I'd prefer not to go to any church service. I'd rather not keep any prayerbooks, rosaries, or any religious iconography in my quarters. I always give myself a stitch on the side laughing at all the evangelists I watch on television—their monologues and breathless exhortations can be outrageously funnier than any standup comedian’s. I think organized religion is no different from paranormal science ( pseudo-science, more like it ) or astrology ( just another BS pseudo-discipline ). Let's get one thing out of the way, however. Don't confuse me for an atheist. I do believe in a thriving, pulsing Principle. Not necessarily a god--well, at least not in any Divine sense.
And let's get another thing out of the way, too. Jesus is dead. I don't mean this in any figurative sense. I mean Jesus died and was buried, and then his body decomposed, and now we don't know what has actually become of him--just like all other people who died. Of course, it's possible that he wasn't even a real person in the first place. But I'd rather think to myself that such a real person did exist somehow. It's quite a comfort to assure one's self that Jesus--a larger-than-life exemplar of many commendable human traits--had actually lived and breathed and commingled with crowds in a few particular districts of the Middle East during the era of the Roman Empire.
The manner in which contemporary Christianity casts him as a "special Being" worthy of ritualistic deification can be every bit as delusional as saying that infants are given to parents by storks. Or that the Earth is not round but a flat disk, which has an edge you can topple over into if you're not too careful. He is commemorated in Christianity as—during his lifetime—the Creator God in human form. He was the Supreme Being actually breathing, talking, eating, drinking, and engaging in labor just like the rest of us. He is even portrayed as at one time being a carpenter, or a fisherman. It could be true that he had engaged in such jobs. But him the Creator in human form? You could just as well say that the Japanese Shinto adherents were accurate in their belief that Emperor Hirohito was a living god. Or that the ancient Egyptians had no reason to doubt that their Pharoahs were also gods in human form.
But of course, Christians would readily dismiss Shinto adherents as delusional, just as much as the ancient Egyptians were, simply because reason and rationality cannot possibly accommodate the idea of their human leaders being “gods”. And yet, these same people who are supposedly more “rational” tolerate the certainty that Jesus—another human being who would have been no more nor less flesh-and-blood than Emperor Hirohito or any Egyptian Pharaoh—is actually the Creator God. Maybe it’s time to think a bit differently.
Anybody can mention an ungodly ( pun definitely intended ) number of reasons why a reflection upon the life that Jesus lived would merit relevance even in our present times—and not just the rabid God-the-Deity-worshipping religious folk. Albeit that Jesus probably breathed his last few inhalations over 2,000 years ago or so—while unmercifully nailed by his hands and feet to a wooden cross—,the written record of many of his experiences and admonishments during his time of popularity continues to speak of a person who lived and taught a high standard of moral and humanistic convictions. It is a legacy of such enigmatic proportions that it continues to provoke readers to time and again re examine a range of complex motives behind each human action as well as the propriety of different moral codes. This is something that people of many different “faiths” can agree on.
Jesus’ life and beliefs can serve as a platform or range of parameters from which one could compare—or even judge—one’s own. A legacy such as this would not be too removed from the lessons that other humans—who lived after Jesus died ( yes, died )—bequeathed upon the younger generations who came after them.
One example would be the venerated Abraham Lincoln, the 19th-century President of the United States of America, who abolished slavery in his country, which resulted in the emancipation of millions of African-Americans from destitute servility. What he did during the 19th century would have unimaginably tremendous consequences during the 21st century—200 years later—when the American constituency finally found enough confidence in their African-American population to elect the first African-American president of their country—Barack Obama.
In the same way, Jesus personified a whole philosophy of humanistic codes of conduct which modern society can benefit from—no matter what a person’s faith may be, and no matter that Jesus first taught them twenty centuries ago.
Problem is, dogmatic religion just had to step in and ruin whatever true value his life should have had by inscribing so deeply on it a regrettable degree of unnecessary deity. Jesus has suddenly become the “extraordinary being”, an entity so perfect that an imaginary insurmountable dividing line was drawn between what he was capable of and what “normal” persons can do. There is no hope at all that any one of us “mere mortals” could attempt to emulate, add upon, or enhance everything he did.
Oh yes, a whole nation could rise up to the occasion and victoriously bring about the fulfillment of Abraham Lincoln’s vision of an America overcoming its racial boundaries over time. But Jesus? Who else could at the very least develop as astute a commitment to humanity’s welfare as he was? Of course no one can. He is the all-omniscient God. He is the only single being who can do everything he did. All the rest of us ( at least, according to Christian doctrine ) can never hope to achieve whatever he had to the lowest degree.
