Kristie Christie sets the record straight this Easter Sunday on 10 things Jesus wasn’t.
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In honor of Easter Sunday, let’s set the record straight on 10 things Jesus did not do and was not:
1. Jesus did not come to set up a new religion and rule system to make people feel bad about themselves.
In fact, Jesus continually challenged the religious institutions. Jesus set up a new reality, the Kingdom of God, and the kingdom is all about love, community and restoration with God…not religion. Religion has a way of separating us from God, Jesus is interested in reconciling our picture of and connection to God. If you’ve found church (and some churches are like this) to be a place of rules and religion, Jesus wouldn’t like it either.
2. Jesus did not say much about homosexuality, dating, or sex.
The church in the last century has talked a lot about dating, sex, and homosexuality. Sure sexuality is a very important topic and part of each one of us. The Bible does talk about sexual ethics, but Bible is not as explicit as many christians think when it comes to details of the do’s and don’ts. The truth is, modern christianity has created a sexual religion of rules and interpretations of the vague (but strong) sexual ethics found in the Bible. The Bible isn’t co-signing your bad behavior, but we find a bit more grey area than some would like to admit or believe. We are charged with looking at what we do have in scripture and interpreting them into our modern culture and context. The things the New Testament is crystal clear about: be committed to one person, love the other men and women in your life like brothers and sisters…not like hundreds of lovers, don’t cheat on your husband/wife, don’t molest children, don’t rape each other, don’t use people for your own pleasure…the things Paul and Jesus were talking about are actually things that our mass culture agrees with. Don’t use people, treat them with respect. Sex is a bonding soul connection, and you don’t want to connect your soul to 1000s of people, so be discerning. The rest is interpretation. Interpretation doesn’t mean it’s wrong, it just means it’s up to us to carefully look at.
3. Jesus did not come to make us rich.
The prosperity gospel has been gaining traction again in the last several years. I suppose it makes sense in a down economy that the theological culture shifts towards God as financial savior. It’s not new, but it’s also not true. Jesus isn’t Santa Claus. Jesus is a restorer, savior, friend, ally, care-taker, truth-teller, and the truth is…he doesn’t hand out Range Rovers and mansions as good behavior prizes. If you think this is the gospel, you’ve totally 100% missed the boat. You might get a Range Rover. You might get to live in a mansion. That’s not the point. The point is, Jesus didn’t set up a good behavior-merit system, but a forgiveness-grace system. God does provide. God does reward. I’m not saying he doesn’t— I just don’t expect God to be Santa Claus because that means the poor didn’t work hard enough and someone else did or something, and that’s just the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
4. Jesus was not just a nice guy who didn’t judge.
Have you heard the story of Jesus in the temple? He turned the tables over and was pretty pissed off because the religious people were manipulating what was sacred. Jesus had strong words to say. He had no patience for injustice, and he called a spade a spade. You see, to have mercy…you have to have justice…and that means there is right and a wrong. Jesus wasn’t afraid to bring light into dark spaces and call something bad and something else good. For example: oppressing people=bad, loving each other=good. Next time you hear someone say “Jesus didn’t judge” think again. What Jesus asked you not to do was to judge the people around you before you took care of your own side of the street. Over and over, he calls us to self-examine and do the soul-tending work of filling ourselves up with more love and light rather than careless, hurtful, sin.
Jesus turns cultural norms and beliefs on their head and begins a movement with men and women.
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5. Jesus was not best friends with perfect religious people.
Jesus had dinner with Zaccheaus. He was the worst. The “I’m-a-really-good-person” people were frustrated. They thought they’d earned a dinner meeting with Jesus, surely, more than this “loser.” Jesus intentionally connected with the people society had turned their back on and called outcasts. He was overturning the whole system of rules and cultural mandates…and this is one key reason he was really making people mad. What systems do you think need some backwards thinking today? Where would Jesus turn tables over in our lives?
6. Jesus did not hunt for easter eggs.
Ha. You knew this already. I just thought it was a fun one throw in to mix it up. Easter eggs are fun, but they weren’t a tradition at the Last Supper. While some will point to its origin in a pagan practice many centuries ago, I think this redemptive celebration/holiday is perfectly capable of restoring the meaning of eggs. Eggs are a conduit of new life bursting forth into the world. As Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” and it is. Eternal life actually starts now, bursting forth living this loving, gracious, truthful, paradigm-shifting way is what followers of Jesus are to live into, not wait for.
