Surprising Things About Jesus

At the suggestion of a priest*, I've been reading the gospel of Matthew.  What a different experience to read the story straight through, instead of in little bits and pieces, and to read it in the Contemporary English Version rather than the KJV.  Three things about Jesus surprised me:

1. Even his disciples didn't understand his parables all the time.  In fact, they asked him specifically why the heck he always spoke in parables (Matthew 13:10), and shortly afterwards, when Jesus told the parable about the weeds in the wheat field, his disciples followed him and basically said, "Psst! Jesus!  What did that mean, anyway?" (Matthew 13:36) 

This makes me feel a bit better, because a couple of the parables are, imo, confusing.  For example (Matthew 21:28-32) a man had two sons and he asked both of them to work in his vinyard.  The older son told him that he would not do it, but then changed his mind and did.  The younger son said he would, but didn't go.  Jesus asked, "Which one of the sons obeyed his father?"

"The older one," I thought to myself, and sure enough, Jesus' listeners answered the same.  Then Jesus told them, "You can be sure that tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you ever will!"  In other words, wrong answer.  But why?

2. Jesus became very crabby as the crucifixion approached. I don't blame him, of course, I was just surprised to see it.  There was the time he encountered a fig tree that didn't happen to have any fruit at the moment (Matthew 21: 18-22).  So he told the tree, "You will never again grow any fruit!" and the tree dried up.  That seems a trifle unfair, though it did impress the disciples.  Another time (Matthew 17:14-21), the disciples failed to heal a boy of epilepsy.  Jesus said to them, "You people are too stubborn to have any faith!  How much longer must I be with you?  Why do I have to put up with you?"    Ouch.

Until I read the story straight through, I didn't appreciate how Jesus changed from the "don't tell anyone" healer to the "go out there and spread the good news" leader to the "my God, why have you deserted me?" figure on the cross to the "I will be with you always, even until the end of the world" risen savior.

3. For all our claims to be a "Christian" nation, the U.S. has strayed pretty far from Jesus' teachings. 

Think about:

"God blesses those people who are humble.  The earth will belong to them!" (Matthew 5:5)

"I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you.  Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven.  He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong. . . . You must always act like your Father in heaven." (Matthes 5:44-48)

"So if you are about to place your gift on the altar and remember that someone is angry with you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  Make peace with that person, then come back and offer your gift to God." (Matthew 5:23)

"When you do good deeds, don't try to show off.  If you do, you won't get a reward from your Father in heaven." (Matthes 6:1) 

"Don't condemn others, and God won't condemn you." (Matthew 7:1)

"If you want to be perfect, go sell everything you own!  Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. . . . It's terribly hard for rich people to get into the kingdom of heaven! In fact, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God's kingdom."  (Matthew 19:21-23)

These teachings are difficult.  I don't know if I'm capable of following them in my own life, and when you look around at our war-making, poverty-riddled yet wealthy country, it's clear that the U.S. isn't doing it.   

In fact, I do not understand how the current self-righteous property-focused Republican party (as opposed to the classic "respect individuals" Republican party of yore) can consider itself to be the more "Christian" party, or how people proud of their Christianity can support that party. 

4. Jesus was open-minded.  This wasn't a surprise--I'm just sayin'.  What I've read of Matthew goes along with the Socinian's Reinterpretation of John 14:6.  The exclusionary overtones of that verse ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father except through me")  is part of why I'm uncomfortable with the idea of baptism.  As fausto puts it, "if we can find glimpses of truth in many traditions and cultures, how can we affirm one that denies all the others?"  But he goes on to explain that John was not trying to set up a wall between his followers and all other truth-seekers:

[I]t would be a misinterpretation to understand those to be the verbatim words of Jesus, decreeing eternally as the one true God of Israel, that the only way to escape an eternity of burning torment in the afterlife is strict adherence to a set of abstruse doctrines about himself that would not even be defined until hundreds of years later by politically charged conferences of fallible men. Rather, it is John's attempt to illustrate Jesus' identity with the divine Logos, which the Greek philosophers believed to be present everywhere.

