He Will Teach Me How to Live

as i think about the life of jesus and what little we know of it, i am troubled by how we have distorted his teachings by regarding him as God.  it is apparent that his earliest followers did not know what to make of him, with some considering that he was "adopted" as God's son at the time of his baptism, others believing that he became divine at the time of his conception, some regarding him as divinized when he was raised from the dead or when he ascended to heaven, while still others believed that he was a divine being who was present with God at the time of creation and for all eternity prior to the creation.  finally the doctrine of the trinity which taught that jesus was God, as was the holy spirit, so that there were three expressions of the godhead--father, son, and holy spirit--became the orthodox explanation of the relationship between jesus and God.

in the process, jesus-the-human-being was obscured, and jesus became the object of christian worship.  as jesus was elevated to being regarded as God incarnate, it seems to me that we lost a great deal.  as i was reading mark's gospel, i saw in it a jesus who would have been deeply offended to be regarded as God, a man who insisted on his own humanity.  certainly, jesus thought that he was ordained by God to proclaim teachings about a soon-to-be cataclysmic event that would turn the old order topsy-turvy, but in the process of delivering that message he preached a way of life that was quite different from the religious legalism that passed for the "true" religion among his fellow jews.  at the heart of his message was a path that emphasized love and compassion, service rather than conquest, respect for all people--women and children included, forgiveness rather than punishment, belief in a God who was more like a father than a king.  this is the message that turning jesus into God eclipses, and it is a message that i want to recapture in my own life.

may we place more value in the teachings of jesus than in a theology that veils those teachings.  may jesus speak to us in very human terms, not as a god but as a fellow being who struggled as we do.  may love, compassion, respect, and mercy be our goals, not a religious orthodoxy that hides those qualities from us.  shalom.