Jesus

There's a passage in the Bible where Jesus preaches in his hometown Nazareth. People are happy to see him, they are proud of him. But then, after he tells them what God really sent him to do, they chase him out of town and almost drive him off a cliff. (Read the story in Luke 4:16-30.)

They don't want to hear what he has to say. Because he tells them that sometimes God chooses foreigners over the ones who consider themselves to be God's favorites. God chooses the poor over the rich, the oppressed over the oppressors. And while that is good news for the poor and the oppressed, it is bad news for the rich and the oppressors. 

It's been almost 2000 years since Jesus preached that sermon. Millions and millions of Christians all over the world claim to follow his teachings. And yet... A small percentage of people (many of them self-proclaimed Christians!) own the majority of wealth in our world, while a large number can't afford nutritious food, healthcare or education. The wealthy benefit from certain parts of the population remaining oppressed and poor (depending on what country you're looking at this could be immigrants, refugees, indigenous peoples, people of color, women, children, LGBTQ folk, and many others.) 

Really? 2000 years we've been supposedly following this Jesus and we've only moved further away from the good news he came to proclaim. How did we miss this message of his that is so abundantly clear?

Honestly, if people had taken Jesus' message seriously and actually tried to live by it, Christianity would still be a small minority. Maybe it wouldn't even exist anymore. Because who would want to give up their wealth, their freedom, their privilege just because some carpenter's son said so? 

And yet we call that carpenter's son our Savior. 

Which he is. But his mission was not to save us from hell and eternal damnation. That was an instrument used by the religious institution, the church, to instill fear in people and keep them under control. What Jesus really came to save us from was greed, power, bigotry, and selfishness. 

And we need that salvation today more than ever before.

What can you do? Do what Jesus did. Speak uncomfortable, even provocative truths about the injustices of our society. Educate yourself about the life of marginalized people. Share what you have learned. Don't be afraid to offend. Jesus wasn't! 

Maybe things had to go from bad to worse so we would finally see that something needs to change. And it needs to begin with us. It's time we really started to follow Jesus. 

What will you do?