7. Jesus did not tell women they were less than men.
Women weren’t trusted to be eyewitnesses in court because the culture had deemed women as too unreliable. As we read the Easter story in the Bible, you’ll see that women were the first to hear the news and share it with the others. Here again, Jesus turns cultural norms and beliefs on their head and begins a movement with men and women. The restoration of all humans means that men and women are all valuable.
8. Jesus did not like white people more than brown people.
The modern christian missionary movement often has us picturing white people going to places where there are brown or black people in order to fix them and tell them that the way they are living is all wrong and needs to change. The truth is, Jesus was a brown man who started a movement to unite people of all races, creeds, socio economic status, and gender. Love unites and restores humanity. Jesus came to love and restore a human tribe.
9. Jesus is not the school principal on the playground or cop on the freeway.
Jesus did talk about right and wrong…but he didn’t come to set up rules to make us feel worthless. He lived life in a way that came to let us know that no matter what we do, we can not cause God to love us more or less. God’s love does not rely upon our behavior. God’s love is unconditional. God is not a cosmic cop waiting to see you make a mistake so He can write you a ticket. God is with you in your life, helping you, whispering love and help and care over your days.
10. Jesus does not say that you’re totally worthless.
Did someone tell you you’re not good enough? Did you begin believing that you would have to be really good in order to be loved? It happens to most of us. This “do enough good things and you’ll earn someone’s love” is the opposite of Easter. Easter is this message: “No matter what I do, I will never earn reconnection with God, so God has made the reconnection and restoration happen for me.” The truth is, you’re loved, you’re seen, you’re not worthless. You’re valuable. You’re precious. Easter is about making sure you know that.
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There’s a verse after the famous John 3:16 that gets lost a lot of the time, and I think it’s just as important:
John 3:17
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Easter is about restoration, and Jesus came to tell us that God wants to restore each of us and reconnect us to the divine relationship we were created for.
“We are charged with looking at what we do have in scripture and interpreting them into our modern culture and context”
This is the very definition of a slippery slope. We should shape our modern culture based on the scripture…not apply the scripture based on modern culture. Modern culture can be wrong, the scripture is unwavering.
Con’t. and we should as christains stand firm in the belief that the Bible IS God’s holy word and not say I believe this part but not that part…. that kinda sends the message that i will follow God, but only the parts I agree with…. guess What?! We are not God …. he is …. what HE says goes, doesn’t matter how we try to expalin it or rationalize it…. the fact is HE wants a relationship with us and loves us…BUT expects us to behave ourselves and be as much like Christ as we can ….yes we are… Read more »
1. Yes there are rules to be followed. They are called the ten commandements, As well as some other rules about conduct that as Christians we should be following. such as do not drink to get drunk, do not be a stumbling block to others, etc… 2. In repeating God’s creation ordinance found in Genesis that a man shall leave his family and cling to his wife, Jesus clearly is defining the relationship that is found in marraige between man and woman. 3. Yes Jesus did judge and whether or not we like it or not, or if it makes… Read more »
2. Jesus did not say much about homosexuality, dating, or sex. – See more at: https://goodmenproject.com/featured-content/10-things-jesus-kvc/comment-page-1/#comment-1304689 This is what I was able to find with regard to lust: “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” (Romans 13:14 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16) “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13)… Read more »
The first three are by Paul of Tarsus in letters to early Christian communities, not sayings of Jesus. It’s pretty clear that Paul expressed a particular interpretation of Christianity, the dominant form today, but there’s some real difference between what Jesus preached and the way that Paul interpreted it. What Paul thought about sex and marriage may have been quite different from what Jesus thought about sex and marriage. I know that’s heretical to say, but we are talking about two different people, one interpreting the teachings of another. Ironically, the quote from Jesus only mentions heterosexual lust of a… Read more »
I don’t think I claimed Paul’s letters to be quotes attributable to Jesus, however, Paul was an early disciple of Christ, even if he was not an apostle and thus his interpretation has some validity and certainly forms much of Roman Catholic theology. Steve, you failed to address the point I made and that was that lust outside the context of Marriage(marriage being only between a man and a woman at the time) was sinful. You do not plausibly argue that lust for one man by another in a similar circumstance would not have been considered sinful do you? What… Read more »
I don’t get why Jesus is always shown as skinny, at least average height, and with a full head of hair. It’s just as likely that he was stocky and bald. Or gangly and awkward. Or had a pock-marked face. Or overweight. Maybe he looked like Jason Alexander and not Jim Caviezel. Odds are good that he did NOT have blue or green eyes, like he always seems to have in white European images of him…..
