The Jofully Agnostic Gnostic Presents: A Humanist Jesus
It has been said that Jesus of Nazareth’s mission was not to create a new religion - Christianity - but to reform what was already in place. Jesus criticized the religiosity of the establishment and called all who would hear his message to a humanism that was far superior to any religion that humanity had come up with so far.
At least that is my interpretation of the gospels when I am in a humanist mood. When I am feeling brave - usually in the light of day - and the whimsically amoral and puerile god of my imagination is not looking over my shoulder tallying up my offenses. I feel comfortable in asserting my more agnostic and humanist tendencies while no shadows follow me around. At night the Catholic god of my upbringing often harangues me for hours on end for my heretical thoughts, and threatens me with hellfire for daring to share them. Heresy is fine as along as one has the good taste to keep it quietly to himself. Unfortunately I do not have any sense of good taste.
My humanist version of Jesus clashes with my other competing belief. Jesus, if he existed, may have been nothing more than a localized itinerant preacher with messianic tendencies. He would not have been the first messianic figure in Jewish history and he certainly was not the last. There have been messianic hopeful’s right up and continuing in our post modern times. Certainly none of the metaphysical claims of Christian Theology can be proven except by endless circular logic of the most subjective kind.
However, today I am concerned with my humanist Jesus, and I believe that my premise is even supportable for those who take the orthodox stance that Jesus was, indeed, the only begotten son of the one living God, born of a virgin, and come to deliver us from the wages of sin -death.
To be fair I will need to ignore some of the contradictions so blatantly obvious such as his own admission that he "did not come to bring peace," but rather to heap coals on the flame. Some of Jesus’ words indicate that he had that messianic fervor that calls people to stir up the flames of revolt. This fervor, part and parcel of Jewish history, is to blame for the civil uprising that ended in the sacking of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. which culminated in the razing of the temple and the mass suicide at Masada. The Jewish historian Josephus lamented the messianic nature of Judaism and blamed it for many of the woes that befell the nation of Israel.
My humanist Jesus turned religious observance on it’s ear by presenting us with a God that serves his creation, and not - as it is even today - a despotic God who demands that his creation grovel in the dirt proclaiming constantly their unworthiness and sinfulness barraging said deity with demands of forgiveness, healing, deliverance and prosperity. A god that demands this is not a god of love, but a sublimely cruel one who entertains himself like a cat batting at a mouse but not quite pouncing. This god induces fear of the most terrible kind because one always expects death or worse around every corner.
Jesus’ instilled fear of the highest kind - awe and wonder of the splendid mystery that is not quite within our capacity to understand.
The basis of my assertion comes from Mark 2:27. Jesus was constantly being heckled by the religious authorities for doing work on the Sabbath. He healed people and his disciples did not always observe the time honored traditions of their fathers such as the ritual washing before a meal. The issue of work on the Sabbath is a big deal. In ancient times a person found guilty of violating this prescription was executed.
Today some manufacturers of kitchen appliances, such as ovens, have a Sabbath setting that can be set before the Sabbath begins. In this way the observant individual can assure that their meal is cooked without actually having to work on the day of rest. This prohibition of work gets down to some pretty interesting hair splitting at times. However, it is not my intention to hold this up for ridicule. One, I have a limited understanding of Judaism, and two; I do not wish to be disrespectful to those who value different religious observances than me. If I have caused offense I hope that my sincerest apologies will be accepted.
In Mark 2:27 Jesus responds to a complaint that his disciples are picking grain on the Sabbath (which they immediately ate mind you) by saying that "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" which was not in keeping with the traditional understanding. In fact Jesus’ statement suggests that the Sabbath - like all of God’s creation - was here to serve or benefit his creation. Unfortunately, this has lead to some extremely arrogant and poor stewardship of our environment and natural resources. But that is another issue.
Jesus presents us with a god who serves his creation, and if the orthodox claim regarding Jesus’ divinity is true then Jesus, being god, came to serve us as well. From a humanist perspective Jesus mission was not about messianic revolutions or the fulfilling of mad apocalyptic nightmares - called prophesies by the true believer - but a call to service to each other.
The image we are presented of Jesus is always the humble and lowly servant-king. He told his disciples that those who wished to be great must humble themselves and serve others. The gospels present us with the striking image of Jesus’ washing the feet of his disciples. This stands in stark contrast to the way followers of most religious figures fawn over their beloved in servile and self-depreciating manners. Even today people still flock like lost sheep to gurus and religious leaders and offer up nauseating displays of misplaced affection. As a one time initiate of Sant Mat I have experienced this first hand.
I prefer a humanist religion. I am not here to serve the whims and needs of an ineffable deity, who by its very ineffable nature should have none that I could even fulfill in the first place. Religion and religious observances should serve humanity. If God is truly love then he, or it, is beyond my groveling and imperfect nature. God being perfect and loving can therefore not hold my lack of perfection against me.
The highest form of love in Christian theology is agape- love for the sake of love alone. Agape is the act or state of loving without the expectation of return. Christianity’s most irascible missionary, St. Paul, hints at this in his overwrought and oft quoted passage from 1 Corinthians 13. How many wedding ceremonies have you been to where this tired old cliché is read aloud? How many anniversary cards have these words embossed across them? Countless numbers! Yet we love these words because they resonate at the ground of our being. They hint at a universal truth and an ideal that while we crave - even strive for - we fall pathetically short of realizing.
It’s hard to reach inward to bring forth our capacity for agape when the God of Love is often anthropomorphized into a despicable deity of incredible cruelty. The radical challenge of monotheism is the call to have a god beyond all idols. This includes the idolatry of our minds.
Traditional orthodox theology based on the model of the Holy Trinity posits that we can only know the "Father" through Jesus. The humanist version of Jesus served. His message was for the hated Samaritan and Roman as well as the chosen of Israel. Therefore if Jesus serves then God serves. And if God serves his creation, so must we if we are to accept the baptism into his family.
In fact our only knowledge or experience of the ineffable may only come to us in moments of service when our hearts touch those we serve in love. Matthew 25:37 bears witness to this premise that by serving others we ultimately see God.
The grace or quality of agape is such that religion and the ecumenical minds who control it jealously manipulating it for their own sick agendas rarely - if ever - realize it. You see agape commands that I love you even if you don’t believe the same as I do. It means that I love you even if you are Muslim, a Jew or even a Catholic. It means I feed the hungry and clothe the naked without judging them or being critical for how they may have fallen on such mean times.
It means that my god is not superior to your god. It means I have no cause to convert your or kill you trying. You see agape stands in the face of the unfortunate double message for religion. One hand we are told to love and extend mercy and compassion. Then we are told we must subvert the heretics or infidels and kill those who won’t agree with us. Agape means that the needs of humanity outweigh the demands of theology.