“Jesus was Jewish. (No he wasn’t a Christian…)” – Brian McLaren The Secret Message of Jesus.
Of course, you say, Christianity was a religion that began well after Jesus died. And though Christianity was based on Jesus’ teaching and example, it clearly was not what Jesus was. Jesus identity was based in the Jewish cultural context. I think we all too conveniently extract Jesus from his cultural context. This is not hard to do. Jesus is God after all so he had to transcend his culture. Right? Well certainly there is a sense that Jesus teachings and exemplary life even his sacrificial death go far beyond the limitations of his own era. They can and do have meaning for us today. But we make his words impotent if we don’t consider the complexity of the context in which they are spoken. To me this is most clear in how we treat not only Jesus words but most of scripture.
We have a tendency to extract concepts from their cultural context and then translate them directly into our cultural context. McLaren in the early chapters of this book does an excellent job of showing us how that kind of translation has occurred with our concept of eternal life.
When someone says eternal life we think – heaven. We think of what will start after we are dead. But that may not be the best way of understanding the original words that Jesus was reported to have said. Listen to how m buddy Brian puts it…
“The Greek phrase John (the gospel of) uses for “eternal life” literally means “life of the ages,” as opposed…to, “life as people are living it these days.” So John’s related phrases – eternal life, life to the full (John 10:10), and simply life - give us a unique angle on what Jesus meant by “kingdom of God”; a life that is radically different from the way people are living these days, a life that is full and overflowing, a higher life that is centered in an interactive relationship with God and with Jesus.”
To think that eternal life begins now and that it refers to a QUALITY of life rather than a period of time – now that’s a different way to think about concepts like heaven or even hell. We don’t have to wait like children at Christmas juiced up on chocolate to “open” our gift of eternal life. We can start right now. Sort of…
But the heaven that has to wait until we die fits perfectly into our nice tidy little “salvation” box. You see if you make a decision (usually some sort of prayer or other such magic) – WE get to count you. You are in. Saved.
What’s our job? Sell you the salvation package.
How do we close the deal? Get you to say a prayer.
What is the benefit to the seller? You get counted. You get labelled. You get to be judged.
What is the benefit to the buyer? You get heaven.
When? Later. Much later.
And guess what that lets the seller off the hook. The biggest benefit to the deal is saved for something no one has ever come back to tell us about – CLEARLY. And on top of all that the seller gets to scare you. Yup if you don’t buy the product you go to HELL.
The seller has no commitment to prove that the product is actually what he says it is cause it only happens after you die.
Is it any wonder that hypocrisy lives a rampant virus in the ‘followers of Christ’? Is it any wonder that we don’t give a $%&^# about this world? Is it any wonder that we are so impressed by fancy coercion tactics that twist people into buying this almost fairy tale product?
Does the emperor have no clothes?
It’s too convenient to delay the treasure of ‘heaven’ for the afterlife? But to say that I could or might possibly get to live in the kingdom reality right now? Well that changes everything…
And oh yeah about hell. Sure I suppose hell might be a place and it might be hot and I probably won’t like it there. But what about the hell that people are living through right now. Basically because of our perspective we have reduced people’s pain and suffering to being inconsequential. Who cares about saving people from the hell to come when we die. We hardly know how to save them from the hell they are in right now.
Now I know it might seem that I am a long way from where I started but I hope you can see the connection.
1 comment:
Right on! I picked up this book but did not buy for some reason (maybe because I already have 15 books in my "to read" pile). I like what you (and Brian) are saying.
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