Jesus Was A Revolutionary, Anything But ‘Conservative’

One of the wonderful things about having a child return to school is the pleasure of conversations about his classes. My son is attending a Jesuit university and his most recent history class involved studying historical accounts of the life of visionaries including Jesus of Nazareth.

I am borrowing from a paper he wrote because it reminded me how far afield our current religious politics have strayed from the recorded teachings of Jesus. Lest you think Jennifer has gone off a “new cliff,” if we do not understand the distortions of today’s religious politics we may lose the extraordinary value of Jesus. When we turn away from the worst of the “prayer breakfast politicians” we do not need to confuse them with what it means to be a Christian.

The earliest Christian documents are the letters of Paul, who never met Jesus, and the four Gospels in the Bible. The Jesus that history records is reconstructed, interpreted and vividly imagined by writers living one or even two generations after his death. Even these writings were re-interpreted and much was deleted by the early Church hierarchy.

What is generally agreed upon, even by divergent sources, was that when Jesus began his ministry he did so as a Jew and his earliest disciples were Jewish. He grew up in a Hebrew cultural atmosphere anticipating his message. The God of the Hebrews was a God of miracles and of liberation for the faithful. It was a time of unrest and discontent. Many citizens talked among themselves of the unjust and corrupt actions of leaders and of rescue by a messiah. When Jesus, with his charismatic “aura,” announced that the time had at last arrived for the downtrodden to reach the Kingdom of God, it inspired a fervent faith.

Of all recorded visionaries perhaps none was as far ahead of his time as Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was anything but a “conservative.” The essential elements of his teaching may seem basic to us today but they were not then. He taught equality for women in a world of class, caste and restrictions. He taught nonviolence in a world of dictatorships and wars. He taught that God was accessible to all without the mediation of temple priests. He taught that each of us has the freedom to choose our own salvation.

Jesus drew people to him because he walked among them, as one of them, and offered them a place in both their world as equals and in the next world through the power of faith. His words were hopeful and were backed up by his deep interest in their welfare. He demonstrated, even in small things, a profound love and respect for man and life in all its forms.

His audience could feel the power of his presence, conviction and wisdom. The available reports of his appearances describe the reactions of those who listened to him as transformation. They felt their previous system of beliefs changing, their core character changed. The intensity and simplicity of his “truths” touched them deeply. The poor, the gentle, the sick, the homeless, the compassionate, the abused and the gifted were empowered by his message. It gave them validation and a sense of place.

The transformation, the change in personality many felt, created such an opening in their minds and hearts that they felt an almost instant allegiance to the man who had brought such gifts. Jesus conveyed in his teaching a new understanding of God and humanity. Any of us who have been touched by a great teacher in our readings or school experience know the tingle and passion of a mind opening, a step toward deeper understanding.

Jesus, many believed, was the Messiah. He told them the world would change (“come to an end”) in their lifetime. His crucifixion intensified the faith he inspired because the belief in the miracle of resurrection was a belief that God had and would triumph over both mortality and evil.

He was not a philosopher or a theologian. Jesus lived what he taught and could thus offer the model, the living example of his own life. Perhaps the miracle of his own integrity carried as much power as the other miracles reported in the Gospels. He lived his truths even to his ultimate choice of nonviolence through his death without resistance.

Not only were his ideas revolutionary, especially his teachings about women and nonviolence, but they are still revolutionary in many parts of this country and the world. Those who feared him then in some ways fear him now. Some of the powerful and wealthy and many religious leaders of his time feared the loss of their power and money as well as the loss of honor his teachings would bring.

Jesus was a visionary who expanded our conception of humanity and our own possibilities. He was a dreamer as all visionaries must be. He was a prophet, he spoke of the future, not the past. He was a rebel, he disobeyed the religious laws of his time. People said he was the “Christ,” others described him as a charlatan. He struggled with every part of his being and ultimately gave his life to close the gap between man and God.

We still struggle with “the gap,” and it is crucial that we, as Jesus did, separate the true from the false, the faithful from the manipulative, the love from the hate. xxxx

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jennifer James The Spokesman-Review