What does being a child of God entail?
We have seen that for Jesus God is not One Who Condemns
but a Father, His Father. But is He also our Father? As Jesus
does not refer to God as His listeners' Father many times, it
is perhaps worth examining this set of His sayings to see what
meaning it has for us and my scheme. I have already examined
some of them but I still hope this will be worthwhile. It also
will bring us to look into other texts that develop the same
themes.
1. To follow God's lead
What is a father in a patriarchal society? He is the one who
takes the decisions for his family. He is the one to whom
the children turn for everything: direction, food, clothing,
work. He is the head of his clan. So when Jesus states
«And call no man
your father upon the earth: for one is
your Father, which is in heaven.»,1
He means that God as Father
must be the centre of our lives, the One we refer to constantly.
He is the One we take our orders from, not our natural father.
No surprise that He states that this will cause human family
frictions!
We have to follow our Father in Heaven's
way of doing, His principles: «Be ye therefore perfect,
even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect.»2
This requires us to:
Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be
the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh
his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain
on the just and on the unjust.3
This is the central principle of Jesus' teachings:
be like your Father, love and serve everyone, whatever their
actions towards you. The fact that someone wants to kill you
does not give you licence to kill him: you are to serve him!
This is the central point of Good Friday: Jesus carried His
cross, He helped His tormentors liquidate Him. He did not in
any way oppose the forces of this world order. He behaved like
His Father, loving His persecutors. And this is what we are
also to do, as children of God our Father. Luke puts it in a
different way: there Jesus says «Be ye therefore merciful, as
your Father also is merciful.»4
where «merciful» can also be
translated by «compassionate».
God does not want
us to play this world order's game: fighting back, defending
ourselves. We are to refuse to play according to those rules.
We are to play by God's. We are to accept death, violence,
brutality, not only against us but also against those we love,
all this without expecting or demanding that God will make
them pay in the end. Jesus forgave His tormentors, His killers.
We are to do the same: pray for those who persecute us.
According to Jesus then, violence is never justified.
We have no right of self defence. There is no such thing as
a just war. These concepts are totally alien to Jesus' teaching.
Anyone who claims to follow Christ has to remember this.
Jesus made very clear that nothing less than total commitment
to His way of life will do. You cannot serve two masters.
The reason why non-violence is a must is obvious:
violence divides people; it requires enemies to brutalize,
to hate. How can you live by God's absolute love for the one
you are fighting without raging against God for loving him?
Jesus tells us in this text found in Matthew how to pray
to God our Father:
But when ye pray, use not vain
repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they
shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore
like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have
need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray
ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the
power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. ... But if ye forgive
not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.5
while in Mark the only reference to forgiving to be
forgiven by God our Father is in the following :
And when
ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that
your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your
trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father
which is in heaven forgive your
trespasses.6
while in Luke there is a slightly shorter version
of the Lord's prayer :
When ye pray, say, Our Father which
art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will
be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one
that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but
deliver us from evil.7
For Jesus, God as Father knows what we need;
so the prayer is not there to remind Him but to
remind us
of our needs. We need to remember how essential it is to
forgive others; that we are of His kingdom, not of this world
order; that we have to live like Him, not like those who do
not put their total trust in Him. We have to ask Him to feed
us as we are aware of our total dependency on Him. Again, we
have to trust Him completely if we seek to live according to
His ways. After all, His ways of total service to all, friends
and enemies, of total refusal of self-defence are such that
they are impossible to follow without total trust in Him! We
certainly do not stand a chance according to this world order!
2. Trust in our Father
This trusting reliance on God as our Father is again
taken by Jesus in the following text found in Luke:
If
a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will
he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish
give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer
him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good
gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that
ask him?8
and, in a slightly different way, in Matthew :
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh
receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you,
whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if
he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how
much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good
things to them that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them:
for this is the law and the
prophets.9
We are to trust that God will look after us as a
Father. If we trust in God our Father, He will give us His
Holy Spirit. Or, in the way put in Matthew, God our Father
will give «good things to those who ask Him». And these are
the «Golden Rule»: to do to others what you want them to do
to you as this is the Law and the Prophets.
The Greek terms «agios pneuma»
(αγιος
πνευμα)
are translated by «Holy Spirit».
The term translated as «holy» also means «sacred», «august».
The term translated by «Spirit» means «breath», «breath of
wind»; from it come words like «pneumatic»; the related Greek
word «pneumôn»
(πνευμων)
means «lung»).
The way we breathe
is directly related to the way we are. Breathing in an august
way is breathing in a serene way, deeply and slowly. This calm
and deep breathing is the breathing of someone untroubled, at
peace, unworried. This is the breathing of someone who is a
child of God and as such relies entirely on Him and follows
with absolute confidence His ways, the Golden Rule, the Rule
He gave to His humans.
Jesus again insists on
the need for total trust (faith) in God as Father:
Consider
the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither
have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more
are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking
thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not
able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought
for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not,
they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all
his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so
clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow
is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you,
O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or
what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all
these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your
Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But
rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things
shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it
is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags
which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth
not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also.10
which is taken very succinctly in Matthew:
«Are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing? and one of them
shall not fall on the ground without
your Father.»11
Jesus argues again and again that God does a very
good job of sustaining His creation. How much more will He
sustain His children! We do not have to worry: God takes
care of everything. We do not need to gather possessions
on this earth; on the other hand, what we gather in His
kingdom is everlasting, incorruptible.
Another
very important way to live is to have faith that Jesus
(God) will heal us, will make us what we need to become.
