There have been so many sappy books written about the Son of Man that it boggles the mind.
It started with a legend that someone decided to document and before you know it, there stands God in the flesh, suffering to pay for all the hideous deeds we cursed humans can imagine.
He is on guard fighting the Devil and protecting all his children who die every day and suffer anyway.
So who is Mr. Christ really?
I dare say few know and there is speculation he may not have existed at all but is a merging of a few other personalities who lived at that time.
Seeing that I or many others living on this planet have yet to see a man walk on water, raise the dead, come back to life after three days on a slab, feed thousands with a basket of fish and a few loaves of bread and turn the water into wine without the use of illusion or trickery, it appears very possible that the Son of Man probably did not do these things either.
He was a free man living in a land where freedom was only for the privileged few.
He bowed to no one and told it as he saw it.
He railed against the scribes, Pharisees and hypocrites and praised the Samaritan.
He had no use for dogma and healed on a Sunday.
He taught forgiveness.
He knew better than to judge and encouraged his followers not to judge either as no one can know perfection.
He taught that the self righteousness of man was nothing as compared to the entity that is responsible for creating life.
He did not have patience, but lashed out at those who made a mockery of God, as evidenced with him taking a whip after the money changers.
Mr. Christ was a warrior who knew when to let it out and when to stay his hand.
He was not a murderer or killer and desired peace for all and knew in his heart it was not to be.
He realized they would get him because he was the biggest threat they had encountered.
The sheep started to follow the Son of Man and they could not have that. Nor for his blasphemy against those who claimed to have an audience with their maker.
Mr. Christ was an unknown phenomena. An intellectual with guts and compassion.
He did not want to be God nor is he.
That is how the other side won for the last 2000 years. Making claims that the Son of Man likely never made.
The few parts that ring true you rarely hear about as it condemns those who say they follow in his footsteps.
Reading what you think is good, your thoughts are provocative.
“If you see the Buddha, kill him!” Those are the words of the Buddhist faith, who accept that the man in their book was NOT a god, more or less just a good fella. Like Ray Liotta said in the movie, “we always called each other good fellas. “Like you said to, uh, somebody, :You’re gonna like this guy. He’s all right. He’s a good fella. He’s one of us.: You understand?”.
Jesus would have gotten along great with Ray Liotta.
Hi sleepyeagle;
Yes he would have
I have thought a lot about the things you are considering here, so I will venture some comments. First, your piece is provocative, but you would probably be the first to admit that you are in a double bind when you on the one hand say that most of the stuff written is sappy and on the other hand try to select from the smorgasbord of writings about Christ, which ones truly characterize Him. In the end, this is just your portrait, and nothing else, not that you shouldn’t share it with us.
Second, it seems like we can discern two camps on who Jesus was. There’s the camp that says, well, it’s too uncertain, we really can’t know, we can’t sort out the legends and all the borrowings from other traditions (Egyptian, Greek, etc.) from the facts of the case. For these people the life of Jesus dissolves into mystery or nothingness in the past. Then there’s the camp that has faith that at least the Gospel stories give us a picture of a life, shady and fuzzy and couched in 1st Century concepts, but nevertheless, a dirty old faded and stepped on picture of Divinity descended into a real Person.
Personally, I don’t think it will ever be settled between the two camps. I go back and forth between them, but neither side convinces me that they are entirely right. So where I come down on all this is that the Story of Jesus (meaning the billions of variations on the theme) is actually a colossal attempt by the human race to construct a picture of what divinity would look like if we ever did see it in a person. As is indeed the Story of Krishna and other religious traditions. And in the process of telling, retelling, reinventing and rediscovering these stories, hopefully we each and all collectively are lifted closer to a better life for ourselves.
Must be add, since all the folks telling these stories are human beings, and since human beings are pretty imperfect, a lot of shit goes down in the name of Jesus Christ. But that’s no good reason not to keep trying.
Hi Jim;
As always your comments are well thought out, constructive and eloquent.
You are right about my take, but I don’t have much more to work with do I?
Brings me to thinking of that old song, “Whatever will be will be”