather primitively and wanted something for free (oh wait, that sounds kind of familiar...) Jesus told them, pretty much, to get their own food, his message was a message if changing perspectives and thought patterns, to live a life based in principles, not on rules. To think for ones self, and to develop relationships, it was a post modern message preached 2,000 years before our post modern world came in to its own.
Jesus drew people from a primitive, and submissive culture, to one with pride, courage, and love for others. Turn the other cheek was a way of putting yourself on equal ground with the one who had slapped you, It wasn't a message of cowerdess and submissiveness, quite the opposite in fact. In the culture of the day If someone slapped you they usually did it backhandedly because they saw you as inferior to them, by turning your cheek the perpetrator was forced to do one of two things, slap you open handily, recognizing you as an equal before God, or to walk away, thus ending the dispute. Either way, you won the argument. Jesus' message was not a message for pansies. He taught that if the Romans forced you to walk a mile, you should walk two. It was common in those days, any soldier could ask a conquered countryman to carry his equipment for the distance of 1 mile. Jesus put the people in authority, for by walking 2 miles when demanded only 1, you no longer were obeying orders, you were choosing. Jesus placed the power of choice in the hands of the lowly. Such a peaceful message, but deadly. It is no wonder they killed him.
Jesus revealed that obedience to the law is meaningless, just as obeying that soldier is an act of being cowed, but walking 2 miles puts you back into the position of power by your own free choice. You cannot coerce love. You cannot reduce love to a set of does and don'ts. That was the whole point of the Levitical system, to show humanity that Gods law of love is impossible to make in to a set of rules. The Israelites, after leaving Egypt and coming out of slavery with rules to follow, demanded of God a list, so God gave them over 800. It's almost laughable. It's so obvious that God was revealing that love to him cannot be made into a set of rules. Love is freely given, and love to God can only come from a heart desirous of friendship. A relationship with God is the only thing that can lead to open practice of good works. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus revealed this truth in a shocking way, by showing that not even perfect obedience to the law can obtain salvation. Jesus' message was a message of the heart, not of works.
If Jesus came today, his message would be so far ahead of popular thought that it would leave us in the dust. His message would not be that everyone join the Adventist church. Nope, In fact he'd call people out of Adventism, to a deeper understanding. Not that he would ask people to leave the church, but that they change their understanding of who He is. Love cannot be canonized in as et of doctrines. Conanization inhibits the progression of truth. Jesus didn't ask Jews to leave the faith, he asked them to change the way they thought. Jesus didn't ask the Samaritans to become Jews, only that they change their views of who God was, Jesus didn't ask the Roman centurion to become a Jew, he recognized that he had already changed his way of thinking and even though he was not a part of Gods people at all, he had more faith than anyone Jesus had ever met. He wasn't even Christian you could say today. Jesus' message would be a message of inclusiveness. It would be for everyone, and would leave no one out, not even atheists, because Jesus would not ask for adherence to doctrines, but for a change in the way of life and how we view the world. Jesus' message would be a message for the 40th century, in a 21st century world. You tell me what that would look like. I think it would rock our world.
No comments:
Post a Comment