We have to accept to be clay in His hands. Without His
help we will not be able to reform ourselves, to become a
«child of God», to embrace His values.
I intend to contrast two texts; in the first we have a
leper who is convinced that Jesus can cure him if He so
wills it:
And there came a leper to him, beseeching
him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If
thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved
with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him,
and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon
as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed
from him, and he was cleansed.12
Jesus can cure someone only if the one who so
asks Him firmly believes that He can deliver. The cure is
impossible without this certainty from the supplicant that
God can actually do it if He so wishes: «If thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean.» As we know, this required trust
is not sufficient: God has to want such a cure: «I will; be
thou clean.»
It is important to note that when
God refuses to satisfy the supplicant, it is not necessarily
because the latter lacks trust in Him. What the supplicant
is asking for with trust in God's power to deliver it is
not necessarily what God wants for him. The supplicant
must trust that God is compassionate and so will do what
is best for him.
This certainty in the
supplicant's mind that God really takes care of her is
essential. Let us look at a case where Jesus' followers
lacked this faith in God when a storm struck while they
were on a ship with Jesus:
And there arose a great
storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that
it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the
ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say
unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And
he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea,
Peace, be still.
And the wind ceased, and there was
a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so
fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they
feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What
manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea
obey him?13
It is obvious that the disciples
have no confidence at all that all is turning out well
for them! In fact, they are so fearful of drowning as their
boat is taking on water faster than they can bail it out that
they awake Jesus to get Him to start bailing water out as well.
He, of course, does nothing of the sort. To their great surprise,
He just calms the wind and the sea and then tells them off for
their lack of faith!
I can easily put myself in
the place of the disciples. I can easily understand their
frustration at trying desperately to keep the boat afloat
while Jesus is totally unaware of their efforts. Jesus is
so oblivious to their predicament that they feel it is
just as if He was not there at all!
We also face
desperate situations in life; situations where we wonder
if God is asleep! Jesus does not tell them off for trying
to bail the water out; He tells them off for not trusting
that God does His part; that is, save them from drowning or
take them to Himself according to His will for them.
Confidence in God means to trust that He somehow acts for
us, as our Saviour. Faith in God means to believe that He
Who can do anything is always there looking after us. The
disciples did not believe that Jesus could stop the storm:
it never entered their heads. But they should have believed
that God was a Father to them.
So faith is
confidence that things will work out in the end,
whatever that «end» is. It is an outlook on life that
provides one with serenity, inner peace. It is a decision
to be afraid of nothing, to keep loving our enemies and
praying for those who persecute us come what may. It is
being committed to God's ways. He does not require us to
believe in Him. Jesus did not require His apostles to
believe that He would rebuke the wind and save them.
He just wanted them to «keep their cool», do their best
without complaining and moaning and so face life with
serenity.
3. Blood, sweat and tears
Jesus promised His followers persecutions. Christians
who think that prosperity is the proof of God's love for
them have not understood Jesus' message: they seem to have
kept to reading the Septuagint. Jesus promises us blood,
sweat and tears. He wants us to fight the good fight every
day and everywhere; to preach His message of self denial
and not self promotion, a message that does not fit at all
in the present world:
Behold, I send you forth as sheep
in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise
as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will
deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you
in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before
governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against
them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up,
take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall
be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For
it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father
which speaketh in you.14
His followers are to be «sheep» among «wolves».
They are to be «wise as serpents» and «harmless as doves».
The Greek word «akeraioi»
(ακεραιοι)
translated by «harmless» means
«pure», like in «pure water», «intact», «whole», «unstained»,
«unadulterated» and the Greek word «phronimoi»
(φρονιμοι)
translated
by «wise» means «sensible», «wise». We are to be sensible
and unadulterated, children of God our Father.
Sheep cannot defend themselves against the teeth of wolves:
they get eaten up. We can expect the same. We can expect
to be scourged, taken to court. But He says that the
«Breath of our Father» will speak through us, so we
do not have to worry. Strength and words will be
provided for by our Father.
In the following
passage, Jesus states that discipleship, though demanding,
is far preferable to the dolce vita suggested by
this world's order. I will divide this passage in its
four verses and examine them one by one:
«Then said
Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow me.»15
He first states that the disciple must «reject
his self» (the Greek word «aparnèsasthô»
(απαρνησασθω)
translated by
«deny» means «refuse»,«reject». Instead of building the self
as suggested by today's psychologists, one is to reject it;
instead of wanting to be oneself, one is to refuse to be
that self so as to follow Jesus' ways. We are not to look
after our advantage or convenience but follow Jesus. He comes
up with this terrible image of carrying one's cross for a
painful death to self. This is what is actually going to
happen to Him; this is what will happen to His disciples,
at least metaphorically.
Jesus goes on to: «For whosoever
will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose
his life for my sake shall
find it.»16
What does it mean: to save or to lose one's
life? The same Greek word «psychè»
(ψυχη)
is translated by
«life» (in this verse) and «soul» (in the next). It
means «breath», that which we need to be alive. This
verse would be better translated by: «for who may desire
to save his breath of life, will lose it; and whoever may
lose his breath of life because of me, he will find it.»
It states the following dilemma: dying because of one's
faithfulness to Jesus' ways or surviving by abandoning them.
The one who abandons Jesus' ways will lose his life later
(as, after all, every one dies at one point or another) while
the one who died to keep them will win his life back later.
