The
revolutionaries that make a difference never look revolutionary as soon as they
get into the history books. Lenin was
truly revolutionary, but by the time Stalin came along, Lenin was co-opted,
kidnapped, beaten and misshapen. No
longer was Lenin the compassionate genius, ready to do whatever necessary for
the good of the working class. He’d been
adopted and abused by the ruling class in a way he’d never been when he was
alive, because when he’d come out of the process, his image was no longer who
he really was.
Think of how modern China can use Mao
to support their capitalist policies.
How Dorothy Day is made almost non-religious by many of her modern
workers. How Lutherans reformed Luther
to make him the leader of the quiet, passive denomination. How Buddhists made Siddartha an object to be
worshiped rather than primarily a life to be imitated.
That’s what happened to Jesus. Again
and again.
Over two centuries of spinning, Jesus
has become a never-ceasing top, and cannot be recognized in the theology that
bears his title. “Christology” is all
about “the essence of deity” and “two natures” and “was it God or the human
Jesus that picked up the toothbrush, May 2, 27AD?” Jesus’ philosophy suddenly is about
“intellectual assent” “faith and works” “predestination” and other
non-issues. The results of Jesus’ work
has become building churches, pastoral education and conservative
platforms. Jesus isn’t spinning in his
grave—although the church that bears his name treats him as if he were
dead—rather, he is vomiting spiritual fruit.
Jesus wasn’t about opulent wealth, but
surrendering possessions.
Jesus wasn’t about taking the name of
deity, but humble leadership.
Jesus wasn’t about complicated
philosophy, but straightforward ethics.
Jesus wasn’t about intellectual
satisfaction, but the release of prisoners.
Jesus wasn’t about supporting the
decadent authorities, but about radical politics.
Jesus wasn’t about forgettable
worship, but about life-destroying devotion to God.
It is always the descendants of a
great revolutionary that destroy his real persona, his pure revolution. Some say that Jesus was co-opted by Paul,
transformed to be “Christianity” as we know it.
It isn’t really true. Paul’s
presentation of Jesus was filled with radical politics and life-pretzeling
ethics. Some say that it was the early
church, as represented by the interests of the writers of Matthew, Mark and
Luke. Hell, if they were the problem, we
would never know it, would we? They are
the only real way we experience Jesus as all.
The real problem began in the second
and third centuries, when the simple, straightforward words in first century
Judea began to do flip-flops, becoming trained dogs in the hands of expert
etymologists. By the time the church of
the fourth century, having bitten the fruit at the encouragement of
Constantine, the original intent of Jesus was lost in quagmire of Greek
philosophy, interpreted by Ignatius and Augustine, never to return.
Well, not “never.” Should the true intent of Jesus never have
been seen, then surely God would have nuked the church and started over. All throughout the history of the church there
has been a minority that pursued the ideal of Jesus—a slender thread that the
church quelched or bureaucratized as quickly as possible. Montanus, Francis of Assisi, Peter Waldo,
John Wycliffe, Michael Sattler, Dorothy Day.
Some intellects, some simple, but all of them cutting through the layers
of lard that had been thrust upon the gospels.
They opened the velvet cage that had attempted to tame the wild Jesus,
and the Tasmanian Devil of a religious leader was released, albeit briefly, to
wreck waste upon the tame Christendom.
It is
time to do it again.
It is
time to open the real Jesus to scrutiny and public mocking again—this time by
those who claim his name. This Jesus
isn’t passive or quiet—he is loud, boisterous, insulting and rebellious. This Jesus is angry, violent, insane and
superstitious. This Jesus wasn’t killed
as some supernaturally-fated accident.
This Jesus was killed for good reason.
If we met up with this Jesus, we might think ourselves that for the good
of our society, he would need to be killed.
I’m not sure who would like him in our white bread, MTV-as-revolution,
anesthetized society. But it is time to
set him loose. Then we’ll see who
follows him.
How
can we do this, how will we set him loose?
We will write the gospels again—not as if they were set in this
time. But we will write them as if they
were written by revolutionaries in first century Judea. Some explanations will be necessary along the
way, so we can understand what they were fighting. This isn’t a translation, it is a paraphrase,
but I am attempting to keep as close to the text as possible. If I change it, it is change so we can
appreciate how radical, how contrary Jesus’ look at reality and society really
was.
And is.
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