Tuesday, January 29, 2013

WWJD?

Seriously, what would Jesus do?

Imagine, for a moment, that somehow, we could make Jesus appear, magically. 

There you are, sitting on a bench, minding your own business and, Presto!  There he is.  Jesus. Of Nazareth.

The reason you know it's him is that, not only does it look like him, beard, robe, etc.  But he's carrying a Martin guitar which is made in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.  Near Bethlehem, also in Pennsylvania. And all this time you thought it was Nazareth...in the old country.  Funny...

Anyway, here's Jesus.  The man, the myth, the legend.

Do you approach him?  Do you say "hi?"  Do you wait for him to come up to you?

If it's me, I go up to him.  I put out my hand and I say, "Jesus?  How are you?  Welcome.  Wanna sit and visit for a bit?"

Given that he's new in town my suspicion is that he says "yes" and now you're off to the races.

Obviously you both have a lot of questions.  "Can you save us?"  "What did you really mean?" "Are you married or not?"

His questions are no less interesting. "What's that thing in your hand that you keep fiddling with?" "Why is there a metal ring in your nose?"  "What's an Obama?"

But ultimately you look to Jesus for some answers.  Granted, he has already given us a few, the whole New Testament thing, you know.  But things seem to be going to Hell in a hand basket and Hell is, after all, something that Jesus is supposed to know about.

Well not Hell, necessarily, but certainly Heaven.  He's been there, or so goes the folklore.  The Last Supper, Easter, The Resurrection.  All of that stuff.

As the story goes, Jesus was crucified, put in a cave and, after a day or so, emerged from the cave, spoke a few words and then went off into history. 

Believe it or don't but it suggests that Jesus would be an authority on the afterlife, Heaven, if he, in fact, had the experience that is credited to him.

So if he's been to Heaven and seen God then he can tell us the best ways to avoid Hell.  And the hand basket for that matter.

He would reiterate the Love thing, the "love thy neighbor" business as well as the "turn the other cheek" line of conflict resolution.

He had some good ideas, or so we are led to believe.  He had publicists and boosters, mind you, but even if he said only half of the things that we think he said, he's still way ahead of most of us, especially those of us who speak "in his name."

Some of those guys are unreal.  They prance and pontificate and preach "the word of God" as if they know.

What do they know?  They know what they've read or what has been told to them but nothing of the real word.  They weren't there.  How could they know the truth?

But here you are face to face with "The Man".  The Big Kahuna.  Himself.

"What should we do?"

He 's not going to reinvent the prophecy wheel.  He's not going to amend his previous declarations.  He's simply going to restate the obvious.

If you are nice to people and treat them with respect and offer them love they will treat you in kind.

Jesus was a nice guy.  He was a part time carpenter, loved his parents, had some close friends and spent his short life walking around telling people to be kind to one another.

How can that be bad. 

But what we have done in the past 2000 years, "in his name" is to twist and corrupt his words of love and use them to our own selfish advantage.

So if I'm sitting there, minding my own business and, all of a sudden, Jesus appeared and wanted to talk I'd only have one thing to say.

"Please forgive me."

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