This is followed by:
«For what is a man profited, if
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or
what shall a man give in exchange for
his soul?»17
Again, this verse would be better translated
as «what good will it do to a man to gain the whole world
and suffer damage as regard to his breath of life? or what
will a man give in return for his breath of life?» What
Jesus is saying here is nothing new. The Ancients all agreed
on the fact that living was better than being dead and that
most people would give away their riches to stay alive.
They also agreed on the fact that riches did not prevent
death and were of no use in the «underworld».
The last
verse helps making sense of this cluster:
«For the Son
of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels;
and then he shall reward every man according
to his works.»18
Humans all die. Either you die a disciple or not.
Either you die rich or not. Your riches do not give you back
your life (as He remarks in verse 26). The only thing that
can give you back your life is your discipleship (as He promises
in verse 25). This is the reward the «Son of Man» gives to
His disciples.
The same theme is taken in a somewhat
different way in another passage in Matthew, which I will
divide in three clusters, of two, four and two verses each.
The first cluster is:
Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which
is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I also deny before my Father which is
in heaven.19
The first verse would be better translated as:
«Everyone then who shall declare himself for me in front of
men, I will declare myself for him in front of my Father which
is in Heaven.» Basically, if you are ready to publicly declare
that Jesus' way is right and face the consequences, Jesus
will declare in front of God that you are one of His. If you
repudiate Him in public, He will declare to God that you do
not accept Him and His message. Jesus will very simply tell
His Father what you have announced to your fellow humans.
He then makes a very strong statement:
Think not
that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace,
but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against
his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes
shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me.20
As His demands are fundamentally different from
that of this world's order, they will cause a rift among people
and divide them between His followers and His detractors. Some
in a family will be for Him while others will be against Him.
Each one of His followers in that predicament will have to
choose between their family ties or Jesus; between staying a
follower of Him or abandoning Him.
In this war
against the world's order, friends and family members
end up one against the other. This is why it is so costly
to be His disciple. She has to be ready to forgo possessions,
friends, family, all that is important in the culture of
the time.
He states points already examined
in the final two verses of the passage:
And he that
taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy
of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he
that loseth his life for my sake shall
find it.21
The image of the cross is a kind of leitmotiv,
a point that is hammered on again and again. The life of
discipleship, as hard as it is, alone gets you your life back
after death.
These points are also found in
Luke's Gospel:
If any man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren,
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come
after me, cannot be my
disciple.22
For which of you, intending to build a tower,
sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he
have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath
laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that
behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build,
and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war
against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh
against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other
is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth
conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that
forsaketh not all that he hath, he
cannot be my disciple.23
This set starts with two ideas which we have
already examined: if a human is not ready to put family well
after what Jesus asks of her, she is no disciple. If she is
not ready to endure everything for His sake, she is no disciple.
Those two sayings are two different ways of saying basically
the same thing: Jesus demands a total commitment from His
disciple.
This is followed by two very sensible sayings
that do not seem to be related to what He has just said. The
first one is: do not start building what you are not sure
to be able to finish; otherwise, you will look quite foolish
when you have to abandon your project half way. The second
saying is: if you decide on a campaign against an opponent,
make sure that you have the means to overcome him; otherwise,
settle with him as quickly as possible.
Then follows
what is meant to be the punch line: if you do not say farewell
and take leave of all of your possessions, do not try to be
my disciple. Why? Because you will lose your campaign, you will
not be able to finish your project.
What Jesus is
saying here is quite simple: the only way you can succeed in
discipleship is by leaving all your possessions behind.
This is not something that I have done, nor is it something
that I have seen done by most people who call themselves
Christians. I have to conclude that most Christians seem to
consider this excessive, as they do not live by it.
Jesus insists on the necessity for every human to
actually live according to His ways. Nothing else will
suffice. This He makes quite clear:
Not every one
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which
is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have
cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart
from me, ye that work
iniquity.24
For Jesus, discipleship does not mean to cure
in His name, or call on His name, or prophesy in His name.
God can use anyone, good or evil, dedicated follower of His
ways or not, to cure people, or preach in His name; these
do not have to be real followers of Jesus. To be part of the
Kingdom of Heaven, you have to act according to its ways.
Those who do not are not part of this realm; they are not
«according to God»; they are not in God's image.
Jesus makes it again perfectly clear in this passage:
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built
his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it
fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be
likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the
sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great
was the fall of it.25
The only way for the house to survive is to
built it on His sayings. Otherwise it will collapse and be
ruined. The only way for a life to survive after death is
to base it on Jesus' teachings. The only way to go through
the difficulties of life unscathed is to base it on His
teachings.
Jesus claims that His teachings and
His teachings alone can provide the stability required in
life and death. This is difficult to accept in this day and
age. But let us remember that His teachings have nothing to
do with dogmas and Church structure; they have to do with
surrendering the self to God by trusting totally in His
providence (Fatherhood); they have to do with putting the
other in first place rather than the self and so being of
service to all, irrespective of their actions. Love of God
is made manifest in love of neighbour, good or bad. This
message is neither confined to a (religious) group nor
exclusively lived by any.
4. Humility
If we choose God's way, we will most probably not rise
to important positions because we will not be fighting for
them; we will have no ambitions for ourselves; we will
probably not be rich, because we will not be looking to make
tons of money. So we will not be important in the eyes of
this world's important people, the politicians and the
business people. We will be the ones the rich and powerful
feast on: the «masses», the unimportant, the canon fodder,
the dispensable. We will be what is called «the little ones».