Would you be on board with this reconstruction? Different, huh?
As good as any other, I suppose. It seems plausible. (Although forensic reconstruction is not as much a “hard science” as documentaries might lead you to believe. It’s scientific understanding of physiology with some art and imagination thrown in for good measure.) I wonder, though, it it’s not a little on the brutish side — maybe this is an aesthetic habit of physical anthropology in general?
Also may be a good reconstruction considering that what people call Jesus today may actually be a composite image of several similar people from the same historical context.
Also: Based on my memory of reading (some versions of) the Bible, and based on the historical context of the early days of Christianity: Jesus was a Jew. You can’t get more Jewish than Jesus. It’s even possible to say he was more a Jew than he was a Christian, insofar as those words even apply to first-century Judea. If you could even say that Jesus was a Christian, which is not an easy thing to argue. [Just assuming for the sake of argument that he existed, was born of Mary, etc. The beginning of Matthew is quite clear on… Read more »
Great stuff.
I’m not Christian but I found this article very sweet 🙂
1. He may not have but that’s what Catholics turned it into. 2. He may not have but that’s what the bible says. 3. Same as 1. 4. Only uneducated people think that Jesus was all love and no anger. 5. Same as 4. and Jesus surrounded himself with sinners at least a couple times during his life. I forgot the verse but it went a little something like, if a sheep herder had 100 sheep and lost 1, would he not search for the lost and rejoice with his friends when it was found. And 1 sinner whom repents… Read more »
6. It was put in as a bit of fun (I do believe the lady made that clear).
7. The author is trying to show how jesus has been misappropriated by the religions and used to fuel subjugation of women, amongst other things.
8. I think, as a man in a country ruled by Romans (I’ve been to Rome. It’s in Italy. White people live there) he would have known that white people existed. They had trade and stuff.
9. The metaphor appears to have been lost on you.
Have a nice day amigo.
Wow. You sound like a bitter ex-Catholic who doesn’t understand the meaning of the words nuance and metaphor. Try looking for a positive message in things you see–you’ll live longer!
“#8. If anything, Jesus was brown and most likely did not know white people existed.”
Sort of partly true, but probably not the way you intended. No one knew white people existed, because the concept of “white people” did not really exist yet in any meaningful way. There was no such thing as “white people” identity in the first century C.E. anywhere in the world.
Fantastic article – great truth in those!
About 3), I understand that this is actually an old Calvinist idea: According to Calvin people are predestined for salvation or hell, and one on those that are to be saved God bestows his blessings which manifests in them getting wealthy. Therefore hard work and material success has always been an important protestant value.
In addition, I would like to share this cartoon which I believe I got from another poster of this website originally.
Totally unfair. Jeezus would not waste his time with an M-16. He’s totally a Bushmaster kind of guy…. : – ) Predestination makes total logical sense if one accepts the basic assumptions about God. If God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then God knows the future and everything happens according to His plan. Therefore, everything is predestined, which means no one ever really makes any choice about anything. No free will at all. Kind of a logical dead-end as far as organized religion goes, so Calvinism had to think of some way out of it — you act like you have… Read more »
The message of the Gospel has been so misconstrued and made so complex. Thank you for blowing the cover off some of the clutter. At its core, the message of Jesus is “love one another, as I have loved you.” It is a profound reshaping of a world framed by judgment.
Great great great piece, Kristie.
Jesus was a jewish insurgent who wanted to kick the Romans out of Jerusalem, overthrow the puppet government and set up a totalitarian theocracy. This is still what his message promises. He’s also allegedly the one who came up with the idea of hell, a place of eternal torture for anyone who doesn’t accept his “love”.
I’m a former minister who’s now an atheist and know enough about Jesus to know that you give him way too much credit. Love comes from us not from the gods.
Jesus was crucified because he WASN’T the ‘insurgent who wanted to kick the Romans out of Jerusalem, overthrow the puppet government and set up a totalitarian theocracy’ that the Pharisees wanted. I don’t find the teaching of an eternally burning hell in Jesus’ teaching; I have done my own studies and don’t find this to be a Biblical teaching. There’s an excellent documentary available on Netflix called ‘Hellbound?’ you might find interesting.
