What if?
What if Jesus had listened to that inner voice, out there
in the desert?
What if he had learned to justify the way he acted,
thought, and felt, by telling himself that the end justified the means, and he
was “pro-God” and “pro-life?”
What if, instead of wandering around the backroads of
Galilee he had hung around Jerusalem?
What if, instead of wandering with a bunch of common
folk,
he had cultivated relationships with the elite folk, with
the members of the Sanhedrin, with the scribes and the pharisees?
What if he had aligned with Herod, assuring him he was
great, and would make “Israel great again?”
What if he had turned the water into wine, and sold it
for a tidy profit?
What he had charged admission to the Sermon on the Mount?
What if he had preached about individual rights instead
of common good?
About retribution instead of turning the other cheek?
About accumulation rather than giving?
About resentment rather than forgiveness?
About winning and domination rather than sacrifice and
service?
What if he had carefully picked those he helped, making
sure they “deserved” his healing touch?
What if Jesus, the incarnate one, the one with us,
had become like us, in the sense that he reflected not
the original blessing, not the “imago dei” but Adam and Eve, who chose poorly?
He would not have been Jesus.
Not Jesus the Christ.
Not the one who opened the stairway to heaven, and
crashed the gates of hell
(emptying it).
Not the one who raises us up into newness!
Not the one who transforms!
It seems we have a choice.
We can remake Jesus into our image, and ignore who he
was, what he taught, and how he lived (and died). Or we can embrace the Jesus who walked out of
the wilderness and said,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because the
Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to preach good news to the poor,
to proclaim
release to the prisoners
and recovery of
sight to the blind,
to liberate the
oppressed,
and to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke
4:18)
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