Out there is an idea that Jesus was a nice guy and all that stuff about hell and sin and damnation came from the Pauline letters, because Paul was a Pharisee and almost a Rabbi before he converted and bought legalism and theological rigour into the faith.
They think Jesus was some kind of gentle thing, like in Sunday school, who liked kittens and babies. (Nothing wrong with either). In doing this, they show an appalling lack of knowledge of scripture, particularly the gospels. Because jesus teaching will give you a headache.
[Particularly when the “fresher’s flu” is going around and the entire town — me included — have it]
The use of Logos — word — as in Jn 1:1 “in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God” makes an appearance here. For the reason that the Jews would not hear and accept the teachings of Christ was that he did not have control of their lives, but those who were called to him. (Yes, that is a bit of predestination with your morning coffee). There are depths beyond depths in this passage.
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
(John 5:30-47 ESV)
Christ should make us uncomfortable. He confronts those who believe that if they keep the external law they will be right with the Almighty, by reminding them that Moses talked of the Messiah, and implies he is here. That they did not believe his writings.
ANd when you add to that Paul’s comment, reflected in Jeremiah (both in today’s lectionary: it is linked above) you have to acknowledge that none of us can keep the law itself.
Our very witness is tainted, for we are not disinterested. We think of our own wants and needs and desires. Christ said, over and over, he was here to do the will of his Father. His witness was for his father. He was unbiased.
This leaves us with the three classic options. He was either mad, and is words are delusion with thought disorder. Or he was a very good con man: one who can convince his disciples to do almost anything. Or he was God. And he placed himself under authority while incarnate.
But we have become afraid to teach this clearly.
Apart from the dubious orthodoxy or the dubious theology behind those innovations in liturgy and then in preaching, there were all the reasons in the world to suppose, from what we know about human beings in general and boys and men in particular, that the changes would be calamitous.Think. Open your eyes. Remember a little history. Men fight. Many of them really enjoy fighting with their fists, but many more enjoy the spirit of intellectual or spiritual combat for something to which they will devote their goods, their lives, and their sacred honor. So what have we done?
We have eliminated from most hymnals every single song that had anything to do with fighting the good fight. A boy may attend Mass for ten years and never hear one hymn that calls him to the soldiership of Christ.
Men are gamblers, for good and bad. Many of them court risk. They are the inventors of backgammon, cribbage, poker, “fantasy sports,” billiards, and chess. They are the ones who will risk ruining themselves for an idea or an invention. So what have we done?
We have lowered the stakes. If everyone is saved – though our Lord clearly warns us against that sluggish sureness – then why sweat? Where’s the adventure? No real boy says, “I want to grow up to be a fat bishop sitting in the chancery while the real world goes on its merry way,” or, “I want to grow up to be a man without a wife and children, who spends his days being nice.” Is that it?
Men thrive in brotherhoods. Not peoplehoods, but specifically brotherhoods. See Tom Sawyer, Gilgamesh, the Germanic comitatus, the Japanese samurai, the monks of Saint Benedict, the fishermen of Newfoundland, the Plains Indians, the cristeros of Mexico, and, in a human sense, the apostles of our Lord Himself. So what have we done?
We have obliterated the brotherhoods. We got rid of most of our high schools for boys. We got rid of every one of our colleges for young men. We dissolved the brotherhood of acolytes – the altar boys. We did this at the worst imaginable time, just when everybody else was doing the same thing, so that now in most places CYO Basketball is but a memory, Boys’ Clubs are Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs, which means Safe Small Children’s Clubs, and the Boy Scouts have been sued clear to the precincts of Sodom.
Well, we better rediscover the teachings of Christ. It is clear from his teaching that we will not all be saved, and those who he does call will not become fat and prosperous, but suffer travail in this life, frequent defeat in this life, and a reward for their witness in the life that follows.
Let us rediscover Christ. He is not that nice guy the church ladies teach to little children. He is living, and active, and divides us: his words offend the elite and correct of this age, and to follow him entails placing your life, your fortune and your honour to one side.
Let us follow Christ, and not those who would put him in a strait-jacket.
Interestingly, it was this that got my attention:
I have been talking to some like minded men recently about just this sort of thing. None of us can seem to find what we want in terms of gathering with like minded men like ourselves. We’ve more or less decided that it’s time to put our own brotherhood of sorts together.
Each of us is also tired of Nice Jesus. For within the range of things included in the old, “WWJD” idea is contained grabbing a whip and running fools out of the temple. These days, we’d just rationalize the merchants away. “Well, at least they’re in church,” we’d say now.
It is also not the religion of the sword, either, so we are as well frustrated with far too many American ‘conservative’ neo-cons who wish to march to war at every turn.
Perhaps we’ll find something wherein we can connect and begin to make changes in our own lives that will move outward, toward our communities where we each live. I don’t know. All I know is that I can find no sanctuary in the average American church. I find no depth. No sense of purpose. Just, well, nice people.