CosmicSandBox’s Weblog

We hear this question bandied about lately. I think it is because we’re at the same place that Israel was in under the Roman rule in the first century before they were crushed by the Romans in 70 A.D.  At a subconscious level people now feel a great unease as they did then when Jesus lived. 

Imminent catastrophe looms on the horizon as it did then. Governments are mostly corrupt dictatorships pandering to the super rich, while masses grovel in the trenches to eek out a living. Our government is much like Rome was – a miltaristic empire suffering from ED, or Empire Dysfunction as Caroline Casey* has defined it. 

Control but no Command* is the rule of the day. No reverence for God or Creation. People are commodities, not valued spiritual beings clothed in flesh. Inequities abound between rich and poor, free and slave. Sounds awfully grim, doesn’t it? Things haven’t changed much in 2000 years. Alas! 

Jesus was not a super hero. We are seeing a lot of those movies now, because in our weakness we think that might just be the only salvation for “the huddled masses yearning to be free”. But bigger, stronger attackers can’t be the answer. Jesus came on the scene as a prophet consumed with compassion like Jeremiah in the Old Testament who was also called the “weeping prophet”. Not your typical Super Hero to the rescue.

If you could conjure up Jesus and ask him what he would do in 2008, he would probably weep like Jermiah. Most religious leaders of the world would condemn him as they did then, because he would tell them the same thing he did the leaders in Jerusalem: “Love your enemies, feed the poor, love God with all your heart and your neigbor as yourself.” Wow! Not a very popular or politically correct message. And I might add…impossible to do in one’s own strength.

The rich and powerful would certainly disdain him. He proclaimed, “Sell all you have a give to the poor. You can’t serve two masters – God and Money.” 

Jesus’ demographics was the disinfranchised who had no money to spend on stuff. They were not anyone’s “target market”. No one polled them ever. They had no say in anything. Can you imagine setting a career path to minister and teach this group?  Yet that’s what Jesus did.  More in Part 2

*Caroline Casey – visionaryactivism.com                   *See previous post on Control or Command