Do you ever think much about Jesus’ life? - August 15, 2023
He was from a town so insignificant it isn’t mentioned in the Old Testament, Nazareth. To the learned people in Jerusalem, he would have been nothing less than a country bumpkin. He didn’t write a word that we know of. He died in most ignominious of ways. And yet, we know of him.
Any who has ever heard of him and learned something of him has had to contend with him. It doesn’t matter if you are Christian or not, religious or atheist, Jesus commands our attention.
The most decorated religious people of his time couldn’t stand him. The Roman Empire executed him in the manner they reserved for slaves, disgraced soldiers, and foreigners who revolted (after the death of Jesus they would use it for those who followed him too), crucifixion. By all accounts, the religious leaders worked with the empire to make it happen.
At the very most his public ministry was three years, it is possible it was less than a year. In that time, he was known to be a teacher of astonishing knowledge and authority, a healer, and a spiritual master who had a small group of followers who were always with him, and then a larger group that would come to see him when he made it to their town.
In each of those towns they brought him their sick in hopes that he would heal them. And those who were ostracized by the religious legalists found in Jesus a friend (so he was called a drunkard, a glutton, a friend of prostitutes and tax collectors). Children discovered that they mattered to him as if they were the greatest miracle ever made.
He was someone who refused to be victim and refused to victimize those who hurt him, saying before he was handed over to be tortured and killed, “No one takes my life, I give it freely,” and while he was being executed, “Father forgive them.” He spoke of love being the greatest of commandments, and to his own followers is claimed to have said, “Love each other as I have loved you.”
To those who looked at the sins of others with condemnation and rage, Jesus would constantly reframe their gaze to make them look in the mirror, “Don’t be worried about the speck in your neighbor’s eye when you have a plank hanging out of your own,” “Let anyone without sin throw the first stone.”
He told stories that didn’t make much sense to those who heard them, and truth be told still don’t make much sense now; but that makes us stop and wonder and experience something of the glory of God and the glory dormant within ourselves. We even have names for some of them: The Good Samaritan; The Prodigal Son; The Sower; The Lost Coin; The Separation of the Sheep and the Goats.
He reinterpreted the laws of Moses to such a degree that some considered him a blasphemer, and yet for others they finally found freedom. He freed people from the demonic (anything that robs people of life), he spoke harshly of the dangers of money (and didn’t seem to carry any), he didn’t return violence for violence and taught such absurd things as, “Turn the other cheek,” and “Love your enemies.”
He fed huge crowds of people simply because, “they’re hungry.” He would take time to go off alone and be with God. He would speak of the end of time in ways that sound apocalyptic to us, but when taken in context probably just meant that God is going to make us perfect in the end (the parable of the Wheat and Weeds, and the parable of the Drawing in the of the Net off the top of my head).
Other religious traditions who don’t regard him as the “Son of God” still say that he is the only person who never sinned (Muslims), or say that he was a buddha (Buddhists); because there is just something about Jesus. For some who saw him he was so remarkable they called him the Light of the World.
Then he said something like, “You are the light of the world.” Or something else like, “You will do even greater things than I have done.” We look at him and think there is no way that we could be like him, but he disagrees. He believes we can be just like him. He believes we can be as loving, and brilliant, and courageous, and kind, and forgiving, and selfless.
He was so full of grace, and yet also so demanding. He wouldn’t turn people away who wanted to be near him, but he made sure they knew the cost, “Any who seeks to save their lives will lose them, and any who loses their lives for my sake will save them.”
I am Christian cleric, so perhaps you are thinking, “Of course you think about Jesus!” But I am a preacher of his gospel, and sometimes I want people to know the truth; you can be like him. You and I with all of our faults and litanies of mistakes can be like him, and according to him that is how we experience God truly—here and now.
And we know he’s right. When we’ve selflessly given ourselves, when we’ve chosen love over hate, mercy over vengeance, reconciliation over finger-pointing, peace over violence, humility over ego, simplicity over abundance, service over comfort, and any other ways of Christ, we’ve known joy like never before.
Please don’t make Jesus just a religion. Please don’t make him just your “get out of hell free card.” He is life and life abundant; he is the glory of God, he is the way the truth and the life—and that isn’t a belief statement, that is a statement of living. Will his way, his truth, and his life be found in us? If so, we will know I AM and the shalom that is beyond understanding.
So yes, I think about Jesus. I also think about what this world would be like if Christians really took him seriously. Do ever you think about that?
With hope,
Garrett