The following is a lecture I gave at the First Unitarian Church Omaha Nebraska (8/13).
Since I migrated out of the Fundamentalist camp of Evangelical Christianity in 2009, I have been asked numerous time “yes, Ed, but what about Jesus?” “Where does Jesus fit into your new universalist faith?”
It is a good question
The question is important because for over 40 years of my life, Jesus played a central role in my very existence. I prayed to Jesus…I worshipped Jesus. I leaned on Jesus…When I find myself in times of trouble- Jesus was who I sought and begged for help. So… this journey out of Fundamentalism has not been easy for I have had to examine not only Jesus -that is his identity but my relationship with Jesus.
Now this lecture is intended to make you think…it is intended to make you begin to ask questions…Do not be afraid of asking questions…for too long the Church in the Western world has been afraid to ask questions
Also this lecture is not a pronouncement of absolute truth for I am not so certain we can have absolute truth about someone name Jesus who lived in Palestine some 20 centuries ago.
My study began in 2010 when I started asking questions- and at the time, I did not realize how dangerous some questions can be? I keep reminding myself of Socrates and what happened to him. Socrates was a teacher in Greece four hundred years before Jesus. He had a humanist mindset…He proposed a way of learning through questioning. It is called the Socratic method. The Socratic method is a form of critical thinking that takes place in a dialogue between people by continuing to ask questions, obtaining answers and then asking questions about those answers. If you have ever had a dialogue with a 5 years old grandson, then you know about the Socratic method, because the 5 year old boy will continue to ask, ”well, why is that grandpa?” The questions I asked were dealing with many of the traditions that have accumulated for 2000 years about Jesus and the Early Church. I began looking at historical and religious sociological environment of the 1st Century specifically the early Jerusalem Jesus believers from 33-70CE,
And what I discovered surprised me. History has a way of doing that.
We have a lot of baggage as “Christians” especially here in America. What I mean by that is ….As Christians – We have for over 20 centuries accumulated a vast baggage of dogma and doctrine, creeds and beliefs, about Jesus.
Interesting the word dogma originally from the Greek language meant- an opinion or thought. In time -our opinions and thoughts became carved in stone. What the late Professor Paul Tillich called an A codified expression of reality- In other words, it became canon law…the Church law- and if you wanted to be a member of the Church- you had to accept it as the rule of life. And God help you if you questioned those stone beliefs because your fate would likely be that of Socrates or for that matter Jesus
And the reason I mention this accumulated baggage… is because we as Christians have a built a massive tower of images of Jesus – because with each century another image has been placed on top of it and another and another until the image of Jesus that we have today is not the image of Jesus of the first century.
Let me put it this way… Orthodox Evangelical Christianity of the 21st Century is radically different than the Jesus believers in Jerusalem in the early 33- 50CE. And it is radically different because of many paradigms shifts in thinking that have occurred since then… Shifts in how people thought about God, and Jesus.
You know as a Fundamentalist Evangelical I was always preaching from the pulpit…WE NEED TO RETURN TO THE SIMPEL GOSPEL OF THE EARLY CHURCH… and imagine my surprise when I did return to the historical religious sociological period of the Early Jerusalem Jesus believers and discovered it was nothing like the Church of today.
Now, before I explain that statement there is one more thing I want to talk about…As I migrated out of fundamentalism, and I began to study –my view of Jesus was cast in rather a negative fashion. And what I mean by that is…I began with a series of ideas that were cast in the form of a negative…,
“I no longer believe that Jesus was God who became man…
I no longer believe that Jesus is the eternal son of God….
I no longer believe that Jesus died on the cross for the express purpose of being an atonement for my sins…
Do you see what I mean…it is stating what I don’t believe… a kind of negative faith? And I began to see that about myself and I did not like it…I do not like the idea of a faith that is expressed in negatives…To me it was a kind of faithless faith
Another way of saying this is- the heart of a faith whether it is pagan, humanism, deism, Judaism or Christianity should not be what we reject but we affirm. Does that make sense? I understand that was part of the journey…a discovery of what I did not believe in order to discover what I do affirm about Jesus.
So, What do I affirm about Jesus?
I affirm that Jesus was one of the last great prophets of Judaism and Jesus was a good committed practicing 1st Century temple centered Jew. (repeat)
Jesus was a Jew. Jesus was not a Christian.
And that means these four elements:
- Jesus was a strict exclusive monotheist.
- Jesus believed that the Jews were God’s covenant people. There is a element of cultural blindness there.
- Jesus kept Torah
- Jesus was temple centered.
Let’s look at those four elements real quick…
First, Jesus was a strict exclusive monotheist.
Every morning and every night he prayed as instructed in the Deuteronomic Mosaic law- was is known as the Shema Israel. Deuteronomy 6: 4-6 “Hear, O Israel: the LORD is our God, the LORD is one.” Shema means hear…or listen…the Lord is our God and the Lord is one.
Jesus was a strict monotheist. There was no thought or speculation at this early point of a trinity…Matter of fact, the Jews at this time did not spend their time speculating about God…that would be a later trait of the Greek and Roman Christians…
by the way ….slight digression here….
