Who would Jesus have hung with today?
Many who have studied the Christian Bible and more particularly the New Testament are more than aware of the fact that Jesus Christ was a person of the common people far more than he ever was the elites of his time. Most of the elites of Jesus era were either very wealthy or very bound up in religion, or both.
Jesus was very contemptuous of both unbridled wealth and extreme belief in the over abundance of rules that populated the Jewish religion of his day. It has been said that Jesus came at the time that he did because the Jews had forgotten the purpose of their religion and had begun to worship rules and procedures instead of their God. Indeed, the Jewish religious authorities such as the pharisees had begun to follow Jesus around and had begun to roundly critcise him for doing things such as to heal people on the Sabbath, something a Jew in charge would never allow. There was probably not a more rule bound people on this earth than the Jews of the savior's time. There were rules to determine how many steps one could take on the Sabbath as well as what to allow a person to do outside of his home on that day. The dead could not be touched and go into the temple for so many days after it had occurred.
In point of fact, Jesus hung with so many outcasts of his time that it greatly disturbed the religious authorities of his age. He called a tax collector out of a tree to eat as his home as well as had a long conversation with an outcast woman who could only come to the common well for water at midday she was so excluded from her social group. The Samaritan's, a break off group from the Jews who featured a less pure form of intermarriage than the racial purity that the Jews preferred were so hated by them that Jews would travel great distances out of their way just to avoid walking in their territory. Many remember the story of the Good Samaritan who took care of an injured man after more than one Jewish citizen had gone to the other side of the road just to avoid having to confront the semi conscious man and his distress. Jesus used Samaritans more than once to illustrate just how hateful that his fellow Jews could be and how loving other people were. And, if Jesus featured Samaritans who married racially impure, how far away from other forms of marriage might he be?
As we write this piece, the United States Supreme Court has just handed down a decision that will allow gay and lesbian people to be legally married in all fifty states and it might be good to remark that Jesus Christ was completely silent on the subject of this type of alternate lifestyle throughout his ministry in and around Galilee before his crucifixion. Most of the statements surrounding homosexuality are found in the Old Testament and from the apostle Paul in the New Testament and for those who believe that the Christian Bible is a God inspired work we think that there is some significance in the fact that Jesus never spoke on the subject at all among the thousands of words that are recorded that he did speak. Jesus did cast out many demons from afflicted people but there is no apparent evidence that any were cast out of gay or lesbian souls. We remember well the story of the Christ casting a demon out that begged not to be destroyed and was therefore placed into two thousand pigs who subsequently ran into a lake and drowned themselves after which Jesus was asked to leave immediately.
But back to this question of who might Jesus hang with today? If he were here in person would he hang with the billionaires who control so much of the wealth of this world today? Not after saying that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. The eye of the needle was an entrance into Jerusalem that required camels to get down on their knees to get through. We also remember that the Christ told the rich young ruler that he must give away all that he had and take up his cross and follow him if he were to achieve eternal life, the worship of anything other than God, particularly material things, would exclude any soul who did so from following into Christ's kingdom.
It is best to remember that Jesus gave a new rule when he said that we were to love one another as he had loved us. And, as we remember what Jesus said from the cross when he asked his father to forgive them for they knew not what they did, an over abundance of love and forgiveness flowed from this man to so many that he encountered and knew.
Where would we find Jesus walking today? It would probably be among those who are downtrodden and overlooked by a society who has little time for them as it pursues its lust for more and more profits and more and more wealth. It might be with those who seek him but are made unwelcome in a church that does not feel that they belong. It would probably be among people of color who are again being marginalized by those who seek great political power and position by denying them their vote. And that is occurring in places who profess to know more about the Christ than anywhere else. And it might not be in places that preach Hell, fire and brimstone from their pulpits instead of love as they pursue more guilt laden materialism for their empire building churches. And it would surely be among those who have so little but are more than willing to share what they do have with anyone that they see in need.
We recently saw a sculpture of a homeless Jesus covered by a newspaper on a park bench in some nameless city and we are sure that those who seek his favor might very well look there as anyplace else. Jesus Christ was filled with love for his fellows and we can just seem him now sitting on a heating grate in some large metropolis as he joins those who are seeking warmth there from a cold winters night as some limousine drives past them unnoticed on the streets. And we remember how Jesus praised the widow who put in two mites among the crowds of wealthy Jews at the temple and how he praised her for giving all she had.
Regards,
Joe
To say that "God exists" is the greatest understatement ever made across space and time.
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