Over breakfast recently, my friend Rev. Phil and I were discussing financial abundance, Jesus, respectful use of resources, Krishna, and where to get the best red chile in Santa Fe. Actually, I was the only one talking about chile. My money is still on Josie’s red chile, by the way, but, I digress.
Rev. Phil quoted Jesus from the New Testament, when he said, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven.” (For someone who was raised Jewish, Rev. Phil knows a lot of Christian scripture.) I asked him if he knew the origin of the story, which set me off on one of my long, boring, lectures on exegesis. It’s really interesting, and since you’re reading this post, you must be interested in things spiritual, so I’ll share it with you. Some people teach how that in the ancient Middle East, cities were protected by walls. Depending on the size of the city, there would be two or more gates. These gates were quite substantial, and required several men to open and close. During the day, the gates would be open, and merchants from caravans, along with wandering tribesmen, would come into the city to trade, to buy, or to sell. While the gates were open, they were heavily guarded. Before the sun went down, the guards would announce that anyone without permission to stay the night in the city, must leave. If those without permission to stay didn’t leave, they would be imprisoned, perhaps even executed as a thief or spy. Built within the massive city gates, there was a smaller gate, perhaps four feet wide, by four feet tall. In the event that a trusted merchant arrived at the city after the gates were closed, if he were lucky, he’d be allowed to enter. It was dangerous outside the city walls. That was usually where thieves and murderers congregated, sort of like the US Congress today. But again, I digress.
When the trusted merchant received permission to come in after the city gates were closed, he had to unpack his camels, no small task. Then he had to lug all that merchandise through the small opening. Next, he had to get the camel down on its knees, and coax it through the small opening. No matter how many times a camel might have been through that ordeal, it invariably balked. It also hissed, spat and tried to bite anyone nearby. This small door, as you might have already guessed, was called “The Eye of the Needle”. The camel could get through, but it took a lot of pushing, shoving, crouching down, contortion, unpacking, repacking, and was generally a difficult task.
Now there was no such gate; I've been to Jerusalem, and I can tell you-what this was was a popular form of Hebrew hyperbole-a joke about attachment, and maybe an Aramaic pun. Therefore, when Jesus addressed this story to a crowd of Middle Easterners two thousand years ago, they knew exactly what he was saying. There’s nothing wrong with being financially wealthy. It is the preoccupation with acquiring and maintaining financial wealth that keeps one from exploring the things of spirit. Jesus was saying, in today’s language that rational materialism or political-social action can seem noble, but if they keep you from recognizing the wealth that comes from simple living and high thinking, you can’t progress in spirit. When you understand something of the roots of the Christian and Jewish scriptures, you can get a fuller appreciation of the spiritual treasures contained in them. So, it’s not impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom, it’s just very hard. Why? It is because his finances are usually uppermost in his mind, and he evaluates everything according to whether it will make him money, or not. He sees the things of spirit as profitless distractions.
There is another story of Jesus addressing the Jewish religious leaders. He knew that they were totally focused on following rules and regulations. He told them that thieves, prostitutes, and collaborators with the Roman occupiers would enter the promised Kingdom of God before they would. Can you imagine how angry that must have made them? Can you imagine how outraged they must’ve been? How might this story play out if Jesus were here in the USA today? Well, let’s exercise a bit of poetic license and see what might happen.
Once upon a time, Jesus requested the honor of addressing the Southern Baptist Convention, therefore Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the officials of the Southern Baptist Convention did a little background check on this Jesus fellow. They discovered that his Mum got pregnant with him before she was married. They found that Jesus was homeless, couldn’t hold a steady job, had never filed a tax return, and had no record of military service to his country. Even more disturbing, they discovered that he was unmarried, and always in the company of other men. He knew a few women , but they seemed to be of questionable morals. His practice of traditional family values seemed to them to be, putting it kindly, suspect. They denied him permission to address the assembly of the Southern Baptist Convention. As Rev. Jerry Falwell, Rev. Pat Robertson and the other leaders were leaving the convention hall in Dallas, Jesus said to them, “You are a low down bunch of liars, cheats and tax-exempt hypocrites. I am telling you the absolute truth when I say that abortionists, atheists, gays and lesbians, drug dealers, liberals and Madonna will go to heaven before you will. You remind me of an expensive, deluxe, bronze casket at the graveside: Bright, polished and shiny outside, but inside dead and decaying. You are, in fact, offspring of the evil one, the father of lies, and there is no truth in you.”
