Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ (“Anointed One”), is perhaps the most recognized figure in the world today. There is hardly anywhere in the world one could go where the name of Jesus, some depiction of him or the story of his life, can’t be found. Indeed, the life of Jesus is an extraordinary one, and the story of this pauper and spiritual master still resonates deeply with millions of paupers crucified daily by man-made plight, heavy burdened with the weight of the world, longing for spiritual resurrection.
Still, while certain distinct depictions and stories of Jesus the Christ are easily recognizable for Western Christians anywhere they go in the world, the figure of Christ is often overlooked and even scorned and crucified all over again by arrogant Westerners who can’t see Christ when they find her, those who can’t see the face of God when it looks very different from what they expected.
Of course, just like those who crucified Jesus of Nazareth some 2,000 years ago.
The religion of Jesus, one could say, was more than Judaism – his religion was the catholic religion. No, not the “Roman Catholic” religion, but the universal faith; the word “catholic” means “universal.”
Religion is universal. It has been practiced everywhere in the world, in some form or other, since the dawn of humankind. Today, many of us recognize that the world’s major religions, while differing on very specific (and spiritually irrelevant) points of contention, emphasize certain core values, values shared by humans throughout the world. This heart of religion, the essential goodness the vast majority of us recognize and expect from others wherever we may be from, whatever the color of our skin, whatever our gender or sexuality, this heart of religion is what we can truly call the “catholic” faith, the universal faith.
Jesus preached the universal faith. While many other Jews of his time concerned themselves with the proscriptions of scripture and religious taboos, with temple ritualism and apocalyptic expectations of supernatural intervention by God, Jesus the carpenter called for a return to simpler religion.
Jesus, while he was called Master and teacher by his followers, issued but two commandments: “Love the lord thy God with all thy heart”, that was his first commandment. Love the Supreme Goodness itself with all your heart. “And the second commandment is like unto it,” he said. “Love thy neighbour as thyself.”
And that was it.
That was the sum total of Jesus’ message. The heart of Jesus’ message had nothing to do with professing a trinitarian belief in God, but Christianity has, over the centuries, increasingly placed an undue emphasis on the concept of God in three “persons”, as “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” We hear nothing of this from Jesus. We also hear nothing of a papacy from Jesus, or of establishing a church that can infallibly declare dogmas of faith, or of scripture being infallible (in fact, nowhere in the Bible do we find any claim that its various books are in any way, shape, or form perfect or infallible). He doesn’t even tell us to go to church on Sundays. He says to love God, and love your neighbor. He says of those who are different, “love your enemies” and “he that is not against us, is for us.”
He that is not against us, is for us! How exceedingly different from the mentality of today’s self-professed Christians-par-excellence for whom anyone not with them must be against them. That seems to be the mentality of a great majority of “Christendom”, for whom different means wrong, for whom outsiders are evildoers in need of reform. How very Pharisaic.
They do not see Jesus in the slums, his black skin covered in dirt, sweating profusely under the sweltering heat of oppression.
They do not see Jesus in the Buddha, sitting in silent meditation, heart throbbing with compassion, transforming lives and granting peace to those who did not have it before.
They do not see Jesus in the atheist who comforts a grieving widow after she has lost her husband to the wickedness of war, who himself grieves for the soldier who served with him in the foxhole.
They do not see the face of Jesus in the faces of millions of saintly Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Unitarians and many others who daily strive to love God, Goodness itself, and neighbor, with all their hearts and minds.
Many praise his venerable name with their tongues, but betray him with their hearts and actions. They claim a self-righteous infallibility in his name, perform false miracles in his name, take money from the poor through unreasonable religious demands to maintain their own lavish lifestyles, in his name, defend rich thieves, exploitative politicians and businessmen and the powers-that-be in his name, and exacerbate human warfare and violent tendencies in his name, in the name of the Prince of Peace, lover of the poor, accuser of the rich, enemy of the priests of the temple. Of these, what does he say through the scriptures? “Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name? And then I will profess unto them: I never knew you, depart from me you workers of iniquity.”
It was people such as these who crucified Jesus some 2,000 years ago, because his message, so radical, so contrary to their pseudo-values, scandalized them.
Jesus is universal. He belongs to everyone! His gospel (“good news”) is universal. It belongs to everyone! Yet both Jesus of Nazareth and the gospel he proclaimed for the nations of the world have been tribalized, particularized and entangled in the web of human pettiness. Jesus has been made Western, although he never knew of the West as we know it today. He has been made a Christian, although “Christianity” as we know it would not begin to take form until centuries after his death. He has been made the complacent friend of the rich, tolerant of the abuses of the priests of the temple, and intolerant of all those who are different, of enemies and scapegoats which seem to abound. All this quite contrary to that simple, universal gospel for which he gave his life.
Jesus’ gospel is seen in the teachings of Buddhism, a religious movement which existed long before Jesus’ birth. It is seen, also, in Hindu scripture and doctrine, Hinduism being yet another religious movement pre-dating the birth of Jesus, pre-dating Buddhism, and pre-dating almost all the world’s religious traditions. Jesus’ gospel is echoed in Islam, in the Qur’an, where God is praised as compassionate, merciful, loving and all are commanded to love neighbor as self. Jesus’ gospel is echoed in the lives of countless Jews today who practice a simple religion of love of the Divine, and love of neighbor, maintaining the very ancient traditions that Jesus himself would have partaken of, since he himself was a Jew.
The Christ, the spiritual liberator, the Anointed Messenger, is seen throughout the world. Every great prophet is a Christ. Everyone who lives her life by the two commandments which Jesus emphasized is a Christ. Buddha is a Christ. Krishna is a Christ. Countless others are Christs. Do we realize this? Do we give them their due station of veneration? Or do we allow the cruel-hearted wolves in sheep’s clothing to insult and degrade them, supposedly, in Jesus’ name?
Unitarian Universalists, being for the unity of all humankind, venerate the universal essentials of human religion, honoring Jesus of Nazareth as well as all the other prophets and Christs I have mentioned above. They claim a high station as spiritual leaders and exemplars. The love of God is revealed to us in all of them, “God” meaning what it may to each of us. How we live our lives is what matters most in religion, especially in the Unitarian religion. Jesus would expect nothing less from us!
The world’s conception of Christ needs to be re-catholicized, since it’s lost sight of the heart of Jesus’ message. The big picture has been lost in the mess of dogma, tribalism, and empty religiosity that followed Jesus’ death. Christ has never died of course. Christ is risen! Christ is alive and well, and always has been, throughout the world, his gospel of love pulsating through the veins of Buddha, Krishna, Apollo, Athena, Venus, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, through many, many saints, and of course, through the memory of a Jewish rabbi and carpenter by the name of Jesus, who, in some sense, is very alive in the world of today. It is not Christ who has died, but we who lose out when we lose sight of the universality of Jesus’ message, a message he brought us so that we might “have life, and have it more abundantly.”
A popular Taize chant goes something like this: “Nothing can ever come between us and the love of God, the love of God, revealed to us in Christ Jesus…”
Let nothing come between us and the love revealed to us by so many spiritual masters throughout the world and throughout time professing the catholic faith, the universal faith, the faith of all time, the simple gospel which Jesus of Nazareth himself, one Christ among many, did so adamantly profess, even unto death. Let us return to the catholic faith, the universal faith, known by the many nations of the world throughout time. In embracing this simple faith at the heart of all religious traditions, let us have life, and let us have it more abundantly.