Hey Dennis, You bring up an interesting point by mentioning hell. There are so many misconceptions about hell, and I think it’s so sad that it’s been fear that preachers have used to draw people to Jesus. I have learned a lot researching the root words and meanings of hell. It’s quite different than I’ve heard others describe. You might be surprised that Jesus wasn’t talking about the kind of torture chamber that has been perpetuated by preachers in the last century. As a former minister, I’m sure you know that love requires choice. I think there is choice here… Read more »
Hey Kristie, Your comment ….but I think a gracious God may allow us to choose to be with him after we die too… This is such a limited and childish concept. Jesus, my guess was just another in a long line of enlightened beings who had discovered his essential nature. Shame that the religion that grew up after his death has failed his vision. My dad was a roman catholic and knew scripture well but refused to indoctrinate me with it’s illogical philosophy. I am grateful to him for that. When I was ready to think carefully and rationally about… Read more »
Actually, historical evidence suggests that the heaven/hell binary is a concept that predated Christianity by a few centuries. It’s mostly a creation of Zoroastrianism, which also had a profound effect on Judaism and Islam. (The concept of a “God of goodness” vs. a “being of evil”/Satan was a Zoroastrian invention.) Some of the earliest names for Hell, like “Gehenna,” refer to actual place names, for example the site of ritual human sacrifice and other taboo places. If Joshua ben Joseph of Nazareth (Jesus) made any reference to Hell, it was an idea that was already centuries old.
hi kristie! i enjoyed your 10 things Jesus wasn’t piece very much, thank you! 🙂 one note that occurred to me was in the passage, ‘While some will point to its origin in a pagan practice many centuries ago, I think this redemptive celebration/holiday is perfectly capable of giving a new meaning to an old thing. Eggs are a conduit of new life bursting forth into the world. As Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand!” and it is.’ just wanted to make the point that eggs symbolizing ‘new life bursting forth…’ is actually not a new meaning,… Read more »
Hi Megan,
Yes, you’re absolutely right! Symobols of death to life are woven throughout the lifecycle, telling the story over and over.
You forgot: “Jesus was not the son of god. He was only a man.”
Hey Matt,
Nah, I just don’t agree. There is far too much evidence and scholarship supporting Jesus’ claims to be God to discount it. How we each deal with that, that’s up to each one. Personally, I choose to believe that He is the son of God. That’s me, and it doesn’t have to be you. 🙂 Isn’t that the good news? No one has to be just like the next guy…we all get choice in this deal.
I appreciate you standing up for you belief of Jesus’ divinity, but I would point out that it s more than just Jesus’ claims to be God that form the basis of that belief. Psalms prophesy predicts the coming of Christ and his life and the reference the “Son of Man” coming to establish a new order. Many of his followers of the day believed he was the Christ. In the early church there was some debate about His divinity but ultimately the believers of his divinity prevailed and the accepted Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) as well as… Read more »
believe we all do get a choice that’s freewill,But also believe that GOD chooses us ,not the other way around ,how is it good news that this person doesn’t believe that Jesus is GOD & man, When it is taught that no one comes to the FATHER except through Jesus? I am addressing this? as to your repy to Matt
Actually, there is *no* evidence or scholarship supporting Jesus’ claims to be God. First you say that there is evidence. Then you say, more accurately, that you believe. I agree, believe whatever you want, but belief is critical, as evidence is not Christianity’s strong suit.
Matt, that is your belief and your comment should be qualified accordingly. It is the belief of 3.5 billion Christians that he was the Son of God.
You are mistaken to suggest that not believing that Jesus is the Son of God is a belief. It’s an unbelief. The onus is on those making the assertion. You also mention that 3.5 billion people believe as you do. According to Pew, it is 2 billion, but it is, nonetheless a great many people. However, that does not mean that those 2 billion people are correct.
While your reply sounds scholarly, it’s inaccurate. One does not have to prove something to make it a valid belief. As long as one ‘accepts it (to be true)’ then they believe it – whether it’s right or wrong factually. belief [ biˈlēf ] NOUN an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists: However, I do believe that Jesus is both the Son of God and God incarnate. Not by blind faith, but because of what the Bible proclaims. (Here are two instances that immediately come to mind – John 1:1-1 KJV; and Jesus confirms it Himself… Read more »