So if we trust in God our Father, in His ways, we
will be defenceless in the face of this world order but
we will be part of His kingdom: «Even so it is not the
will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these
little ones should perish.»26
The Greek word «micros»
(μικρος)
translated by «little one» means when applied to people:
«of mediocre quality», «unimportant», «weak». They are
those who «have not made it» in this world: the poor, the
marginalized, the forgotten. For them God is a Father
who saves, who definitely cares:
«Take heed that ye
despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you,
That in heaven their angels do always behold the face
of my Father which is in
heaven.»27
The poor are the one's whose angels are face
to face with God: they have direct access to God. They are
powerless in this world but have contact to their Father. The
present world's order is the upside down version of the Kingdom
of God! The ones who are important in God's sight are not in
the eyes of this world leaders. Your ways are not God's if
you despise what He holds in high esteem.
Jesus
also suggests very strongly that humans should not put
themselves forward, that they should not be puffed up,
full of their own self importance. He suggests in fact
that being full of oneself is a very good way of risking
to loose face:
When thou art bidden of any man to a
wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more
honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade
thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place;
and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when
thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that
when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend,
go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence
of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth
himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted.28
Jesus suggests that we should never assume to
be among the most important people anywhere; on the contrary,
we should assume that most if not all of the people are
more important than us. That point of view means that we
do not consider the others inferiors but superiors. This
has a direct effect on our behaviour: politeness, consideration,
civility, understanding for all and sundry.
Jesus' story of the banquet ends up with a sentence of His
that comes up over and over again: «For whosoever exalteth
himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted.»
But why does Jesus repeat this
leitmotiv over and over again ? For Jesus the reason we are
on this earth is to prepare ourselves for the next. I suggest
that we are going to decide our fate by our reaction to God's
absolute love towards all our fellow humans: if we rebel
against it, we will live Hell; if we embrace it, we will live
Heaven. So finding others more worthy than us surely will
help.
Some time ago, black men in the US were
called «boy» by whites. It was a term used to denigrate
them, to put them in the place of a child, someone who has
no recognized rights; not exactly a nonentity, but one who
could not vote, hold office, take decisions. This is what
is meant in the Gospels by the word «child», which is «pais»
(παις)
in Greek: someone who has no power, no rights, and who owns
nothing (even though he might be able to once he reaches maturity).
Jesus' disciples were very slow to understand His
way of seeing things. They wanted to be important, to be
leaders in their movement. They often were fighting for
position in it. So Jesus had to come back to this over
and over. So He makes it crystal clear:
At the same time
came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest
in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child
unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said,
Verily
I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little
child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And
whoso shall receive one such little child in my
name receiveth me.29
Jesus says that someone who does not take the
status of a child shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. To
reach that status, one has to «humble oneself». The Greek
word used «tapeinôsei»
(ταπεινωσει)
means «humiliate oneself» which
surely implies a lowering of status, of standing. The
lower the standing according to this word's order, the
greater it is in the Kingdom of Heaven. To accept to seek
a lower status according to this world's order, one has to
change direction, the meaning of the Greek word
«straphète»
(στραφητε)
translated as «be converted»). Indeed,
Jesus requires a complete change of direction, of way
of thinking.
This comes out again in a
different way in Mark's account. In answer to Jesus'
saying that who receives «such children in my name,
receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth
not me, but him that sent me.»,30
John, one of the people
always trying to get to the top of the Jesus movement,
comes up with this extraordinary out of place statement:
And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one
casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us:
and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus
said, Forbid him not:
for there is no man which shall do
a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.
For he that is not against us is on our
part.31
Jesus' answer shows clearly that for Him
there is no Chief Executive Officers in the Kingdom nor
organizational charts; permissions are not required to
do good works in Jesus' name nor is there any copyright
on His name! No, everything is free, there are no rules
for doing good works.
We saw what Jesus meant
by the «little ones». Not every «little one» believes in
Jesus, in His message. Some have just not succeeded in this
world order but swear by it. But about those who, by their
words or actions, their silence or lacks of action, are
causing the «little one's» who believe in Jesus' message
to falter, to fall, He has these harsh words to say:
But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which
believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were
hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the
depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences!
for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that
man by whom the offence cometh!32
The Greek word «skandalidzei»
(σκανδαλιζει)
translated by
«offend» means «trip», «cause to fall» and the word
«skandalôn»
(σκανδαλων)
translated by «offence» means «trap»,
«pit placed on the way»; «obstacle meant to trip someone».
Jesus says clearly that those people would better be dead
than to have caused such a disaster for the «little ones».
Now this is not a very accommodating message!
He
follows this by:
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot
offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it
is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed,
rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into
everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it
out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter
into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to
be cast into hell fire.33
This saying sounds very harsh in this day and
age of moral relativism, where even what is «real» is
debatable and relative to the way we see things. But Jesus
makes it clear that if something causes you to stumble and
fall from God's way, you will end up «cast into everlasting
fire» which does not sound like a very nice situation to
be in. So for Him, it is essential that all obstacles to
following God's ways be removed whatever the costs.
Humility is a must. In Matthew, we are told to give
alms in secret: «Take heed
that ye do not your alms before
men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of
your Father which is in
heaven.»34
There Jesus makes the point that good works can be done
in the spirit of this word's order rather than in the
spirit of the Kingdom of our Father.
Indeed looking
for good publicity is very much in accordance with this
world's order. A hugely rich capitalist, for instance, can
«justify» his amassing of a huge fortune (made on the backs
of others) by his benevolence. It shows the «human touch»,
the «compassionate side» of capitalism. So it justifies not
only his ways but the whole world order he lives by, based
on greed, injustice, inequality.