Can you imagine how they would react? They would be furious. Soon, Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh would come to the defense of Rev. Jerry Falwell and his cohorts. President Bush would tell Jesus, “Look, you’re either with us or against us”. Jesus might answer him thusly, “George W., you have no power except the power entrusted to you by God. Remember, you will be judged by how you use that power”.
Jesus might try to address a Joint Session of Congress. Of course, they wouldn’t allow that, so he’d write his congressman. In his letter, Jesus would say; “You tried to kill me. You confiscated my money, and I couldn’t afford medicine. You lied to me, and you misused the trust placed in you. You enriched yourself at my expense”. The congressman’s assistant would write back; “Dear Mr. Jesus, When did we try to kill you, or take your possessions, or keep you from getting medicine?” Jesus would respond by saying; “When you bomb anyone, you are bombing me. Whenever you steal resources from others, you are robbing me. Whatever you do to the least important of your constituents, you do to me.” The current power structure would not be any more pleased with Jesus today than the power structure was two thousand years ago.
I’m hardly an expert on the teachings of Jesus. Despite my shortcomings, however, I do have enough sense to look around and see what a mess some of the churches have made of the message of love and forgiveness taught by Jesus. You don’t have to be a prophet to see where those who invoke Jesus are taking us. They talk a lot about Jesus, but their religion usually takes the form of a weapon used to attack people. Do you want to know what people believe about God? Watch how they live. Pay attention to how they treat others. The sad fact is that we are living in an age when religion has been degraded, and has become a tool of the evil one, the enemy. It’s interesting to note that the evil one always quoted scripture to Jesus when he tried to confuse and trick Jesus. Don’t be unduly impressed by those who have a scripture quote for everything. The evil one is a scripture scholar, and is far more active in politics and churches than in abortion clinics or same sex civil unions. Many of those in positions of political and religious leadership are not of the Light. They speak to you of God and the prophets, but their true master is the father of lies.I think we ignore this at our own peril.
edited for punctuation, again
Rev. Phil quoted Jesus from the New Testament, when he said, “It’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven.” (For someone who was raised Jewish, Rev. Phil knows a lot of Christian scripture.) I asked him if he knew the origin of the story, which set me off on one of my long, boring, lectures on exegesis. It’s really interesting, and since you’re reading this post, you must be interested in things spiritual, so I’ll share it with you. Some people teach how that in the ancient Middle East, cities were protected by walls. Depending on the size of the city, there would be two or more gates. These gates were quite substantial, and required several men to open and close. During the day, the gates would be open, and merchants from caravans, along with wandering tribesmen, would come into the city to trade, to buy, or to sell. While the gates were open, they were heavily guarded. Before the sun went down, the guards would announce that anyone without permission to stay the night in the city, must leave. If those without permission to stay didn’t leave, they would be imprisoned, perhaps even executed as a thief or spy. Built within the massive city gates, there was a smaller gate, perhaps four feet wide, by four feet tall. In the event that a trusted merchant arrived at the city after the gates were closed, if he were lucky, he’d be allowed to enter. It was dangerous outside the city walls. That was usually where thieves and murderers congregated, sort of like the US Congress today. But again, I digress.
When the trusted merchant received permission to come in after the city gates were closed, he had to unpack his camels, no small task. Then he had to lug all that merchandise through the small opening. Next, he had to get the camel down on its knees, and coax it through the small opening. No matter how many times a camel might have been through that ordeal, it invariably balked. It also hissed, spat and tried to bite anyone nearby. This small door, as you might have already guessed, was called “The Eye of the Needle”. The camel could get through, but it took a lot of pushing, shoving, crouching down, contortion, unpacking, repacking, and was generally a difficult task.
