I was going to post about Jesus yesterday, you know, in honor of Easter and all, but the day required much lying about and consuming of fat free Chocolate Meringues (I ate the whole tub from Trader Joe’s; I am so skipping weigh-in this week). I was feeling pretty blue.
I tend to have delayed emotional reactions. On Thursday, I stopped by the hospital to see Melanie and her twins. Then on Saturday night Charlie and I babysat Elise’s daughter and Miss P was just a perfect little girl (when we convinced her to go to bed, I put her in her crib and she said, “Turn out the light!” It was adorable). I felt fine through all of this, but then on Sunday I couldn’t get out of bed.
I’m so tired of feeling sad, but I thought it would be a good idea to honor that. And use chocolate as an anti-depressant.
But enough about that! Let’s talk about Jesus.
So I was shopping at Whole Foods the other day, and I couldn’t resist picking up a copy of the most recent issue of Utne Magazine (is there a sentence that could MORE clearly identify me as super liberal?) because it was focusing on issues of faith (Utne—Norwegian for “far out”—is basically a clearinghouse of liberal thought. The staff scans small presses for interesting articles and re-publishes them).
The whole issue was fascinating, but the article “Heaven Can’t Wait: Jesus was a radical, and it’s about time we start saying so” by David Schimke really caught my attention. He discusses the two most common interpretations of Jesus. To quote:
“For many, what matters most is that Jesus was a divine spirit who died for their sins. To accept him as your savior is to be saved, and the pursuit of that salvation is paramount. For a smaller percentage of believers, Jesus was a peasant revolutionary who lived by example and died for it. To model your behavior after his is to bring earth closer to heaven.”
For a long time I was pretty anti-Jesus, I must confess. I tended to agree with the poet Robinson Jeffers—he called Jesus “that confused Jewish poet.” But I’ve softened my opinion, thanks to Christians like Moxie and Anne Lamott.
In her book Traveling Mercies (yes, one of my
favorites, for all you people that asked about the books I read), Anne Lamott
talks about her spiritual awakening and how it helped her get sober. When she
was in the depths of despair, she called a minister and asked him for help. She
asked him what it means to be saved and he said, “I guess it’s like discovering
you’re on the shelf of a pawnshop, dusty and forgotten and maybe not worth very
much. But Jesus comes in and tells the pawnbroker, ‘I’ll take her place on the
shelf. Let her go outside again.’” How could that vision of Jesus not warm your
heart? That sounds pretty radical to me.
Jesus being a radical is hardly a new idea—just recently I’ve heard Jim Wallis, head of Sojourner Magazine, talk about this very idea on NPR and The Daily Show. So, in honor of this idea, I decided to whip out my bible (ha! you though I didn’t own one, didn’t you? In fact, I have several versions! So there!) and look into it.
In fact, the bible is full of radical ideas. For instance, here are The Beatitudes from Matthew (Matthew 5:3-12) (um, the bible I’m using is The New American Bible, St. Anthony Guild Edition, so it may be different from yours if you are playing along at home):
How blest are the poor in spirit; the reign of God is theirs.
Blest too are the sorrowing; they shall be consoled.
Blest are the lowly; they shall inherit the land.
Blest are they who hunger and thirst for holiness; they shall have their fill.
Blest are they who show mercy; mercy shall be theirs.
Blest are the single-hearted for they shall see God.
Blest too the peacemakers; they shall be called Sons of God.
Blest are those persecuted for holiness sake; the reign of God is theirs.
Blest are you when they insult you and persecute you
and utter every kind of slander against you because of me.
Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven;
They persecuted the prophets before you in the very same way.
Now, there are some wonderful things in there—showing mercy, making peace, consoling the sorrowing. That is radical. I also like the idea of “the lowly inheriting the land” (better known as “the meek shall inherit the earth”). It makes me think about the idea of humility. Attaining humility is an excellent spiritual aim—in fact, in recovery, it’s the main goal. Becoming right-sized is critical; learning to be “one among many, a worker among workers” is the primary goal of much of the soul searching we do in recovery. I misunderstood the concept of humility when I first got sober; I thought it meant suffering humiliation, when in fact it means recognizing and honoring my assets as well as my defects (for instance, it would be lacking in humility for me to call myself a shitty writer—especially after so many of you told me how much you liked my writing—just as it would be lacking in humility for me to call myself the best writer ever).
Of course, then you get the last few lines, about being persecuted for your beliefs. Those lines have been the battle cry for everyone from Civil Rights marchers to the Operation Rescue people. ANYONE can declare themselves holy and right and use any resistance to their ideas as proof that they are prophets.
Therein lies the rub—the crux of the issue—the shit that fertilizes the mushrooms of righteousness.
People.
People misread, misinterpret, and fuck up the basic message of Jesus all the time. In fact, we don’t even know how accurately the bible portrays the words of Jesus anyway. Most of the New Testament was written years after Jesus died, and he didn't actually write ANY of it . And even the best parts of the bible have been terribly misinterpreted.
A great case in point in Mary Magdalene. You know, the prostitute that Jesus hung out with? Except that nowhere in the bible does it actually say that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute (thank you Discovery Channel for clueing me in to this tidbit). She is only called a “sinner” (in fact, everyone is a sinner before God, right?). The early church declared her a prostitute, since after all, sex is how women sin, right? Maybe she was a shoplifter. Or murdered her abusive husband. Or wouldn’t marry her parent’s choice for her. Who knows?
Great parts of the bible are also ignored. Every television evangelist manages to ignore the whole story of Jesus driving the moneychangers out of the Temple. He felt money had no place with worship. Interesting, no?
The bible is also full of contradictions and some nasty ideas and rather a fetish for stoning, don’t you think? People will argue, oh, that's only in the Old Testament, not part of Jesus' message at all. Except all that anti-gay crap ALSO comes from the Old Testament, and right-wing Christians are willing to utilize that little tidbit (for an excellent discussion of homosexuality in the bible, check this out. In fact, the whole site is really fascinating).
The point is, no one knows what exactly Jesus actually said. So, if you ask me, trying to create heaven on earth by living a kind and responsible life, therefore following the example of Jesus, is the best way to be a good Christian. In fact, if tolerance, patience, a love of our fellows and an open heart means being a Christian, then sign me up. THAT I can get behind. As David Schimke says in the article in Utne Magazine, “…the Jesus I met in the bible would be more concerned about curing AIDS than outlawing homosexual marriage, more troubled by world hunger and violence than an erosion of ‘family values.’”
Now that I know so many of you who read this blog are Christians, I’d love to know; what do you think? What’s more important, salvation or doing good works? I’m very interested in your responses. Also, you non-Christians, if you managed to get through this whole thing, I'd love to hear from you as well.
Now: KEEP IT CIVIL! Civilized discussion benefits everyone. Remember, LOVE AND TOLERANCE IS OUR CODE. Nasty comments will be deleted immediately. Disagreement is permitted, but hatred is not. Mm'k? K.
Go!