Certainly, Matthew tells of a Jesus who appreciated faith in all people, even tax collectors and Canaanites.  I still haven't decided whether to be baptized, but I'm learning a lot.

*After feeling "in the way" during a few too many communion services, I finally talked to the priest at the Episcopal church I've been attending.  We had a very rewarding conversation, and he sent me home with a prayerbook and instructions to read the baptism service and the gospel of Matthew.

Comments

[James]

The King James Version of the Bible is certainly the most poetic of all the translations, but it's also the most inaccurate English-language translation ever produced. Even the Roman Catholic Church doesn't use the KJV as their primary text anymore. It was definitely a good idea to direct you to something else.

Jesus gets my vote for the most misrepresented figure in history. In keeping with his transformation from revolutionary firebrand to sacrifical lamb, the real Jesus pretty much disappeared. Dorothy Sayers put it best: "I believe it to be a great mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it.... We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus meek and mild was so stiff in his opinions and so inflammatory in his language that he was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever his peace was, it was not the peace of an amiable indifference.""

[Dylan]

To me, this is the most interesting thing about "The Last Temptation of Christ". If Jesus was "fully man and fully divine", the divine part might be the more godly and easily digestable, but the human part is definately the most interesting. I much prefer to think of a Jesus who struggled daily with his human nature rather than how to be more godly.

And it makes the crucifixion even a greater sacrifice: He knew what humans went through, so his understanding and sacrifice become more genuine and incredible (in a good way).

Jesus is much better in context.

[jackie]

I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm afraid you are a little mistaken on just a few things. In the parable of the two sons, Jesus explained why the disciples would not get into heaven before the prostitutes and tax collectors, and it wasn't because they had given the wrong answer. If you keep reading, you'll see that it is b/c when John came to them "in righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your mind and believe" (he is equating them with the younger son who said he would obey, knowing that he wouldn't, and never changed his mind.)
As far as the cursing of the fig tree in Matthew 21, one should know that in Mark, the effect of Jesus' cursing the fig tree is not immediate (the disciples found the tree withered the next morning Mark 11: 14-21.) By making it immediate, Matthew has heightened the miracle. Jesus' act seems arbitrary and ill-tempered, but it is a prophetic action similar to those of Old Testament prophets that vividly symbolize some part of their preaching; see, e.g., Ez 12, 1-20. It is a sign of the judgment that is to come upon the Israel that, with all its apparent piety, lacks the fruit of good deeds and will soon bear the punishment of its fruitlessness (Read Matthew 3:10 and 21:43). Some scholars propose that this story is the development in tradition of a parable of Jesus about the destiny of a fruitless tree, such as Luke 13:6-9. Jesus' answer to the question of the amazed disciples (20) makes the miracle an example of the power of prayer made with unwavering faith (21-22).
You are not alone in feeling uncomfortable with the verse from John 14:6. But as the Bible puts it, the Word of the Lord is sweet on the tongue but bitter in the stomach. You pose the question of "if we can find glimpses of truth in many traditions and cultures, how can we affirm one that denies all the others?" Yet, one of the basic laws in philosophy states that a being cannot be and not be at the same time and in the same respect. Hence, we are faced with the reality that while there may be many "glimpses of truth" nothing can change that there is an ultimate (last, most basic) single truth. So who's to say their religion is that ultimate truth, right? Unfortunately, that's one of those things that a person can't be convinced of. And even Christianity's stance is that only God knows what's in your heart and only he can judge. Who's to say that a person who maybe has never been correctly informed of Jesus, yet is still a genuinely good person and strives for truth and love, won't be seen by God as still reflecting the love of Jesus in his heart? Even a Christian (as I am) cannot say that a non-Christian will *never* enter the kingdom of God.

[Isabella]

i believe that u have a lot of nerve saying these "new found things". try to understand the Bible before u try to explain it.

[Jena]

It's a shame that we're so quick to "correct" each other. I hate to see inquisitive and intelligent minds being squelched!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights as you observe the life and teachings of Jesus. I hope that you'll continue to do so.

I personally find it challenging to know what to think in a time when American politics seems (to me) to be hijacking the label of "Christian" for it's own ends. It's nice to see that people are still putting sincere thought into defining the term for themselves.