Thursday, October 17, 2024

What was the point of Jesus becoming human?

It is late in the day (again) and I'm here wondering about this Thursday Theology thing.
I recently finished Fr Richard Rohr's Jesus' Alternative Plan: The Sermon on the Mount. It was typical Rohr in that it challenges what you've learned and the perspective from which you view things -- in this case, the teaching of Jesus.

If you know me at all or have been following along here for a few years, you already know that my own perspectives on religion, Christianity, and God have changed quite a bit. The Pope recently came under fire for saying that all religions are paths to God and are like languages that are different ways to express the divine.
Yeah, I like that.
And it makes me wonder about Jesus and Christianity.

I really don't think Jesus ever meant for us to follow a religion with himself as the focal point. It seems to me that what he taught was to help us to connect with God; to find God in the world and the people around us. He didn't point us to himself. He pointed us to the Father.
I understand that he had to use the culture of the day and the understanding of the Jewish people. I understand that it is sometimes difficult to translate words across languages, culture, and time. I understand that there is probably a lot of what he taught that I am not going to understand well.
And I understand that much of what he taught wasn't understood by the religious leaders of his time and culture.

One of the great problems of religion is that religious leaders act like they've got it all figured out and too often they are wrong or wrongly motivated to actually lead us to a relationship with or understanding of God.
What if being a Christian isn't about waving a Jesus banner or walking an aisle and saying a magical prayer?
What if Jesus never meant for us to worship him, but just wanted to point us to God and teach us how and where to find him?
What if the Pope is right and people from all over the globe find The Divine (God) in their own language, culture, and religion?
What if Jesus doesn't want to be worshiped by people that stopped at him and never truly found God in the people and world that God created?

You don't have to come at me as if I'm a heretic and spewing blasphemous thoughts and ideas. I'm just sharing the questions that I have. I already know that I don't have things all figured out.
Having said that -- I like the teachings of Jesus as far as I understand them, and I think I have a decent relationship with God.
Finding God in nature is easy.
I do need to work on that people thing, though.

John

2 comments:

Infidel753 said...

The Pope recently came under fire for saying that all religions are paths to God and are like languages that are different ways to express the divine

Didn't Jesus contradict this, though. "No man comes to the Father except through me", or something like that. Most Christians interpret it as meaning he said his own religion was the only correct one.

John A Hill said...

Infidel,
Yes, he did.
First, I have to say that I was expecting this comment, but also expected it would come from a Christian follower. Surprise!
Second, I'm honestly not sure how to take this. Was he speaking to the Jews that had such misguided ideas about the person and character of God?
Was his message of -- follow me and I'll show you God -- mis-remembered by the gospel writers several decades later?
Yeah, I have questions that I don't have answers to -- lots of them.