I use the term…the Jerusalem Jesus believers…let me explain that-The first community of Jesus believers in 33 CE formed after the death of Jesus was the Community of Jerusalem. I hesitate to call this community a “Christian Church” because that term would not be used until later at Antioch. (Acts 11:26) (40-45CE). And those “Christians” centered in Antioch were far different in beliefs and practices than the Early Jerusalem Jesus believers. Here is the difference: The Jerusalem Jesus believers were Hebraic-led by James brother of Jesus, they spoke Hebrew and Aramaic- followed Torah and the corresponding food laws and sabbath,,,They used the Hebrew Bible the Tankhn…and they continued to sacrifice animals in temple and they believed Jesus was the Messiah. They believed he was a man..period and they believed he was martyred for his faith on a Roman cross like so many other Jewish believers. There’s was a narrow exclusive -faith…
In comparison, The Christians in Antioch were Hellenized led by Paul -spoke Greek, used the Septuragint- the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, and here is the Hellenized paradigm shift. This was the new image of Jesus- replacing the first Jewish image of Jesus… They believed Jesus was born of a virgin, died on the cross for the sins of the world, and no longer kept torah, they considered themselves free from Torah, they consider the law to be the enemy of grace and they believed that the Church now replaced Israel as the valued possession of God. The Hellenized Christian’s message was now open to all people.
There was one other major difference between these two contending Gospels. The Jerusalem Jesus believers were a gospel of deed…Paul and John changed the gospel and made it a gospel of belief…
2ndly….Jesus believed that Israel had been chosen to be God’s covenant people. This was known as election
There is the story of a canaanite woman (Mt 15)- a gentile- a non-Jewish woman who kept crying out to Jesus for Jesus to come and heal her daughter…and the disciples get a little tired of this woman ranting after Jesus and ask Jesus to send her away and listen to what Jesus said…
I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. …
Jesus specifically says he was sent…interesting word..it is literally the word ap-os-tel’-lo root of apostolos or apostle
Jesus was saying…I am an Apostle to the House of Israel…
Jesus saw his identity as an apostle to the Jews
And the woman keeps bugging him and he gets even blunter with her
It is not meet ..not right to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs…dogs was slur for a Gentile…
Now the image of Jesus here is not very flattering- he reveals his humanity- his cultural blindness- although the author of Matthew does have him reach out and heal her daughter ,,,
The point is Jesus had no plan to take the Gospel to the Gentiles- he even commanded his disciples not to go to the Gentiles. That was Paul’s idea ….Paul was the one who called himself an apostle to the Gentiles. Paul was one influenced by Hellenism for better or worse- who made his gospel universal- divorced from Judaism.
Jesus never intended to found a new religion.
So Jesus’s view contrary to popular opinion was that The Jewish people were the chosen people of God.
3rdly…Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus kept Torah…and the Jewish practices of circumcision, sabbath observances and the food and purity laws.
Jesus was an observing Jew, Torah was central to his life… so were his followers. He was circumcised and his followers-the Jerusalem Jesus believers continued the practiced as required by the Abrahamic covenant. He observed sabbath (Mark 2:27-28, Luke 4:16) and never taught that the Sabbath day would be changed or eliminated. His followers also observed Sabbath. (Matthew 24:20) As Jesus observed the purity and food laws, so did his followers. (Gal. 2:12; Acts 21:20-26).
4thly, Jesus was a Temple Centered Jewish believer…meaning he worshipped in the Temple… There is a perception today – a perception that has been compounded like interest- that Jesus hated the Temple…That is a terrible idea…for the Gospels tell us that Jesus called the Temple his father’s house…He saw his mission as one who would purify the temple- to rid it of its corruption…he was picture as having so much zeal for that house that it consumed him…The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of his life.
The Jews believed at that time, that “the presence of God was specifically located in the Temple.
And The entire temple sacrificial system was for the purpose of preparing people to commune with God.
Let me give you one example…from the preaching of Jesus about this:
Found in the sermon of the Mount”
Therefore, if you bring thy gift to the altar, and there remember that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
He is not talking about an 21st century offering of money. He is talking about a gift or offering- a sacrifice at the altar of the temple. E. P. Sanders, a New Testament scholar in his book the Historical Figure of Jesus explains:
“Ány Jewish teacher would agree. The ‘gift’ here is probably a guilt offering, brought in order to complete the process of atonement for harming another person, The sacrifice did not count if the wrong was not put right first, This is clear in the Biblical legislation (Lev. 6:1-7) and later generations go the point.”
The point I am trying to make was Jesus was a Jew and for too long our Orthodox Christian theology has divorced Jesus from his true Jewish roots.
Now do n0t misunderstand the point of this lecture, I am not trying to persuade you to become a 1st Century temple believer. But I am encouraging you to rethink some of the assumptions about who Jesus was and what he did- for there are consequences to our thoughts-perceptions and ideas.
When we picture Jesus in the exclusive garb of 21st Century Evangelical view of a God-man we cut ourselves off from our Jewish roots and from our Jewish brothers and sisters. We are also being unfaithful in telling the true story of Jesus- the jew..
As I was thinking about this…I have to the conclusion that Moslems today have more in common with the Jerusalem Jesus believers of the 1st Century that Evangelical Christians do. What does that say?
I also feel that Jesus would be very uncomfortable in our evangelical Christian Churches…not to say some of our potlucks with the favorite Midwest ham balls.
I believe; There is an opportunity here for us as Christians to begin to dialogue with Jews and Moslems- by reminding ourselves of our own Jewish roots and avoiding the narrowness and exclusive baggage of declaring that Jesus is God- the only sole mediator- the only Messiah…instead shall we with a new enthusiasm declare that Jesus was one of the last great prophets of the Jewish people who had a message about the spiritual nature of God and that spiritual presence being love.
May I suggest that you example your perceptions of Jesus and try reading the- the New Testament with the mindset of a 1st Century Jew…you might just discover a new kind of Jesus- one that has been hidden – clouded by the evangelical fog of 20 centuries of misperceptions and misunderstandings.
Who is Jesus to me?
I believe he was one of the last great prophets of Israel and a good committed practicing first century temple centered Jew and we can learn a great many good moral principles from his teachings,
edkellyjr 
Leave a comment