I was editing my site and came across this old post I wrote

http://www.thebeautifulkind.com/2006/10/24/what-would-jesus-do/

 

What do you think about Jesus? What do you think about these lines from the bible? What’s your response?

 

 -The Beautiful Kind

 

 

Dear TBK,

That’s an impressive list of allegations (I guess that’s the right word). I’ll just warn you right off, some of my responses are going to be painfully academic, but I’ll keep it as spiritual as I can without doing the subject injustice.

 

For those what didn’t visit TBK’s site, the short version is that, using cannon scripture, TBK has put together a 15 point list of Jesus’ short-comings. Now, I’m going to take the defense by the numbers.

 

#1. (Relevant scripture: Luke 9:59-62) There are people who have actually interpreted this as a command to not bury their dead. This interpretation went out round about the same time as the Black Plague; odd timing, you think? What Jesus asks the two men in this passage is to take on a new life. By saying “Follow me,” Jesus was saying “come away and learn to imitate me. Be as much like me as possible.” Both these guys accepted but wanted to take care of one last thing before hand. They wanted to wrap up their old life before starting their new one. This story is about the transition between Believer and non-believer. To follow Christ must mean an immediate break from your old life. It’s harsh, but considering that Jesus, being God, was responsible for your very existence, it’s not all that unreasonable.

 

#2. (Luke 6:29b) TBK: “He’d tell you that if someone steals $5 from you, to give them $10. WTF?”

Not exactly, he’d tell you that if someone stole $5, don’t stop him from taking $10. Slight difference. Here’s how the logic works: everything a man has, including his skin and his job, God gave him or allowed him to have. So, and this mostly only applies to God’s followers, if someone steals $5 from you and you actually need that $5 for something, God will provide you with another $5. Therefore, it’s not worth fighting over. God does not want his people fighting in the private sector (cops and soldiers are different because governments are allowed to do some stuff private folk aren’t).

 

#3. (Luke 6:29a) Sort of. The “smiting on the cheek” thing was actually an ancient Hebrew insult. Sort of like flipping someone off, only way worse and much more to the point. This more about verbal than physical abuse.

 

#4. (John 2:1-4) I love this story. Water into wine, baby! Anyway… Jesus dissing his Mom. At this point in Jesus’ life, his Mom knows he can perform miracles, which is what she asks him to do. However, he hadn’t started his public ministry yet; timing is a big deal with Jesus. When he says “what have I to do with thee?” the Middle English translates better as “Why are you asking me to get involved?” Which he immediately follows with “My time has not come yet.” Read verse 5, Mary ignores him and tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to. And what does Jesus do? He does what his Mom wanted him to do.

 

#5. (Matt. 15:21-28) This is another one of those timing things. Strictly speaking, the religion of the Jews was just for Jews until around 40 A.D. (Acts 10:9-16) There were Gentiles who got in well before that (most notably Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho, and Ruth, the Moabite, who are both great-grandmothers of Jesus), but for the most part, the Gentiles were SOL. This one woman, though, displayed the faith which made her one God’s children; because she was in the family, Jasus healed the daughter.

 

#6. Yep.

 

#7. “He’d be sexist. No woman was a disciple and no woman would sit at his table in heaven.”

When Jesus called his disciples it was a “drop what you’re doing and walk around Israel with me for three years.” In that culture, women couldn’t do that. If nothing else, there’s no way people would believe that Jesus wasn’t having sex with these women. There were times when they all slept under the stars, zero privacy. Female disciples would have ham-stringed Jesus’ ministry. It was the culture that was sexist, not Jesus. As for Jesus’ table in Heaven, I direct you to Revelations 19:6-8.

 

#8. Yep.

 

#9. (Matt. 17:17) Jesus told his disciples to go around healing people. However, because they doubted his power, they couldn’t heal this one guy. The night before this happened, the disciples saw Jesus “transfigured” and talking to Moses and Elijah. If any Jew wanted proof that Jesus was God’s son, that should’ve done it. So, if he’d done tons of signs and miracles in front of you and you still weren’t convinced; yes, he would get mad and yell at you.

 

#10. The way that Jesus lived was actually not unusual for a spiritual leader. Prophets had lived this way for centuries and many rabbis did the same. It was a well accepted cultural practice.

 

#11. (Matt. 21:19-22) This is an object lesson, Jesus was fond of them. The fig tree had leaves and should have been bearing fruit, but it didn’t. Jesus curses the tree then talks about faith. The leaves are like calling yourself a Christian and the fruit is like actually having faith in Christ. If you claim to be a Christian, but don’t actually believe, you get cursed like the fig tree. No posers!

 

#12. Jesus is God. Real life, created heaven and earth, all-knowing, all-powerful being, God. He decides to make himself human, albeit temporarily, and be subject to human rule so that he could save all humans from Hell. Which part of that doesn’t sound meek? And he had to tell us he was God or we wouldn’t have believed in him, or the salvation of the crucifixion. Jesus actually tried pretty hard to keep his whole lineage under wraps until the time was right (which not too long before he died).

 

#13. (John 7:2-14) Jesus wasn’t being devious, he just wasn’t telling everyone who he was. He didn’t deny who he was, just didn’t advertise it. Reason #1: the Jews were trying to kill him! He was keeping a low profile because it wasn’t the right time to be executed. Reason #2: He wanted to make a point about his teachings, check out John 7:16-30.

 

#14. Unfortunately, without specific instances of these traits, I can’t answer them. However, I have read the Gospels through multiple times and can’t think of any times those got exhibited.

 

#15. Yep.

 

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