Now there was no such gate; I've been to Jerusalem, and I can tell you-what this was was a popular form of Hebrew hyperbole-a joke about attachment, and maybe an Aramaic pun. Therefore, when Jesus addressed this story to a crowd of Middle Easterners two thousand years ago, they knew exactly what he was saying. There’s nothing wrong with being financially wealthy. It is the preoccupation with acquiring and maintaining financial wealth that keeps one from exploring the things of spirit. Jesus was saying, in today’s language that rational materialism or political-social action can seem noble, but if they keep you from recognizing the wealth that comes from simple living and high thinking, you can’t progress in spirit. When you understand something of the roots of the Christian and Jewish scriptures, you can get a fuller appreciation of the spiritual treasures contained in them. So, it’s not impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom, it’s just very hard. Why? It is because his finances are usually uppermost in his mind, and he evaluates everything according to whether it will make him money, or not. He sees the things of spirit as profitless distractions.
There is another story of Jesus addressing the Jewish religious leaders. He knew that they were totally focused on following rules and regulations. He told them that thieves, prostitutes, and collaborators with the Roman occupiers would enter the promised Kingdom of God before they would. Can you imagine how angry that must have made them? Can you imagine how outraged they must’ve been? How might this story play out if Jesus were here in the USA today? Well, let’s exercise a bit of poetic license and see what might happen.
Once upon a time, Jesus requested the honor of addressing the Southern Baptist Convention, therefore Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the officials of the Southern Baptist Convention did a little background check on this Jesus fellow. They discovered that his Mum got pregnant with him before she was married. They found that Jesus was homeless, couldn’t hold a steady job, had never filed a tax return, and had no record of military service to his country. Even more disturbing, they discovered that he was unmarried, and always in the company of other men. He knew a few women , but they seemed to be of questionable morals. His practice of traditional family values seemed to them to be, putting it kindly, suspect. They denied him permission to address the assembly of the Southern Baptist Convention. As Rev. Jerry Falwell, Rev. Pat Robertson and the other leaders were leaving the convention hall in Dallas, Jesus said to them, “You are a low down bunch of liars, cheats and tax-exempt hypocrites. I am telling you the absolute truth when I say that abortionists, atheists, gays and lesbians, drug dealers, liberals and Madonna will go to heaven before you will. You remind me of an expensive, deluxe, bronze casket at the graveside: Bright, polished and shiny outside, but inside dead and decaying. You are, in fact, offspring of the evil one, the father of lies, and there is no truth in you.”
Can you imagine how they would react? They would be furious. Soon, Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh would come to the defense of Rev. Jerry Falwell and his cohorts. President Bush would tell Jesus, “Look, you’re either with us or against us”. Jesus might answer him thusly, “George W., you have no power except the power entrusted to you by God. Remember, you will be judged by how you use that power”.
Jesus might try to address a Joint Session of Congress. Of course, they wouldn’t allow that, so he’d write his congressman. In his letter, Jesus would say; “You tried to kill me. You confiscated my money, and I couldn’t afford medicine. You lied to me, and you misused the trust placed in you. You enriched yourself at my expense”. The congressman’s assistant would write back; “Dear Mr. Jesus, When did we try to kill you, or take your possessions, or keep you from getting medicine?” Jesus would respond by saying; “When you bomb anyone, you are bombing me. Whenever you steal resources from others, you are robbing me. Whatever you do to the least important of your constituents, you do to me.” The current power structure would not be any more pleased with Jesus today than the power structure was two thousand years ago.
I’m hardly an expert on the teachings of Jesus. Despite my shortcomings, however, I do have enough sense to look around and see what a mess some of the churches have made of the message of love and forgiveness taught by Jesus. You don’t have to be a prophet to see where those who invoke Jesus are taking us. They talk a lot about Jesus, but their religion usually takes the form of a weapon used to attack people. Do you want to know what people believe about God? Watch how they live. Pay attention to how they treat others. The sad fact is that we are living in an age when religion has been degraded, and has become a tool of the evil one, the enemy. It’s interesting to note that the evil one always quoted scripture to Jesus when he tried to confuse and trick Jesus. Don’t be unduly impressed by those who have a scripture quote for everything. The evil one is a scripture scholar, and is far more active in politics and churches than in abortion clinics or same sex civil unions. Many of those in positions of political and religious leadership are not of the Light. They speak to you of God and the prophets, but their true master is the father of lies.I think we ignore this at our own peril.
edited for punctuation, again