So we are to go about
our Christian lives without a thought given to what others
will think of us. What matters is that we live according to
the Kingdom, with its way of thinking, of feeling, of living.
Loving everyone and rejecting none. Not looking after our
needs so much as looking after those of others.
In Matthew is also this sentence of
Jesus: «Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify your Father which is
in heaven.»35
The Greek verb
«doksasôsi»
(δξασωσι)
translated by «glorify» means «have an opinion»
«believe» «think», «judge». The Greek word translated by «good»
is «kala»
(καλα)
can also be translated as «noble», «honest»,
«honourable». The idea here is that people will have
an opinion, a judgement of God our Father based on what
we do; if we do good works, they will have a good opinion
and they may want to believe in His ways. We have a definite
role as God's children to make His ways known, to talk in
His Name though this will mean persecution, at least to
some degree. Because this world's order does not approve of
God's. We live in Enemy territory. No wonder Jesus got killed,
and lots of Christians as well.
The «Good News»
is God's order, His kingdom, where all are loved equally
and all love each other and look after each other. The «Good
News» is that God will never let us down as He will take
us to Himself. Death and torments are not the last word. Evil
will not triumph over God's love.
5. Choosing between God or Money
For Jesus, serving both God and Wealth (Mammon is the
personification of Wealth) is impossible:
«No man
can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one,
and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon.»36
Serving God means acting like His child, with
His mindset, which is giving, being of service to others.
While looking after oneself, one's needs, one's personal
security entails gathering wealth as a shelter from the
unpredictable, from poverty, from misery. It is trying to
rely on ourselves to face the future by accumulating for
our needs alone money, goods and influence.
We
have a choice to make: to be children of God and so follow
in His ways or to be children of the devil and follow in
the ways of this world order, based on acquiring possessions
and power, on inequality.
What are we to do
with our money if we have some? Jesus has a suggestion:
«And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the
mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may
receive you into everlasting
habitations.»37
Jesus
tells us to use our money to make friends of others so
that they will welcome us in the afterlife. We need to
use «our» money to help the people who are in need as
they then will welcome us in Heaven, this place where it
is for all to see that God identifies completely with them.
Jesus follows this by stating: «He
that is faithful in that which is least is faithful
also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust
also in much.»38
that
someone who cannot be trusted with little cannot be trusted
with much and someone who is dishonest about little is
dishonest about much. Such a statement is just good sense.
He then goes to say:
If therefore ye have not been faithful
in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust
the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that
which is another man's, who shall give you that which is
your own?39
Here He argues that if you cannot be trusted with
money (little because transitory, ephemeral), how can you be
trusted with true riches (something worthwhile because
everlasting)? If you cannot be trusted with something as
unimportant as someone else's (God's) money, how can you be
trusted with something that should be really yours? Or said
differently, if you cannot be trusted with money, how can you
be trusted with what God wants you to do with your life? How
can you make a success of your life, and end up happy in the
afterlife?
In Luke's Gospel, Jesus gives an example of
what He means: He suggests this method of drawing a list of
guests to our dinners:
Then said he also to him that bade
him, When thou makest
a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends,
nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours;
lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the
lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot
recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the
resurrection of the just.40
Jesus is telling us to invite people who cannot
invite us in return. The idea is that if they cannot repay
you, their debt towards you will be maintained until you reach
the afterlife. So you will be repaid at «the resurrection
of the just».
How does that fit in my scheme? One
thing is for sure, this saying can be contrasted with the
parable of the rich man who ignored Lazarus. Ignoring the
poor makes it Hell, feeding the poor makes it Heaven. Why?
Of course, one could talk about «justice» but this is exactly
what I want to avoid without twisting Jesus' sayings beyond
recognition. It is all very well to try to show that a scheme
can work, but you cannot fit square pegs in triangular slots.
I suggested that the reason why the rich man finds the
afterlife Hell is because he sees God's love for the poor
as well as knowing that he did nothing to alleviate his
sufferings, in fact, it can be put even more strongly: God
identifies with the poor so much that the rich man sees himself
having avoided to feed God Himself. Surely God will have
revenge on him for letting Him starve when he could have fed
Him. The rich man feels both guilty and afraid. He cannot
think of God as being able to forgive, so he stays in his Hell,
incapable of leaving it for fear of even worse.
When the man who has fed the poor and the lame has the same
insight, he does not have the same reaction. He can
rejoice that he fed God! What an honour! What luck! He
can rejoice and exult. He is in Heaven. The more God
identifies with the poor and the forgotten, the more those
who have helped those will exult because of what they did.
The difference between Hell and Heaven is in one's
reaction to confronting the same Reality: God. If you know
that God is Love, you are not afraid of Him but you run to
embrace Him in joy and thanksgiving.
In our world,
money is considered essential. We cannot see how we could
live without it. We «need» so many things: cars, homes,
televisions, clothes, shoes, coats and so on. So to have
Jesus making diatribes about money sounds excessive to us.
The poor fellow just was not thinking of our world, our
country, where we need to pay for electricity, oil, telephone,
transport, food, and so on. Surely, He went a bit overboard.
In Luke, Jesus states His case quite soundly: There
is no point desiring or possessing more than one really needs
as a person's life does not consist in what that person possesses:
«And he said unto them,
Take heed, and beware of covetousness:
for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things
which he possesseth.»41
Possessions do not in any way help
in the afterlife. The Greek word «pleoneksias»
(πλεονεξιας)
translated by «covetousness» has a wider meaning, which is
«having more than others», «advantage», «having too much»,
«abundance», «desiring more than one should», «cupidity»,
«covetousness», «insatiable appetite».