Being that this is the pervasive view, still—what is it worth to us people today if Jesus had been an extra-special Divine Being anyway? He was supposed to be able to heal the sick, the blind, the maim, and the insane with the simple touch of his hands. Could that be as possible for anyone as simply helping an old woman cross a busy street? The Jesus taught to schoolchildren could somehow magically turn a basketful of fish into truckloads without batting an eyelash. Okay…I can probably get a handful of fresh seafood and see if anyone can use it to feed the millions of starving people worldwide. He could supposedly talk to Lucifer/Satan/Beelzebub—or whatever else that bastard may be known by—and force him to a showdown. Let’s be honest—it’s hard enough to negotiate with a hostage-taker. Jesus was said to have raised the dead back to life. Well, there’s always a cemetery nearby.
The view of a Jesus as a supra-natural entity merely obfuscates his many documented qualities which are resplendently human, and equally achievable by anyone.
If the most credible accounts in the Bible are to be believed, then Jesus was, among other things, a person who intuited the nearly limitless capacity of all individuals to change. He was an ardent advocate of the dynamism of a person’s character. He is recorded to have openly embraced the company of “harlots”, “adulterers”, drunkards, criminals, tax collectors ( a group of Roman government officials much reviled during the Israel of that time ), poverty-stricken fishermen—people in the lowest ranks of society. A modern-day equivalent of this description could be imagined as a minister, pastor, priest, or counsellor being observed in the company of prostitutes, known offenders, street urchins—maybe even perhaps cheating and lying lawyers.
It is documented that Jesus encouraged them that the time was never too late to try to lead more productive and fulfilling lives. It was never a matter of what they were in the past, he always told them, it was more important to focus on building a better present and future.
Contemporary society sees many examples of modern-day heroic individuals who are pretty much doing the same thing! The kind of people selfless enough to devote time and effort into reforming society’s deviants, delinquents, and underprivileged members, even without the promise of any reward. In essence, it could be said that Jesus was one of the earliest recorded socially-committed workers.
Jesus’ policy of “forgiveness” could be conceived of as one of the earliest demonstrations of the principles of amnesty or rehabilitation for those types of persons who have committed certain misdemeanors but are given a second chance at rectifying their circumstances.
One can find many anecdotes about Jesus conferring equal treatment among people of different ethnicities. Racial prejudice was as prevalent—maybe even greater—during his time as it is now. Fundamentalist Jews ( a decidedly xenophobic lot ) were documented to have berated and mocked Jesus’ apparent propensity to treat people from “other tribes” with the same courteousness, dignity, and grace that only fellow Jews were expected and obligated to do with one another. Jesus, in turn, allegedly argued for the universality of correct human conduct.
Stories like that sound more like anecdotes about Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, John Lennon, as well as the greater majority of people who look beyond stereotypes, physical attributes, beliefs, and genetic inheritance—among more recently recognizable phenomena. Again, this is something anyone can do.
The written record would tell of how Jesus detested the idea of strict adherence to religious rituals as providing merit to people who never lived by their religion’s moral guidelines anyway. In multiple instances Jesus consistently launched tirades against members of the clergy of his time, telling them that going to church ( or in their case, the synagogue ) regularly and knowing all the lines on the prayerbook were not what was fundamentally required of anyone.
He advocated the greater accomplishment of constantly striving to concretely act out at home and on the street what was prescribed by the moral code—rather than simply performing repeated prayer rituals or superficial ceremonies that were supposed to “purify” a person of his or her past indiscretions. Sort of makes sense, really. What would be the use of memorizing the letter of the law down to its smallest phrases if you’re not going to follow it anyway?
It could be said that Jesus was one of the true rebels against the bigotry of religious dogmatism and fundamentalism. Jesus demonstrated himself as a pacifist by not actively encouraging any violent retribution from his followers after his arrest by Roman officials on dubious charges. He spoke against the gap between the rich and poor by declaring that a person’s wealth should not be the basis for how people should be treated. He lived a life of moderation, restraint, and temperance. He taught kindness and concern for others as the paramount ideal of morals as against the pursuit of self-gain. He endeavored to spread his philosophy by word of mouth with the hope of making concrete changes for the better to the society he lived in—perhaps he even had a vision that the changes would come within his lifetime.
Simply by enumerating all of the corporeal, indubitably “human” manifestations of Jesus’ character, he readily emerges as a compelling figure in history. The written record about him would show flashes of an intelligence that displays a brilliance at apprehending fundamental moral and social precepts which, then as now, continue to shape a plethora of comprehensive philosophies all seeking to capture a definitive framework for living “the ideal life”.
