- I recently found an interesting monograph with a provoking title (How Jesus Became Christian by Barrie Wilson). The title has been stimulating me to think over and digest what the author really wants to convey. The following reflection is however genuine and free from Wilson's opinion on Jesus and Christianity.
- The phenomenal and influential Jewish Jesus some two thousand years ago has been the prime eternal unshakeable symbol of Christianity since His departure to be with His Father. How far do you think can we trace on and reflect on the relationship between the human earhtly Jewish Jesus and the Christ of the Christian church (faith)? How Jewish was Jesus? And at the same time, how Christian was he? What have the roles of Paul and other New Testament authors been in establishing the figure of Jesus as the icon of Christianity? Still another morally valid thought is how much the consistencies (and the discrepancies so to speak) between the New Testament Christianity and the 21st Century Christian church are really preserved. Did Jesus view himself the way we view him? Did Jesus perceive himself as what have been taught in the church today? Monographs, periodicals and essays from prominent Jesus scholars are plenty to answer those questions above.
- The point at stake is the fact that Christianity (the church) has been for centuries embracing Jesus as its central figure. Christians claim themselves as followers of Jesus without being validated and confirmed by the figure being followed. If the earthly Jesus were alive physically today, would he be happy with such a premise? Does the religion (the faith) of Jesus exactly concur with Christianity (Christian faith)?
- Some have said critically that the church may have been domesticating the teaching of Jesus. This critic suspects that the radical teachings of Jesus have somehow been softened to please the ears of the believers. German scholar, pastor and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer for example was severely criticizing the church for being too mild in practicing discipleship (Look at his classic best selling book published in 1937, Nachfolge [Cost of Discipleship; English translation]). Still others from a different angle also critically argue that the church may have been heightening and amplifying the teaching of Jesus from what they actually were intended by the master himself. Both poles indicate and assume there have been editing processes in transmitting the religion of Jesus to the formulation of Christian faith via New Testament documents.
- This post is not a challenge to modern Christian churches, nor a critique to an already worldwide established set of Christian doctrines. What I humbly wish to invite readers is simply to reflect on how faithful our lives as Christians to Jesus himself: his authoritative teaching, his simple but touching life, his love for the undeserved, his rigorous faithfulness, his servant leadership, his uncompromizing ethics and his based on love-moral as they are recorded in the Bible (I call this the religion of Jesus). What we believe in Christianity should indeed accurately mirror the religion of Jesus. Otherwise we may have to rethink our identity as Christians (or as members of a particular Christian church). Are we there because of Jesus, with Jesus and for Jesus? Are we honestly following Jesus according to what is written in Luke 9.23?
- And Jesus said to all,
- 'If anyone would come after me,
- let him deny himself
- and take up his cross daily
- and follow me'
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