This is exactly
what Jesus then proceed to explain with the parable that follows
His statement:
And he spake a parable unto them, saying,
The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because
I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This
will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and
there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say
to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years;
take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto
him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:
then whose shall those things be, which
thou hast provided?42
It is very clear from this parable that all this
man's abundance of wealth is of no use at all in the afterlife.
On the contrary, this man's plan to amass property and goods
for his earthly future means that he has not at all planned for
his more important future, that of his afterlife.
The
moral of the tale is clearly stated in the verse just
following the parable: «So is
he that layeth up treasure for
himself, and is not rich
toward God.»43
which can be
paraphrased as «So ends up the one who, while amassing
lots of goods to protect himself against the unknown of this
physical world, forgot to amass what makes him rich in the eyes
of God, that is, what he needs to be at his meeting with God.»
Let us look very carefully at what is said here:
you have a man who has been accumulating possessions and
wealth. He now has so much that he needs greater storage space:
so he gets himself a bigger place. He has accumulated wealth,
all the necessities of life. He has saved for his retirement.
So he can now retire and live a life of ease.
Is not
this the life everyone wants for himself? Is not this what
everyone tells us must be our aim in life, to save for a
happy retirement? How many ads do we find on the subject?
How many people tell us we must save for a rainy day? But
what does Jesus say? All these things will go to others
when you die; there is no way in which they will help you
after death, when you meet God. You will have nothing of
that to show to Him then.
Most people would have
rather said about the dead man: pity he did not retire
earlier, while he could still have enjoyed his goods. Now
he is dead and cannot. Most do not think of what is after
this life; most people do not think about being prepared
for that encounter, which can come at any time.
To
add another twist, Matthew relates that the final answer
Jesus gives to the man who wants to know what to do to
inherit eternal life is «Jesus said unto him,
If thou wilt
be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and
follow me.»44
Perfection is the same translation of the same
Greek word we have seen when we talked about God's as well
as His humans' perfection. So Jesus' statement could read :
«if you want to be what you are meant to be, sell all and give
it to the poor, then come and follow me.»
This
is hardly what I see Christians doing by the millions, or
even thousands. I do not see all these people who say they
have made a commitment to Christ do what He says here. Among
those I do not see following this advice, I count myself as
well as all the ministers of the various Churches (have they
not access to cars, televisions, and most of the amenities
of modern life?)
Not everyone necessarily aims
for perfection. Some of us could be satisfied by something a
little less. The problem is what Jesus says next; that it is
very hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom, not to say
near impossible:
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily
I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle,
than for a rich man to enter into the
kingdom of God.45
And every one that
hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or
lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and
shall inherit everlasting life.46
Of course we could argue that we are not really
rich; in fact just somewhere near comfortable with our cars,
bungalows, closets full of clothes, dishwashers, fridges,
stoves, washing machines, dryers, and so on. All these are
necessities of life in this day and age. That most of the
people of this earth do not have such amenities is
unfortunate; we wish they get them soon.
For Jesus, the more you are rich, the less chance
you have to make the Kingdom! Riches are not a sign of
God's grace; just the opposite! This flies in the face of
the thinking of most Christians who believe, as the
Septuagint implies, that riches are a sign of God's love.
The disciples were astounded by Jesus'
saying on the near impossibility of the rich to enter the
Kingdom. In our case, we prefer to ignore it, which
means classifying such a saying among Jesus' «excesses»:
He went slightly overboard, you know! He got carried away;
He did not really mean it.
6. The widow's alms
Let us look at another incident that shows in a way
what we are to do. It is the case of the widow giving money
to the treasury at the Temple:
And Jesus sat over against
the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into
the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there
came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites,
which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples,
and saith unto them,
Verily I say unto you, That this poor
widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into
the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance;
but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all
her living.47
Rich people are seen to give substantial
sums of money and a poor widow, a very small amount. Obviously,
the Temple managers prefer the large amounts given by the
rich than the minute amount given by the widow. But Jesus (again,
God Incarnate) does not see it that way. The rich gave
little of what they had, ensuring themselves a very comfortable
life indeed, while the widow gave all she had, leaving
nothing for herself and so putting herself in a very sorry
state. That she gave all she had while they gave little is the
way God sees it; but not the way the worldly Temple managers
see it. For them, it is a question of what it costs to carry
out such or such a repair; it is not the question of the size
of a contributor's loving self-sacrifice in making her
contribution.
God does not need repairs to the
Temple. What counts for Him is the love humans have for Him.
This, because those who love Him very much will want very
much to be with Him for all eternity, where they will be
rejoicing in His love towards them and others. They will be
ready to make whatever adjustment is required in themselves
to become like Him. God loves humans totally; the widow
showed by her gift that she loved God totally. She acted
like Him.
7. Defilement, goodness and evil
Jesus has
this to say about trees and their fruits, and people
and their words:
Either make the tree good, and his
fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit
corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation
of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for
out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A
good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth
forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil
treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you,
That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall
give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by
thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words
thou shalt be condemned.48
Jesus' reasoning is straightforward: a tree
that produces good fruit is said rightly to be a good tree;
similarly a person who utters good words is said to be a
good person. After all, good words come from a good heart
just like evil words come from an evil heart. What you say
shows who you are. If your words are good, you are pure,
good; if they are evil, you are impure, evil.
