Hopeful Thinking - Saturday, April 8, 2023 - The Crux of It All

When we look at the words and actions of Jesus, there’s a dharmic pattern of teaching that emerges with six different categories. Through his parables and his behavior, Jesus of Nazareth taught life practices on forgiveness, compassion, hospitality, nonresistance, empowerment, and gratitude. 

Here’s the crux of it: All the things that he spoke about, demonstrated, or explained in parable form, all of these teachings are about relationship. How we interact with other people. How we treat our enemies. How we diffuse and de-escalate a tense or dangerous situation. How we treat our sick, widowed, orphaned, and imprisoned. How to raise one another up. 

Why? If God had devised a way to get us these teachings through the person of Jesus; and not just Jesus, by the way, because there have been many teachers and prophets beginning about 2,500 years ago who have taught humanity these things, why are these teachings so important? What is their purpose?

I like to think it’s because we needed them. My faith tells me that enough of humanity finally began praying for peace from their gods, not just prosperity, but for peace. And so, the teachers came. They came so they could insert some dignity and compassion into our civilization at just the right time, and in the most effective ways possible, so that as we grew, in both population size as well as knowledge, we would not only avoid catastrophe, but thrive as a people of great promise.

The martyrdom of Christ sealed his commitment to humanity as a teacher of these great truths. 

Did he rise from the dead? I don’t know. And I definitely don’t know if it’s true that his death reconciled humanity with God. That cosmic information is patently inaccessible to humanity. We cannot know if the death of Jesus somehow saved us from something. That it is printed in the Bible does not constitute irrefutable proof. It is an article of faith.

But we can say that forgiveness is a good idea. One which ends cycles of violence. We can say, with assurance, that hospitality is the cornerstone of diplomacy, and peace, and encourages the presence of diversity. We know the statistical impacts of deliberate compassion and empathy. These were taught by the masters, Jesus included.

If we can prove nothing about the cosmic reasons for the death of Jesus, we can say for a fact that the teachings work.

My favorite scripture of all might not even be a true story. It appears only in one Gospel. Luke. And Luke was not an apostle, he was a historian, really. Likely commissioned by a wealthy benefactor, whom Luke addresses as Theophilus, to write down the narrative of Jesus and his apostles for him about 100 years after the fact “so that he may know the truth of the things he has heard.”. 

Luke pieces together stories from various sources for his works, including the other gospels. Most of his sources are known. But the origin of my favorite scripture is completely unknown. It is Luke chapter 23, verse 34. Jesus has just been nailed to the cross and is about to die. He says, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.”

Now, perhaps this line is a literary device. Perhaps it’s a fabricated bit of imagined dialogue on Luke's part. But it’s interesting that it’s there. Because, even if fiction, there is a beautifully synthesized truth to it. It shows that Luke truly understood the teachings. He had gleaned the true purpose of what our role on earth is intended to be. He understood that we are guided by faith to do the impossible: forgive even those who have done, or are in the process of doing, the unthinkable.

If you can manage to forgive and even have compassion for those who are against you there is a sacred benefit to that. There is an energetic ripple effect to the dramatic grace and benevolence you are demonstrating. It rings a bell in the Universe. People will notice it and see in you the examples of how they in turn might demonstrate the same. They will learn that forgiveness does not mean avoiding responsibility, it means their actions no longer have emotional power over you. They will learn how forgiveness inspires restorative justice which heals our community rather than seeking retributive justice which only destroys it.

Jesus died to get this message out in the most dramatic way possible. In that sense, he died for you. In that sense, he has offered a true way out of cycles of violence and opened doors of hospitality on your behalf. That does not require a belief in his divinity. The proof is in the practice.

The celebration of Easter is all the more meaningful when we remind ourselves that loving one another by raising each other up was the primary lesson Jesus taught and lived for. Everyone has their own worldview on this of course, and all of them matter. When in doubt, however, simply love one another. Love will know what to do next.