What I do recall is that it had something to do with comparing and contrasting what Jesus actually did while walking this planet 2000 years ago. If these thoughts don't interest you, please feel free to drop out now...
Now, I don't mean later events like the crucifixion or resurrection or ascension; I'm talking about what he actually said and did, why he did it, and what he wanted his disciples to learn to do and to become through close and regular contact with him in order to accomplish that mission.
Was he trying to get people to vote for him or to side with him politically? Was he trying to draw people into growing religious club that sings songs about him, talks about him all the time, and thanks him for good things that happen to them? Was he trying to clarify and refine a set of rules we need to live up to in order to be in his good graces? Was he really only coming to die, and all those speeches and healing and stuff were really just the warm-up act? What was he really doing and why?
When I look at his very first public words in the synagogue (yes, he was a Jew talking to Jews almost all of the time), he reads from Isaiah 61 and applies it to himself, saying that passage is fulfilled in their sight that day. Read the historical account in Luke 4:16-21 - it'll take less than a minute.
Assuming you read it, you had to notice phrases like "good news to the poor", "freedom for the prisoners", "recovery of sight to the blind", "to release the oppressed". I guess one could try to spiritualize all of that, but when you look at what he actually did, he healed blind people, he did bring good news to poor people oppressed and held captive by a brutal Roman Empire. He did show them the way to liberty - and it seems to still apply to us.
If you keep reading in verses 22-44 you see that he ticks the religious people off because they wanted to see a show and he wouldn't do it - so of course they wanted to kill him. So he goes to another town and in their religious meeting there was a crazy person (the scriptures say he was demon-possessed), and with a word Jesus sets this oppressed captive at liberty from his insanity. Then he goes to a friends house and starts healing people, starting with the guy's mom. More crazy people show up and walk away healed.
When he tries to leave in the morning to go do the same kinds of stuff in other towns, he says:
"I have to tell the Good News about the kingdom of God in other cities also. That's what I was sent to do."Then Luke says Jesus went all around the region doing the same stuff in the religious assemblies. It seems to me that he was pretty clear about his mission, and was actually doing it. And his disciples were watching, learning, and waiting their turn (which they soon got).
At times huge crowds would come to him dying to hear more about this "Good News about the kingdom of God". Luke 6 contains one instance; Matthew 5-7 contains another. His message was essentially the same, and it was not "just ask me into your heart and you'll go to heaven when you die", nor was it "believe that I'm the second person of the Holy Trinity and that my death which hasn't happened yet was for all your sins and my resurrection which also hasn't happened yet proves what I'm telling you is true...and you'll get to go to heaven when you die." What was it? You really should read it for yourself.
His message for them - probably the same kind of stuff he was already saying as he toured the region - is that their attitudes and perspectives need to be almost inverted in order to be healthy, to see things from a "kingdom of God perspective", to brings shalom (peace, wholeness, harmony) to the world:
- learn to love even your enemies
- say good things to those who curse you
- pray for those who insult you
- be kind to those who hate you
- don't immediately react in vengeance when wronged
- give without expecting anything in return
- treat others how you would like to be treated
- be merciful and patient, like God has been with you
- stop condemning and holding people in contempt
- stop treating people as merely objects for your pleasure
- don't be showy with your religious activities
- don't worry about the future
- and much more
In the Matthew account he says we should work to see these values embraced and practiced in the world as our first and foremost job, and that if we do that we don't need to worry about food or clothing or shelter. And then as you read how his disciples did exactly that, they were indeed provided for. The phrase he used was
"seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things (food, etc) will be added unto you."
So when one mentions the concept of "following Jesus", is that what comes to mind? When you compare and contrast these thoughts to the faith traditions and religious assemblies you are familiar with, do you see these kinds of things actually happening to this day? Are those of us who claim to follow him working at the same mission, or have we been side-tracked and distracted?
Are we merely trying to get converts to our ideology? Are we merely trying to pad our numbers with people who say they agree with us about religious things? Are we merely doing our own thing, and not living, practicing, and spreading the Good News of the kingdom of God, that inclusive community where people are loved, embraced, restored, healed, nurtured, and engaged in bringing shalom to their homes, to their communities, to the world?
There's a lot I've left unsaid. I haven't addressed where the cross and tomb fit in, nor have I addressed anything beyond the gospels. This subject is probably dense enough to write a whole book on it. Maybe these will become some of the notes for it. In the meantime, I'd recommend Dallas Willard's classic "The Divine Conspiracy". I saw an ad for another book by him yesterday...and I suspect that's what got my mind going as I lay my head down last night. And now I wish I could go back to bed, but I'll pour a cup of coffee and hope and pray you found these ramblings helpful. Peace.
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