This makes a lot of sense; of course Jesus could have added
that you also are good if you perform good deeds and evil if
you perform evil deeds. But not everyone is able to put
in practice all the threats that he utters. Some destroy
others by their words alone.
The logical link
between the state of the fruit and that of what produces
it is obvious. Jesus says that humans' fruits are their
words. So if their talk is «evil», so are they; if their
talk is «idle», so are they; if their talk is «good», so
are they. The Greek word «ponèros»
(πονηρος)
translated by «evil»
means «bad», «defective», «faulty», «wicked», «depraved»,
the Greek word «argon»
(αργον)
translated by «idle» means
«going nowhere», «unfinished», «incomplete», «slovenly»,
«slipshod», «lazy», «idle».
So Jesus
is requiring of humans that they actually get down to
the job the Father has given them to do, which is to
produce good fruits; nothing else will do.
The people who reject my scheme will now pounce
on the last two verses of the above text which talks
about the «day of judgment», when some will be «condemned»
and others «justified». Can I extricate myself honestly
from what seems the proof that my scheme does not stand?
But who judges? who separates? who accepts
to consider someone just? who considers someone condemned?
Jesus does not name the «judge».
In my scheme,
the day of separation is the day of our death. Then all
is revealed, all our shortcomings, all those of others.
All the rotten fruits, all the bad fruits, all the fruits
that did not reach maturation as well as all the good
fruits. Then we will judge and decide either to separate
ourselves from the truth and God's love, or we will accept
the truth of our poor state of affairs and accept also that
of others. We will choose between Heaven or Hell, faced
with the truth and the love of God.
Jesus disagrees with the Torah about what constitutes
impurety. He states that it has nothing to do with dirty
hands, a woman's menstruation or eating such a type of food:
And when he had called all the people unto him, he said
unto them,
Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:
There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him
can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those
are they that defile the man.49
For Jesus, no human
can be defiled by anything that comes into that human, whether
it is food, or dirt, liquids or solids, including semen and
blood, but only from what comes out of that human from within.
For Jesus, a man or a woman who is raped is not defiled.
Jesus considers null and void the Torah's laws
on ritual purity, laws which touch every aspect of a Jew's
daily life and remind them constantly of their commitment to
God's commands:
And he saith unto them, Are ye so
without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever
thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile
him; Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the
belly, and goeth out into the draught,
purging all meats?50
What Jesus considers cause for defilement is the
evil that comes from within the «heart». The Greek word
«kardia»
(καρδια)
translated by «heart» is the source of courage,
friendship and love on the one hand and passions and anger
on the other; and the seat of intelligence:
And he said,
That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things
come from within, and defile the
man.51
Jesus' list of the evil
that emanates from the heart
includes adultery (copulating with someone who is married),
fornication (copulating with a prostitute), murder and theft.
It continues with covetousness (the Greek term «pleoneksia»
(πλεονεξια)
means «have more than someone else»; «superiority»,
«have too much», and from there «want more than one should»,
«cupidity», «covetousness», you can take your pick as for
which one Jesus meant here, if not all of the above!).
This is followed by «deceit», the translation of «ponèria»
(πονηρια)
which means «nastiness», «perversity» according to my dictionary),
lasciviousness, the translation of «aselgeia»
(ασελγεια)
(which means
«impudence», «insolence», «rudeness» and from there
lasciviousness, as well as blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
Nothing in this list has to do with worship
or even relationship with God but rather with how people
relate to others, how they respect others, how they treat
others as they want to be treated (the Golden Rule).
But what about blasphemy? The Greek word «blasphèmia»
(βλασφημια)
translated by «blasphemy» means according to my dictionary a
«word of bad omen»; a «word which must not be pronounced in a
religious ceremony», and from there an «impious, ungodly and
irreligious word».
Nowhere in the Bible is God
really hurt by something someone says. Words uttered by mere
humans do not wound Him. The only time I recall Him talking
about His good name being put into question is when He decides
that He cannot continue to punish His people by letting them
in the hands of the goyim because
if He does so, the goyim
will be able to say that He was incapable of protecting them.
In the Septuagint we find Him again and again saving His
people for His good name's sake.
The God described
in the Septuagint does not need the sacrifices that are
given to Him; His good health does not depend on such a
religious thing being done according to the right
prescription. The only effect of the utterance of something
impious is to provoke His anger at the blasphemer
and the people around him. The consequence of the
blaspheme is thus something bad affecting not only
the person responsible but also the community in which he
lives. So again this affects others.
8.
What to make of all this?
What did we
learn from this Chapter? Jesus' main point is that we
have to love everyone the same, whether they are good or
bad, whether they want to do us good or evil. The corollary
of this is that we cannot defend ourselves or anybody else
for that matter; neither can we protect anything that we
have or that they have. This flies in the face of the basic
law of any civilized society where the right of defense of
self, family and possessions is primordial. No wonder that
those who live according to Jesus are at variance with their
family and society. They are to let their loved ones be
tortured rather than help them! And they are to forgive
and love those tormentors! They are to help those who steal
from them! No wonder this requires a strong trust in this
message of non violence and love! We need an unshakable trust
that God will provide us with His «August Breath» that will
sustain us to live a life of love whatever happens to us,
whether we are robbed, tortured or raped. We are to remain
steadfast in His ways of loving everyone whatever happens.
And think of them as better than us! Everything must be
subservient to this Law of Love of all.
Why must we? Why does Jesus tells us that we have to live
like that? Does not all this smack of sadism or masochism?
