Jesus and his discontents

Last week, I read a particularly interesting book called Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan, the man who was famously interviewed in this epic fail moment by Fox News:

You get the feeling he's trying so hard just to say so little.

It's a worthwhile read—it basically attempts to show the reader the context of the time in which Jesus lived, from what we can gather from Roman records and Biblical texts. I would submit Aslan doesn't paint an altogether different portrait of Jesus from that of the Gospels (he quotes from the Bible extensively), but that he deepens our understanding of the historical Jesus.

Two notable truths:
1) Jesus existed. Most historians agree he was born between 0-3 CE.
2) Jesus was crucified by the Romans for the crime of sedition (or rebellion) against the state.

These two facts, put together, are enough to suggest Jesus was a remarkable man. He was born a peasant from the backwaters of Galilee and became a leader whom hundreds followed in his lifetime. He performed miracles and claimed to be the Son of Man.

Just read this marvelous passage:

"Six days a week, from sunup to sundown, Jesus would have toiled in the royal city, building palatial houses for the Jewish aristocracy during the day, returning to his crumbling mud-brick home at night. He would have witnessed for himself the rapidly expanding divide between the absurdly rich and the indebted poor. He would have mingled with the city’s Hellenized and Romanized population: those wealthy, wayward Jews who spent as much time praising the emperor of Rome as they did the Lord of the Universe."

Now compare this with Matthew 19:23-24: 23 And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky provides a myth in which Jesus is tried during the Inquisition and imprisoned for interfering with the mission of the Church. Instead of working for the kingdom of God, the Church worships miracles—as if miracles themselves were to be worshipped. (Did Jesus not say false prophets would do them as well?) His divinity became a mystery. Finally, the Church began to worship authority itself over the sole authority and sovereignty of God. 

Jesus railed against manmade authority: the authority of the high priests, of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin, and of the Roman empire. He told the poor that the kingdom of heaven was theirs. He said the meek would inherit the earth. He said those who hunger and thirst for righteousness would be filled. Each miracle that Jesus performed pointed to God, to his divinity, and to fulfill prophecy. And Jesus placed sole authority in the hands of God: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

I think this is worth reflecting upon. Am I worshipping miracles for their own sake? Am I worshipping man's authority over man? Do I resolve the question of Jesus' resurrection as being a mystery?

What a different image of Jesus I have gotten from understanding the purpose of his words! Jesus was an actual man who criticized the Jewish elite, healed the poor, and ate with rich tax collectors. Who railed against the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who worshipped false idols. He cared about poor and ordinary people. That is a Christ, if you so choose, who is worth believing in. Not a Christ adorned by sacrament and ritual but a living, breathing one in first century Palestine who was more remarkable than what we (as well as many lay historians) give him credit for.