Who Do You Say?

A week or so ago, I watched a spoken word video ( Jesus > Religion ) about Jesus being greater than Religion. As a matter of fact, the artist boldly says he loves Jesus and hates religion. And that Jesus hated religion. Definitely an interesting perspective, and a lot of it I agree with (some, I am not smart enough to understand).

There is a lot of discussion around religion. The religion of "coexistence"—whether your religion impedes on mine. The religion of performance and reputation. The religion of ideologies. The religion of piety. The religion of values. The religion of love for the fellow man. The religion of intelligence. The religion of our educations. The religion of our jobs. The religion of our health. The religion of doubt. The religion of no religion.

And we all want our religion to be "right". To win the argument.

This morning on a walk I was listening to an audio version of the Book of Matthew. I didn't think I was going to like an audio Bible, but it actually was a unique experience. While I can't reread a verse, make notes, etc. it did sort of have a real time quality which allowed me to pace along with the author. In an odd way, physically walking brought some sort of feeling like I was there with guys like Andrew and Peter.

So I walked along through the birth, the beatitudes, the miracles, feeding tons of people with a little bit of food. And the stuff Jesus said and did was amazing. Very counter-culture. Very counter-pharisee. Very healing. He is attacked by the church throughout. And reached out to by the poor, the social outcasts, and the forgotten. And he loves them. And he heals them.

And his disciples are a part of this. Seeing all of this. This Jesus is amazing to them. He is healing people. And saying ground breaking things. And he tells them to go out and do all of the same things. Heal. Love. Serve. All very cool.

Then Jesus asks the disciples what other people say about him. Some say he is a prophet, a great teacher, John the Baptist, maybe even people said he was an example of how we should treat others. Or someone like Mother Theresa. Or somebody really nice. Or an exclusionist. Or a blasphemer. Or the devil himself.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Jesus heard their answers and seemed to be pleased with what they said.

Then he tells them he is going to die. Oddly, by the request of religious people in the church. And the hands of government officials.

Now I don't know that I hate religion. Hate is a strong word. There is so much confusion, piety, reputation-concern, vanity, pride, oppression within all aspects of religion. And in life, we judge each others' faith and actions.

But Jesus is fly in the religion soup. Who do you say that He is?





Note: Clearly there is atonement of relationship with God through Jesus' sacrificial death and the grace which follows is beyond our understanding. My intention is not to belittle the magnitude of this with a "soup" comment. Just using some creative freedom to make a point about Him being an agitation to society and religion in general.