It is all the more remarkable that Jesus was able to do this at an age when most of his teachings would be branded heretical, not just by fellow Jews but by a majority of other races. By any measure, Jesus’ anachronistic talents for arriving at sound and relevant moral principles would be extraordinarily spectacular—to say the least. This alone would put him in league with other great ancient sages such as Siddhartha Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius, or even philosophers who dwelt on the essence of moral codes like Plato and Socrates.
Why then does anyone have to bother promoting the image of a “miracle man” who bends the laws of physics, time, probability, and everything else in between with a wave of the hand? It’s the sort of tomfoolery that divides millions of people into factions which most likely even Jesus himself would not have desired. It speaks of the very bigoted zealotry he rebelled against.
It seems that organized Christianity has volumes to gain from portraying Jesus as a deity. In their religious canon, an all omniscient Jesus—no less than a god—would hold the unbounded Power to “purify” or “cleanse” your imperfections if you but request it of “Him” through “consecrated prayer”. This power in effect absolves all Jesus-the-Christ-Deity adherents from ever having to even try to ( at the very least ) impel themselves to act along the same standards of the moral, social, and humanitarian externalizations of Jesus’ character.
Who could ever as sure-handedly and magnanimously match with actions what Jesus admonished and performed as well as “He” did? He was a god—in fact, the only god-Being of any importance. There is a demarcation line between a deity and humans in all religions. Humans can’t do as a god or gods can do.
And so, where is the need, then, of anyone to be living proof of the correctness of Jesus’ vision and convictions? Where goes, then, the necessity of having to practice Jesus’ same discipline and commitment? No one can. It’s as simple as that. As long as Jesus is god. You simply cut back on being motivated to be austere and reflective of the wide gap between your ideals and your actions. In any event, there is a Jesus who is immortal who can “cleanse” you like a newly washed infant with a wave of the hand. Because this is what a god who “descended” to terrestrial Earth and walked on water could do anytime this god wished. Because this is what a god who can banish demons with a wink of an eye can accomplish. You can go on not contemplating about your moral conduct, then, as long as you want.
It’s the perfect pitch to sell a belief, much like selling a marketable commodity. It hooks you in with the promise that you are free of all responsibility to strive with your might and main to stay along a course which in most probability Jesus would have wanted everyone to remain on. You could almost hear the ostensible sigh of relief among millions of Jesus-Christ-the-Deity adherents. And with this promise of a deliverance from responsibility, they are actually snagging even more people into their circles.
They are even vociferously insisting that Jesus came back from the dead and is still present in a nether, indefinable “somewhere”.
A big objectionable dent is placed on Jesus’ legacy by his becoming a super being. An even bigger disservice is the propagation of a view as insane as Jesus having risen from the grave. If a human Jesus, stripped of all pretensions to supra-human abilities, would be a better model for people to follow—at least, for people who sincerely, genuinely value a reflection on the proper moral principles of life—, a Jesus as helpless in the face of death as all of us are would even be more infinitely valuable a memory.
A truly heroic Jesus would not be a warrior facing death willingly…because he knew deep down inside that all the odds were stacked in his favor after all. What a lame scenario if that were the case—sounding no different from a gambler who stakes everything because he had foreknowledge of a favorable outcome in the end. It’s an act of cheating which doesn’t give any dignity at all to Jesus’ sacrifice.
No, a really courageous Jesus would have been like any of us if confronted with the awful and unimaginably painful prospect of having to suffer being crucified. He would have felt the same blanching, palpable, choking fear of being unwillingly pushed over the precipice of the most daunting, paralyzing edge of all human experience. The unknown, unanswerable riddle of death. With no assurances of what possibility lay beyond. And no escape from the inevitable. It would have been a torment and helplessness that no other entity save from humans could possibly experience. Certainly not an all-powerful god…unless death itself had power over such a so-called Being ( which sounds foolish ).
Jesus’ horror and anguish would have not ended with the tortures and inhumanities he would have to endure. They would have reached outward to the unspeakably inconsolable realization that he was going to face his probable End. That he was to become dust, like the rest of what he would have seen happened to all those who died.
And just when the realization probably tugged at his misgivings, regrets, and convictions like nothing else he ever imagined he would go through—he proceeded on his way with nary even a blind man’s chance. It was the ultimate stake, the ultimate gamble. In the midst of his most debilitating fragility, he found his greatest strength. And with his death, he never rose again. He became dust.
But he did win the gamble in some way.
It is a poetry which has been shared by many others who have sacrificed everything for their principles, who sought the benefit of others over their own. It is a poetry which still lingers on, and will require more words than the Bible. And if we just pulled our heads out of the clouds and make real use of this poetry, even Jesus’ death wouldn’t really be that sad, and bad.