Why are we not «saved» if we follow the laws that
I mentionned earlier, laws that are normally considered
basic and moral in any civilized society?
According to my scheme, God loves everyone the same, good
or bad, sadists or not. This love of God will be for all
to see. We will know that God loves our torturors, our
rapists, our killers as much as us. We will know for a
fact that Adolf Hitler and mother Theresa are loved
equally by God. Will this fact revolt us or amaze us?
will it make us rebel or rejoice? Is it not a good idea
to get used to His ways now rather than to be shocked
later, and unable to accept them as infinitely right and
so live Hell for all eternity?
My conclusions
are very different from what is heard in most churches.
Why? Have they not read the texts I have just looked at?
Of course they have. But it seems that the idea of «pick
and choose» which Jesus applied to the Septuagint has
also been applied to His words by those who claim to
follow Him! So the sayings with which we are unconfortable
have been largely discarded.
There is more.
Those who claim to follow Jesus consider the Septuagint
as nearly as important as Jesus' words. For them,
Jesus came to «save» them by dying on the Cross as
required by the Septuagint: that was His main contribution.
His sayings are secundary, at par with the Septuagint.
And there is no doubt that what the Septuagint introduces
is a religion which ordains every aspect of a citizen's
life, in other words, a state religion.
As soon
as we want to introduce obligations on others, we need
a social compact. This the Torah creates while Jesus'
message does not. Jesus tells the individual what her
obligations are; not what others' obligations are toward her.
Jesus does not talk about rights. For Him, we have no
rights at all. We are at the disposal of others as we are
to love them completely whatever happens.
Such a message is definitely unacceptable to the
State as it cannot base law and order on it. On the
other hand, the Torah is perfectly acceptable
to the State. As my scheme does not permit me to
mitigate Jesus' message by the Septuagint, I end
up with a message that spells the end of the State
if it was to be lived by its citizens.
Soon
after Jesus' death some got concerned about creating
a «Christian» society. As a society is based on laws,
rights and obligations for those living in that social
group, they had to go to the Septuagint and so necessarily
«forget» some of Jesus' message as being impossible
for those «living in the world», in contact with other
citizens, either Christians or not. Jesus' message is
subversive and does not lend itself to create and
maintain a society. As my principle of coherence does
not permit me to jettison any part of Jesus' message,
I am stuck with the whole of His unconfortable,
anarchic and antisocial message.
The day the Roman Emperors wanted to make
Christianity a state religion was the day that
sealed the fate of Jesus' subversion. His message
was sanitized by the Septuagint, and the various kings
and emperors were able to see themselves as heirs
to David: they were now reigning by divine right! To
make a mockery of Jesus' message, we make Him
«King of Kings and Lord of Lords», Him Whom we crucified
after scurging Him, spitting on His message, and
hanging Him to die naked for all to see what a worm He
was! He is no king; He is that hidious beggar who
smells and stinks of liquor on the next street!
The Enemy, the Prince of this world order,
made Jesus into his own image, used Him to justify
his subjugation of all humans. Jesus' kingdom is not
of this world order. He does not give orders, laws
and obligations. He forgives all, loves all,
embraces all. And He begs us to do the same so we
can find happiness when we come face to face with
Reality, as we will inevitably do the day we die.
It is impossible to justify any law,
any state, any war, any justice system or any
morality (in the real sense of this term) by
Jesus' message if taken as a comprehensive whole
as required by my principle of coherence. If
this is indeed so, any «Christian» ethic is not
consistent with Jesus' message. In that case, whose
ethic is it? Does «Christian» mean «of Jesus» or
does it mean «figured out by people who kind of
follow Him after 'mature' reflection»? Or is it
that they do not really believe that the Gospels
accurately reported all of Jesus' sayings?
1 Matthew 23:9
2 Matthew 5:48
3 Matthew 5:44-45
4 Luke 6:36
5 Matthew 6:7-13;15
6 Mark 11:25-26
7 Luke 11:2-4
8 Luke 11:11-13
9 Matthew 7:7-12
10 Luke 12:24-34
11 Matthew 10:29
12 Mark 1:40-42 (also Matthew 8:2-4)
13 Mark 4:37-41 (also Luke 8:22-25)
14 Matthew 10:16-20
15 Matthew 16:24
16 Matthew 16:25
17 Matthew 16:26
18 Matthew 16:27
19 Matthew 10:32-33
20 Matthew 10:34-37
21 Matthew 10:38-39
22 Luke 14:26-27
23 Luke 14:28-33
24 Matthew 7:21-23
25 Matthew 7:24-27
26 Matthew 18:14
27 Matthew 18:10
28 Luke 14:8-11
29 Matthew 18:1-5
30 Mark 9:37
31 Mark 9:38-40
32 Matthew 18:6
33 Matthew 18:7-14
34 Matthew 6:1
35 Matthew 5:16
36 Matthew 6:24
37 Luke 16:9
38 Luke 16:10
39 Luke 16:11-12
40 Luke 14:12-14
41 Luke 12:15
42 Luke 12:16-20
43Luke 12:21
44 Matthew 19:21
45 Matthew 19:23-24
46 Matthew 19:29
47 Mark 12:41-44 (also Luke 20:1-4)
48 Matthew 12:33-37
(also Matthew 7:15-20)
49 Mark 7:14-15 (also Matthew 15:11)
50 Mark 7:18-19 (also Matthew 15:17)
51 Mark 7:20-23 (also Matthew 15:18-20)
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Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, June 6th, 2004
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