The next few posts will involve an attempt to take the perspective of those in the story, and contemplate what we might learn from them.
John 19
23 When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24 “Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”
and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
Maybe when you read the accounts of Easter you find yourself most easily in the shoes of the Roman
soldiers. To them it seems Jesus was a just another problem to be dealt with.
Their ability to play dice for his garments in the presence of a gruesome
execution points to the way in which Jesus was entirely irrelevant to them. And maybe that’s how you’ve experienced Him at times; as a artifact of history,
with no real personal relevance.
Most often we assume this to be true for agnostics or atheists, because we assume that what people declare they believe, is their actual belief, and we expect their behaviors and choices to be in accord with their stated dogma.
But I've discovered that many people who have no specific identification with the historical Jesus, can be deeply connected to His teachings and the life He gives, without realizing it. Some of my self-labelled atheist friends are more concerned with living the life Jesus calls us to, than my devoutly Christian friends. So when I raise the issue of Jesus being irrelevant, like He was to the soldiers in this story, I'm not talking about how much a person attempts to explicitly associate themselves with the idea of Jesus in their heads. I'm talking about how the power of divine love is relevant to a person, and how they live it and how they are changed by it.
You may find yourself this Easter deeply entrenched in the pageantry of religious ceremonies. But what relevance does Jesus have for you, for me, in the midst of all that? What relevance does a person who taught and lived such a radical ethos as "love your enemies" have for us? Sometimes we domesticate Jesus, and make him into a pleasant friend that helps us when we're stuck. While this may not be inherently incorrect, it may be the kind of shrinking, limiting approach to Jesus that moves His life and His teaching into an increasingly irrelevant realm.
But if Jesus seems irrelevant, it is most likely in the same way that gravity might seem irrelevant - one might not understand the science of mass creating physical attractive forces, but one cannot live outside of the reality of gravity. There are forces in the universe that shape our existence and our daily lives. Love, the kind of love the Jesus teaches and embodies is one of those forces. And devoutly irreligious or not, to ignore a force like love, is to propagate pain and suffering in our lives and the world around us.
But I've discovered that many people who have no specific identification with the historical Jesus, can be deeply connected to His teachings and the life He gives, without realizing it. Some of my self-labelled atheist friends are more concerned with living the life Jesus calls us to, than my devoutly Christian friends. So when I raise the issue of Jesus being irrelevant, like He was to the soldiers in this story, I'm not talking about how much a person attempts to explicitly associate themselves with the idea of Jesus in their heads. I'm talking about how the power of divine love is relevant to a person, and how they live it and how they are changed by it.
You may find yourself this Easter deeply entrenched in the pageantry of religious ceremonies. But what relevance does Jesus have for you, for me, in the midst of all that? What relevance does a person who taught and lived such a radical ethos as "love your enemies" have for us? Sometimes we domesticate Jesus, and make him into a pleasant friend that helps us when we're stuck. While this may not be inherently incorrect, it may be the kind of shrinking, limiting approach to Jesus that moves His life and His teaching into an increasingly irrelevant realm.
But if Jesus seems irrelevant, it is most likely in the same way that gravity might seem irrelevant - one might not understand the science of mass creating physical attractive forces, but one cannot live outside of the reality of gravity. There are forces in the universe that shape our existence and our daily lives. Love, the kind of love the Jesus teaches and embodies is one of those forces. And devoutly irreligious or not, to ignore a force like love, is to propagate pain and suffering in our lives and the world around us.
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