The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
The Ashes of Our Living
February 15, 2021
Funny how all religions have these strange dramas. Some wail and beat chests, some interrupt the day kneeling in a certain direction, others smear their faces with burnt leaves, all making a spectacle of themselves in flaunting how good and holy they are supposed to be. But take an inside peak into their palaces of piety, and you don’t have to be some kind of deity to know it’s all a sham. Give it up please, or at least stay home and out of sight.
Funny but that’s what Jesus said, too. He definitely was not in favor of ostentatious displays and public relation ploys to show how righteous one was. He even recommended praying in a closet alone, away and out of sight. What’s more, he got a little crazy about it saying don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. (Try doing that for a little mental workout.) And if you decide to donate to a good cause, keep it between you and God. (Maybe the IRS should know but that’s on your conscience, not mine.)
You mention the shams of religion. God knows there’s a multitude out there who has benefited from it. Celebrities and politicians get a lot of mileage there. Preachers have become rock stars and are experts at whipping up a congregation to Amens and hands raised. You’d think you were at a music festival or a Superbowl. And let’s face it, it’s often a good show. That’s what we live for, right?
So why was Jesus so adamant about keeping the disciplines of faith under cover? “Give your gifts in secret…pray to your Father secretly…fast, comb your hair, wash your face.” If God is the only one who knows about it, then only you and God know what it’s for.
So, what is it for? Reducing your tax liability, getting on the good side of God, losing weight? How come people are supposed to do this, and what do the ashes prove anyway?
Not to deny these things won’t happen, but it’s really about You, you alone and you collectively. It’s a time of deliberation about what is really important, where your dependencies lie, what you think you have to have that needs to be relinquished to God. It’s more than sacrificing chocolate until the Easter basket has a big brown bunny in it. Ultimately, it’s the right to oneself giving way to sacrifice. That sacrifice could lead to reward, not the good life we all desire, but good life for what should be.
Need a suggestion? How’s your lifestyle these days? If you live in this present time in the United States of America, even if you live on the streets, you’ve got it pretty good compared to third world countries when it comes to a measure of wealth and basic health. While the coronavirus vaccine isn’t being distributed fast enough for us, other parts of the world may not see it for many months, even into the next year or two. The point is our lifestyles, health, needs take precedent over the rest of the world, and too bad for them.
How’s that? Take those chocolate bunny’s ears you’re ready to bite off. Look into where much of our chocolate comes from. Follow the money. Modern day slavery utilizes very young children, some stolen or sold into servitude, to harvest cocoa beans. Yep. What is a treat for our children is born of tragedy for others.
But we treat people in this country not much differently. Consider the fracas over a $15.00 minimum wage. You can work forty hours a week for that much and make $600 (before taxes, of course.) Watch your coins and you’ll get through. It’s called a living
wage though. Yet the resistance comes not from those who are living on the margins. It’s from businesses that profit and claim they can’t afford to pay wages at that level. People, like all of us, want to keep our expenses low. But again follow it through. By keeping wages low, those who have more wealth still benefit and thus oppress those who are caught in the system. Granted, if all wages were at that level, products and services would cost more, but the benefit of changing a system would raise the standard of living for all.
Since we’re at it, let’s get into the controversy of the century: mask wearing. Masks drastically inhibit the spread of the pandemic. What’s the problem? Not so much the masks as telling people what they have to do. In short, the right to one’s choice of lifestyle collides with health risks and pandemic mortality.
So where’s that leave us with God? Honestly, do you really think God cares if you give up some kind of food for six and a half weeks? None of it would make a big difference in relationship with your neighbor, let alone God. What does get to God is how we live our lives and expect the world to revolve around us. To examine these issues, to make or advocate for change in our lives and community that upholds justice and love of neighbor is what God desires. The old ways become ashes, what is given up and sacrificed for the purposes of heaven.
And you can believe it that God does take notice of how you give, pray and fast. For when we make choices that are like treasure stored in heaven, we are blessed because our world is changed.
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Before Jesus even got into town, they lined the road, spreading a carpet of coats and shouting, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” Expectations were high. If only he had come to fulfill them....With too much popularity and too many attacks on the powers-that-be, Jesus wasn’t making it easy on himself. Sooner or later, someone was going to put a stop to this. As it was, it wasn’t just one.
It’s hard to allow the less attractive parts of ourselves be exposed, let alone the parts which stink, with warts, bunions, and fungus embedded in the nails. Equally difficult is to accept it from one of whom we think so highly, even worship.... Worse yet, maybe they know us better than we think, better than we know ourselves. Their goodness shouldn’t be sullied with our mean stuff, the secret knowledge of ourselves.
Why does God have to come so close?
The Trouble with Jesus: Only by witnessing a power often misunderstood, not a parade, might people realize his purpose.
Judas wasn’t your best guy. Why you brought him in, we’ll never understand. How he ever became treasurer for your disciples’ accounts must have happened with mastered manipulation. As it is, though his intentions weren’t the best, he may have had a good point here. And saying it might have been the mic drop of the night.
Frequently when Jesus was teaching, those of ill-repute were in the crowd, tax collectors and “other notorious sinners.” Reputations are made by who your friends are. True, so why did Jesus seem to prefer, maybe even have a better time with the likes of these? He answers with parables about what gets lost.
The Trouble with Jesus is he advocates for more time by grace while not denying judgement.
The Trouble with Jesus is how he knew what was coming and still went straight into it. He'd call out Herod for the fox he was even as he sobbed over the rejection he'd meet.
All heroes have an antagonist, one who pushes hard against the best parts of who you are and what your purpose is. Fitting then, God’s beloved Son would meet the total antithesis of who he was before he even got out of that hot place, a kind of hell.
The Trouble with Jesus means our treasures are most dear to God when they are the ashes of our lives. Whatever upholds justice and love of neighbor is what God desires.
Any who have ever had a mountaintop experience will tell you, it’s nothing that can be planned, arranged, or scheduled. Spiritual encounters come out of the blue, filled with insights, revelations not previously perceived but somehow needed and relevant to a moment or period of life. And they never last. If anything, they serve as touchstones reminding of the source of that power, power greater than oneself in God who was, is and will always be.
