Not surprisingly the celebration of Christmas has me thinking about Jesus of Nazareth. We celebrate the birth of a baby whose life would literally change the course of history. Christians believe that Jesus was both God and man. More specifically they believe God became man; and lived as fully God and fully man.
I suspect that most of the atheists have stopped reading by now, but I hope not. I want to set aside the God part for now and talk about the man. I believe Jesus of Nazareth was a man who actually lived, who walked the earth and ate and slept and had some amazing things to say.
I can't prove that Aristotle or Jesus or Shakespeare actually lived or actually wrote the words attributed to them. There is historical evidence but they are all long dead and gone and I cannot actually prove anything. And it doesn't make a bit of difference. They left us their ideas. I don't need to be a theologian or read Ancient Greek to find value in their words and lives. A quick trip to a bookstore will give me access to the wisdom attributed to these great minds, and I can evaluate the wisdom presented on the pages of those books on my own, without any help.
Over the holiday we were discussing church and religion and Jesus and my Mother-in-Law confided that growing up they never read the Bible. They went to church and learned the catechism and heard the pastor deliver a homily, but there were no Bibles in the pews and they only heard a few verses quoted during the service. I will take her comment at face value but with a grain of salt. She grew up a Catholic in a small town. I grew up as a Methodist in a suburb and I remember not so much reading as consulting the Bible. We would look up versus that would apply in specific situations at certain times.
Later in life I realized this was a book put together from things written over a span of over 1500 years. We think of America's birth as being long ago but on this scale it is fairly recent. The Bible was assembled by men, long after the last parts were written, with lots being discarded. King James famously had an English translation created, filled with all of the Thee's and Thou's of his time. In the early 1900's the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls, written while Jesus was alive, gave tremendous new insights into the society and times Jesus lived in.
The Old Testament is filled with wisdom and poetry and also a lot of rules for how to prepare food and a lot of oral history that got written down. The New Testament is filled with a lot of letters from Paul to various groups of people, putting his spin on this new Christianity and trying to help people put the words of Jesus to use in their lives.
But the New Testament also contains what are said to be the actual words of Jesus of Nazareth, translation notwithstanding. If we ignore the rest, and read the words of this man, we find some amazing things. We find certain themes dominate his narrative. Peace. Forgiveness. Love.
Jesus of Nazareth speaks of loving your enemy. Of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. He speaks of turning the other cheek and of forgiving; not seven times but seventy times seven.
Jesus was a Jew but did not simply comply with and accept all of the Jewish laws and customs. He healed people on the Sabbath and stopped a crowd from lawfully stoning a woman to death for her sins. He challenged the establishment of his day to the core.
The establishment reacted by having him arrested. Instead of resisting the arrest he asked his friend to put away his sword. Nobody fought harder to change the system; he was angered by the money changers in the temple and overturned their tables. He debated the Scribes and Pharisees but urged peace and non-violence.
Jesus did not encourage people to look to the authorities to care for them; he encouraged people to care for one another, to love one's neighbor as oneself. The people of his day seemed to have grown weary of rules and rulers without principles behind them. They were tired of oppression and corruption. Jesus of Nazareth provided a clear and fairly radical set of ideas for his time.
I think our world desperately needs to read the thoughts of this man once again. A quick glance in any newspaper will reveal how violent and dysfunctional we have become. People are tired of rules and rulers and oppression and corruption. We are quick to draw our swords and slow to love our neighbors, let alone our enemies.
Don't let concerns about translations and theology and historical accuracy get in the way of reading the thoughts of this great man. Don't get bogged down in ancient rules or letters from Paul. Don't let Church rules or hypocrisy or squabbles keep you from reading some essential timeless truths.
I am not a theologian or historian and I can't read Ancient Greek. At best I am a sinner, at worst a skeptic or hypocrite. I have not been a great church-goer in the last few years. I do realize the importance of Jesus as God to Christians. I know there must be Justice and Laws. But I think we have Christmas all wrong. Christmas is not about Black Friday or a beautiful tree or perfect eggnog. It is not about gift cards or reindeer or even attending the proper church services. There is nothing wrong with any of those things, but many of us are convinced those things are at the heart of Christmas. They are not. Christmas is about Peace and Love and Forgiveness. It is about caring for our fellow man.
I think those who call themselves Christians must start with the words of Christ. Pick up a Bible and turn to the Gospels and read the words and story of Jesus of Nazareth. Realize that even with a couple of thousand years and a number of translations the words still have meaning. Read them as you would any book. Think about the words and story and how they relate to your life and our society.
I think the rest will follow from that.
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