The Christianity we market vs. the one Jesus lived

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The Christianity we market vs. the one Jesus lived

Strip away Paul’s theology and the Gospels tell a much simpler, more demanding story.

By Morf Morford | FāVS News Columnist

The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. 

Imagine reading the New Testament Gospels as if for the first time — and as if those telling those iconic and often unsettling stories meant what they said.

Imagine the “Jesusy” parts of Christianity, with the elaborate, often convoluted “interpretations” of the Apostle Paul stripped out.

Paul spoke of terms like justification and, oddly enough, rarely of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus spoke of the abuses of the law — and his own faith tradition — more than anything. In his most common messages, the religious “authorities” were to be listened to, but rarely trusted blindly.

Paul’s Christianity is more of a legal argument than anything else. Jesus, at least as portrayed in the Gospels, had little interest in legal arguments. The gospel of Jesus was not something to be “believed” but lived. It was not about being “saved” and going to paradise. It was how we could live today.

Nearly every parable of Jesus inverts the “received” interpretation — and few, if any, fit comfortably with Paul’s more legalistic reading. It would be easy to argue that Paul was deliberately constructing the building blocks of a new religion. Jesus wasn’t.

One of the rarely mentioned ironies of Paul and Jesus is that Paul was beheaded — quickly, privately, with decorum — for enraging the state. Jesus’ crucifixion was public, messy, intentionally humiliating: the execution of a common criminal or an enemy of the state. And the religious authorities of his own faith tradition demanded it. The secular authorities had little interest in Jesus or his message. But the religious leaders — and most “believers,” even from his hometown — wanted him dead.

Has human nature changed since? I’m not convinced it has. We will still harass and, in various ways, destroy truth-tellers. In the name of God or for political purposes, silencing those who challenge the system is what any system does to protect itself.

Consider two of the most widely known stories Jesus told — and how they’re avoided or explained away centuries later.

The Good Samaritan

A traveler is beaten, robbed and left for dead. Two religious people, on their way to the holy city, see him and cross to the other side of the road. Jesus makes clear it is his own people, his own faith tradition, that turns away. The Samaritan — a despised, mixed-race, “unclean” man — is the one who stops, helps and checks in later. You can read it at Luke 10:29. The message is as simple as it is incriminating: Those of faith often justify their own heartlessness, while those outside “official” faith step up.

“It’s not fair!” — Workers in the Vineyard

Most of us hold up “fairness” as an ideal, even though life plainly isn’t fair. Does that mean those with privilege deserve to keep it? That those born into hardship deserve that, too?

Jesus tells a story, at Matthew 20:1-16, that should annoy most of us. A man hires vineyard workers throughout the day — some for a full day’s wage, some for just the last hour — and pays everyone the same. By any measurable standard, that’s not fair. That’s the point. So what should we do with our own unfairness? Keep score? Or be generous beyond all accounting?

In the kingdom Jesus described, forgiveness, patience and generosity were the foundation stones. Given the choice, I’d rather live in a community of Jesus followers than Paul followers — though that, as G.K. Chesterton put it, is a Christianity that has never been tried. Paul’s religion, parsed into rules and criteria, is easier to follow, or at least easier to measure. But a lived faith, mercy and forgiveness practiced rather than preached, would be something to behold.

I’m writing this in the midst of Donald Trump’s second term, an era when law, principle and basic dignity have become negotiable. In the U.S., justice is supposed to be blind — impartial, without fear or favor. The favoritism of Trump’s approach to the law will be remembered as exactly that.

Jesus said he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17-19). Trump, by contrast, has made clear — repeatedly — that the law should apply in his own favor. There is no “bad news” as complete as a head of state declaring, and abolishing, laws on a whim.

Some of us are still waiting for the enduring Good News.

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