The Subversive Jesus
Ernie Fitzpatrick asked:
Subversive isn’t a word that Christians are inclined to use when speaking of Jesus, who became known as the Christ; however, when you look at the historical Jesus within the setting to which He entered, there’s no better word to describe Him. He literally turned the world upside down while the church is still trying to put it right side up. Will we ever get it? Get Him?
Jesus came into a world or setting wherein RELIGION was ritualistic, cultic and ritualistic!
And it still is today though those who are try to make the world more like that which Jesus described as cults. Some 2,000+ years ago each nation had its own god, its cults, and rituals, much like each denomination does today. The Jews were no exception to this paradigm.
Yahweh was the Jewish lawgiver, their ruler, and protector. If they obeyed His laws then they won in battle. If they didn’t fulfill the LAWS they were defeated in battle and things didn’t go well in life generally. It was a highly dualistic consciousness of life. Black and white. Good and bad. And dualism was prolific.
There were rituals for everything- even rituals for rituals.
They created (not God) rituals for birth, for harvests, for repentance of sins, for worship, for remembering, washing hands and eating, and what to eat or not eat (can you say pork?). There was no such thing as the LAW of the LAND that differed from the LAW of God. And we wonder why those of the Muslim faith desire a theocracy and not a democracy?
Come on- think!
And to deny a nation’s ritual or to refuse to enter into such activities was tantamount to treason. Thus, to leave the Sabbath and a time of worship and go home and beat a slave was not an inconsistent act. But Jesus came to change all of that and usher in a spiritual Kingdom, not a nationalistic religion with various laws that have nothing to do with the heart, nor LOVE!
In essence, Jesus was saying in Mark 2:27 that nothing came before God, but that PEOPLE came before laws and rituals. Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man. And for many today the Sabbath is Sunday morning at 11am- not Monday morning at 9am. Get the point, the orthopraxy?
The church has taken the “relative” and absolutized it and in so doing they can’t fathom how someone can love a lesbian, homosexual, or transgendered person. Why would we think that strange when as Jesus was alive and walking with them they were outraged with his socializing, breaking bread, and spending time with the tax collectors, prostitutes, and women who’d been married many times over. Can you say Jesus was UNIQUE too?
Jesus was simply saying that is the LAW (any law) is not conducive to to a fuller life and LIBERTY, it’s simply a BAD LAW! Put another way that the church can’t quite grasp, “LOVE and do as you will.” Say what? Let me use the wors of John Heaps (Catholic Bishop) who said, “A community of mature people should need no more than guidelines agreed upon for the sake of the free-flowing life of people interacting with each other. While ritual is an important element of life, we should be free to express, in an appropriate way, the thoughts and emotions, beliefs and feelings that are insiude us.”
That scares the institutional church and its leaders who still want to believe in fossils and fairy tales.
And that’s one reason Jesus was subversive!
Elaine
Subversive isn’t a word that Christians are inclined to use when speaking of Jesus, who became known as the Christ; however, when you look at the historical Jesus within the setting to which He entered, there’s no better word to describe Him. He literally turned the world upside down while the church is still trying to put it right side up. Will we ever get it? Get Him?
Jesus came into a world or setting wherein RELIGION was ritualistic, cultic and ritualistic!
And it still is today though those who are try to make the world more like that which Jesus described as cults. Some 2,000+ years ago each nation had its own god, its cults, and rituals, much like each denomination does today. The Jews were no exception to this paradigm.
Yahweh was the Jewish lawgiver, their ruler, and protector. If they obeyed His laws then they won in battle. If they didn’t fulfill the LAWS they were defeated in battle and things didn’t go well in life generally. It was a highly dualistic consciousness of life. Black and white. Good and bad. And dualism was prolific.
There were rituals for everything- even rituals for rituals.
They created (not God) rituals for birth, for harvests, for repentance of sins, for worship, for remembering, washing hands and eating, and what to eat or not eat (can you say pork?). There was no such thing as the LAW of the LAND that differed from the LAW of God. And we wonder why those of the Muslim faith desire a theocracy and not a democracy?
Come on- think!
And to deny a nation’s ritual or to refuse to enter into such activities was tantamount to treason. Thus, to leave the Sabbath and a time of worship and go home and beat a slave was not an inconsistent act. But Jesus came to change all of that and usher in a spiritual Kingdom, not a nationalistic religion with various laws that have nothing to do with the heart, nor LOVE!
In essence, Jesus was saying in Mark 2:27 that nothing came before God, but that PEOPLE came before laws and rituals. Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man. And for many today the Sabbath is Sunday morning at 11am- not Monday morning at 9am. Get the point, the orthopraxy?
The church has taken the “relative” and absolutized it and in so doing they can’t fathom how someone can love a lesbian, homosexual, or transgendered person. Why would we think that strange when as Jesus was alive and walking with them they were outraged with his socializing, breaking bread, and spending time with the tax collectors, prostitutes, and women who’d been married many times over. Can you say Jesus was UNIQUE too?
Jesus was simply saying that is the LAW (any law) is not conducive to to a fuller life and LIBERTY, it’s simply a BAD LAW! Put another way that the church can’t quite grasp, “LOVE and do as you will.” Say what? Let me use the wors of John Heaps (Catholic Bishop) who said, “A community of mature people should need no more than guidelines agreed upon for the sake of the free-flowing life of people interacting with each other. While ritual is an important element of life, we should be free to express, in an appropriate way, the thoughts and emotions, beliefs and feelings that are insiude us.”
That scares the institutional church and its leaders who still want to believe in fossils and fairy tales.
And that’s one reason Jesus was subversive!
Elaine
