I'll get back to that...if you'll keep reading.
Recently I have been privy to a gathering of strangers singing together in public, not once but twice. No patriotic song at a sporting event, or hymns at a church service, but spontaneous choral singing of common melodies dear to our hearts for one silly reason or another.
While taking in the splendiferous "Saving Mr. Banks", the audience around me joined in unbidden to sing "Let's Go Fly A Kite", as actors portraying the brilliant Sherman brothers rolled out the finale for P.L Travers to consider.
A few short holidays later, the chatty crowd at the New Year's Eve celebration burst in to song nearly every time a new tune poured out of the sound system. Those who didn't know all the lyrics ( like me ) joined in heartily to swell the chorus.
We sing...we like to sing the same tune as those around us, for the most part, if the majority carries the melody. It gives us a sense of belonging, camaraderie, kinship even.
Humans tend to think collectively.
Primitively hardwired to unite against common enemies, we've banded together over millennia to combat saber-toothed tigers, dragons ( real ones -- check Job 41 or Google "Dragons in the Bible" ), opposing kingdoms, Huguenots or Catholics, Redcoats or Colonists, Yankees or Rebs, Nazis or Allies, Communists or Capitalists ( again, depending on geography ), etc. etc.
We sing together or fight together depending on who and what we're listening to. With the exception of defending hearth and home against non-human creatures, every epic battle commences with a rallying cry for or against an idea, an idea or full ideology that an opponent espouses or rejects.
In our very recent history... Nelson Mandela, a statesman who brought his nation out of apartheid after serving nearly 30 years in prison, passed away and a global contingent of statesmen and women turned out at his funeral to laud his life accomplishments. Time tends to rewrite the script...because Margaret Thatcher referred to Nelson Mandela as a terrorist, and, in fact, he remained on the U.S. terrorism watch list until 2008, when then-President George W. Bush removed him from it.
This past October Lt. Col. Oliver North visited the bookstore where I spend my days, doling out caffeinated beverages to a global cross-section in our university/military town. About the same time that PM Thatcher dismissed the African National Congress and "Mandiba" as typical terrorists, National Security Council Dep. Director "Ollie" North covered his backside by shredding documents and claiming the inability to recall facts when questioned about the Iran-Contra scandal. He was convicted and sentenced. Yet, over the last thirty years he has also become a national hero to many who honor his service to his country, despite his failings in the Iran-Contra affair. A New York Times best-selling author, once a criminal, now a hero.
Ollie North is no Nelson Mandela. They share the common passion of loyalty to their fellow countrymen, to the point of sacrifice.
Back to Jesus of Nazareth.
We have forgotten that a deity deemed mere mortals precious enough to live among us, as one of us.
A deity who could have descended on a cloud of glory, ten thousand angels as His command, laying waste to anything unfit and establishing a kingdom on earth. Instead, He lived a quiet life building furniture in a Galilean town filled with fisherman and other lowly residents, in the shadow of Herod's palace, until His words and actions landed Him in Big Trouble. Did He defend Himself? No.
He served out His brief sentence leading to death, in silence. For His loved ones.
The very human Jesus broke Talmudic law any number of times, to include picking grain on the Sabbath, traveling with women, touching the unclean. (To date, there remain 39 edicts regarding Shabbat, alone, to include not using scissors, baking, and writing or erasing two or more letters. I'm breaking that law a dozen times over typing this blog on the Sabbath. That's 39. Just for the Sabbath.) There are a gazillion others, including the type of fabrics one might wear, the attendance by fertile women to a mikva/bathing facility to become COMPLETELY clean, separate utensils. Etc.
Later on, more men wrote the myriad number of Catholic edicts on Holiness (and Hell If You Don't Follow Them), and the Protestants followed suit substituting grace and peace for such strict discipleship. Ad nauseum.
God did not write those 'laws'. Men did. God only handed out 10, setting a course for civility and honor among His people.
The rebel Rabbi Jesus' ultimate arrest did not end in a conviction for those particular crimes against the Sanhedrin edicts -- yet the Pharisees pushed for the local governor to convict and execute Him as He threatened their well-established religious hierarchy and tradition. They whipped the mobs into a frenzy encouraging Pilate to "Crucify!!". He was indeed, a criminal in his society. They got the people to sing a common song...and some of them didn't even know the lyrics, or why they sang. They joined in the chorus, as we often do, aligning ourselves with people we respect.
It took thirty years for Mandela to be revered and remembered as a great hero, a wide shift from his 'terrorist leanings'. It took thirty years for Ollie North to evolve into a hero instead of a evil conspirator.
Both of them paid for their present hero-status. Jesus paid with His life.
In the thirty years since graduating from high school, while socio-political paradigms shifted, I've observed Jesus of Nazareth, believed to be the Son of God, reduced to:
a character on Saturday Night Live; a preferred baby Jesus, prayed to by an irreverent ass in a movie; twice-a-year spectacular glories at Christmas and Easter; a cartoon figure on Facebook;
a bobble-head doll in retail stores; a Sunday morning/Wednesday evening/faith retreat Warm Fuzzy Addictive Fix to get us through the Evil Secular World Until We Get To Heaven and The Heathens Go To Hell.
The very common carpenter-turned-criminal, who inspired the verse, " greater love has no man than he who lays down his life for a friend" has often been reduced by popular culture to the same ranks as Mandela or North.
A news story of a fallen hero. A "celebrity sighting" at a church or Christian concert. My Buddy Hero Jesus, with ten million Likes on FB.
What other religion has reduced their god to such humble esteem, even if he did arrive and live humbly? Only our comfy, cushy, American Christianity.
He was a man. And a Messiah, who saved people. Not by magically redecorating the world into fileds of flowers and butterflies, but by performing simple acts of kindness... and to those who believe, One who will save them from eternal death.
A simple man, embodying God, who preached love, healed the sick, ate with sinners, turned over money-grubbing stalls in the Temple, giving up His life for a singular purpose -- fulfilling 414 Old Testament prophecies to the letter. He lived, ate breathed, broke the law like we do -- speeding and such.
A simple man who loved in an unknown manner. Unconditionally. No 39 Rules for the Sabbath.
10 Commandments to honor and respect God and others, and one invitation.
Just... "believe in Me".
That common carpenter-turned criminal remains the singularly most studied figure of all time. Whether you believe Him to be Messiah or not, He's worth getting to know.
What have you got to lose? In thirty years, you might think differently about Him, too. :-)
