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Message for Christians In the past few days something has been troubling me. It has to do with Christians and Christian beliefs. And with the teachings of Chist and with Christians in America So I am writing this specfically for Christians in the hope that they will help me think things through to a satisfactory conclusion. I think it all began when I read about a Christian high school in America whose girls basketball team beat another team by a score of 100-0. Now if you haven’t read about this, you might think I am making this up. But it is well documented. I won’t write much about that now, but here is one article. You can also watch videos of people talking about it. Search for Dallas Covenant High School, 100 to 0. After learning of this basketballl game I asked myself that question all Christians have heard many times: What would Jesus do? I really wonder about this. I have wondered about it often. And for many years. When I was in South America I saw how they routinely hit children as a way of “teaching them”. It was normal to be hit, not the exception. I remember thinking "What is normal is not necessarily healthy." In South America, where I lived for four years, I often wondered if Jesus would ever hit a child. I also wondered what the children there thought. So I started asking them. I said, “Do you think Jesus would ever hit a child?” They quickly said “No.” One day I saw this sign on the door of a church in Peru.
At the bottom it says "Respect the house of God!" But I really wonder if God feels more respected by someone who dresses like Jesus, and is perhaps even dirty, unshaven and barefoot, but who lives as Jesus did, than he does by someone who wears expensive clothes, or an expensive watch, but who does not live in a Christ-like way. This sign also inspired me to wonder if if Jesus himself would ever would ever wear a tie. So again, I asked children what they thought. I said, “Do you think Jesus would ever wear a tie?” And again they quickly replied, “No.” I did this enough times with enough different children to feel very confident about their answers. I encourage you to try it yourself sometime. (I would also like other people to try asking these questions, even making video documentaries, and send them to me.) What I found is the older children got, the less they understood the message of Jesus. I am making the assumption, of course, that *I* understand the message of Jesus and that my view and their view of Jesus is close to what the *real* message is. Or at least that we undestand this part of his message is. Obviously there was more he wanted to teach us. For example, one thing he said very clearly is “Blessed are the peacemakers.” (Matt 5:9) Yet, I have been asking myself, “What does this mean exactly?” So I Googled “What does it mean to be blessed?” The results I got were not very satisfying to me. I still do not know, for example, if being blessed means you will go to Heaven. If anyone can tell me what the connection is between being blessed and getting into Heaven, if there is any connection, please send it to me in the form below. I sincerely do not know and would like to hear from others. And what does it mean, exactly, to be a peacemaker? Could it be possible that Jesus believed soldiers were peacmakers? It is possible, but it seems unlikely to me, because if so, he could have said "Blessed are the soldiers." Thinking of war and peace makes me think of how America invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, and it makes me wonder how this fits with what Jesus said about us turning the other cheek (Matt 5:38 and "forgiving seventy times seven" (Matt: 18, 21-22) And what about:
How does that relate to how America responded to 911? Could we say America responded in a Christ-like way? I have also wondered if Jesus would join the army or become a soldier. Or if he would refuse to fight. And I have wondered if he would become a general. It is hard for me to imagine "General Jesus." As I checked more about what Jesus said I was reminded of the commandment "Thou shalt not kill". This is obviously not followed by the majority of soldiers, even those who consider themselves Christians. But Jesus went further. Here is more from his famous sermon on the mountain in Matthew Chapter 5
So it seems Jesus was definitely not in favor of killing, of escalating conflicts, or even of verbally hurting or abusing someone. So it is hard for me to imagine that he would be in favor of the kinds of military system found in the USA and England, to name just two examples. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that Jesus was not especially in favor of punishing people in this life time. In the Old Testament it was common to punish people by stoning them. But Jesus didn't seem to like this. In the story found in John Chapter 8 it talks about how the people wanted to stone a woman who was found guilty of adultry. But he told them to let "he who is without sin" be the first to throw a stone at her. So of course, no one did. And so far I have not found any instance where Jesus suggested that we punish someone by sending them to jail or prison. Most of the references to prison in the New Testament are not related to Jesus's beliefs about punishment, but here it says, "the devil will cast some of you into prison". That is interesting because it doesn't say God will send them to prison. It says the devil will (Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle - Chapter 1) It almost seems that he wanted to leave punishment entirely up to God. Now changing topics a bit, I have also been wondering what is more important to young Christians: To get into Heaven or to get into a university. And what is more important to God? As I understand it the point of living for all Christians is to get into Heaven, but from my work with Christian parents, teachers and teenagers, it really seems to me that they tend to focus more on getting into a university. Of course times have changed and there were no universities in the days of Jesus, or none that I know of anyhow, and it wasn’t as important for getting a job as it is now. And getting a job is a reality of life. But it seems to me things are out of balance, from my reading of the New Testament. It seems to me that Jesus didn’t care much for material things. Here is one quote I was thinking of
Another is
Therefore he wouldn’t seem to care much how high paying a job was. And isn’t the point of a university education to get a job that pays more than if you don’t have one? When I was in high school they told us that you can make x dollars per year with a university degree and only y if you don’t have one. They never said your chances of getting into Heaven are better if you have a university diploma! This is almost something you could make a joke out of. But it is also something which you could take very, very seriously. What, then, really, truely, is important in the eyes of God? And who do we listen to or how are we to know, or even come close to knowing? Wouldn't it be sad if someone led their whole life in a way they sincerely believed to be what God wanted, but it turned out that he was mistaken? Or misled? From reading and from my experiences,
Christians don’t all agree on what is most important
to God or how you get into Heaven or even if there is a
Heaven, not to mention a Hell. In fact, I am honestly not
even sure if Christians agree on what it means to be a
Christian. Moreover, I am absolutely positive Christians
don’t all agree on what it means to be a
“good” Christian. Was George Bush a
“good” Christian? Will he get to Heaven? Will
Obama? It seems very hard to believe that God feels the
same about Bush and Barack. They inspire very different
feelings in me, and I dare to say, most people. |
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