The Trouble with Jesus
by Constance Hastings
The Trouble with Jesus:
He taught like a hacktivist.
Oh boy, you’re doing it again. What you say, dear Jesus, sounds moralistic enough, aspirational certainly, but you don’t really think people can live like this? We’d all be patsies for every narcissistic manipulator who ever lived, or more likely we’d be beaten into submission if we lived through it. And you’d want us to smile about it all, thinking we’re modeling the goodness of God. Got to give it to you, scammers are on their knees thanking you for it. At least some people take you at your word.
Granted, what Jesus said about loving enemies, turning the other cheek, not judging but forgiving has been leveraged to serve less than honorable intentions, specifically those who live by controlling the less powerful. Once again, go deep. Find out to whom Jesus was speaking and under what circumstances they lived. Get to the premise he was teaching and then make applications of your own. At the bottom of it, you may learn to do just what you said, take Jesus at his word.
In Conclusion
To be fair to both you and Jesus, start at the end. It’s a hack that smart students know can save not only time and effort but also helps to zero in on the major points in a chapter or article. Read first the conclusion; then read the article looking for whatever supports that conclusion. The best benefit of all this is how it not only helps with comprehension of the material, but more importantly, the information is secured into long term memory and more efficiently applied.
“Whatever measure you use in giving-large or small-it will be used to measure what is given back to you.” Fine. You get back whatever you put out. How’s that for a spiritual principle. Now apply it to your own life and behavior. Basically, that’s where Jesus was going in these examples he used.
Jesus the Hacktivist
But before we get into that, there’s another thing you might need to understand. Jesus was a hacktivist. Not a hacker, a hacktivist. The US Cybersecurity Magazine defines one as:
Simply put, a hacktivist is someone who uses hacking to bring about political and social change.
For Jesus’ purposes, he related to people right down to what was going on around them. No secret that Jews had it rough in the first century with the Roman occupation. People were forced to protect their own assets. Sometimes their only valuable resource was the ability to take another breath. Mildly put, relationships even with your own kin and kind had challenges. Jesus met them right where they lived.
Love Your Enemy
All right, let’s get right to it. Love your enemy. And what do you think the likes of this world would do with that. Don’t even go there with “kill them with kindness” bull turkey either. Whether you’re talking a superpower or the bully at the bus stop, you’d get kicked to the curb or annihilated in a nanosecond.
Maybe. You must really get in a tizzy too about Jesus saying to do good to those who hate you, pray for their happiness even if they curse you or hurt you. Yet, note that Jesus isn’t getting into mushy feelings for the fiends. He calls for action. Do good. Pray for them. These are decisions of the will, not emotion.
Now when Jesus said love your neighbor, everyone likes that, with some recent day qualifications involving ordo amoris. But an enemy? Someone who’d walk all over you and rather see you made into wood pulp? Prepare to stretch with this.
Abraham Lincoln put it this way: “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
Think of Jesus the Hacktivist as teaching people this kind of lifestyle hack, that is, something which “eliminates life's manifold frustrations in simple and deliciously clever ways…stunningly obvious in retrospect…”
Alternative uses for toilet paper rolls this is not. Love your enemy means keep your dignity intact while changing your relationship by means of assertive boundaries that are healthy for all involved. As in, turn the other cheek…
Whaaatttt! So if some creep hits you, offer to let them do it again? You must know this kind of talk has held people in abusive situations for centuries. As in, ‘love your man, pray for him, even as he beats the crap out of you.’ For heaven’s sake, Jesus!
No! Don’t do that to and for the love of God. That’s why it’s vital that this be read as it was heard by Jesus’ disciples. It spoke into a deeply cultural understanding long forgotten in today’s practice.
First point: you have two hands. The right hand was the good one; the left hand the dirty one. That is, the left hand did the dirty work, as in cleaning yourself following eliminations in the bathroom. You saved your right hand for what was honorable and good, what gave you status and power.
Second point: if you’re going to hit someone, you’ve got two choices basically. Either throw a punch leading with your fist, or backhand them from the other side. Now in this strange hierarchy of the first century, you only use a fist when fighting someone who is your equal. Servants, slaves, prisoners (wives and children included) were lesser than, so they got the backhanded slap. And the strong hand delivered the offensive blow, that is, the right hand.
Guess to whom Jesus the Hacktivist is speaking. The ones who knew well the backhand of their master’s right hand. And that backhand is going to land on the left cheek. Whereas the initial reaction you’d think might be to fight back, we all know that would be second to suicide for these people.
Alternatives
Jesus provides another recourse. Turn the other cheek, that is, the right cheek. To strike the right cheek with a fist would elevate that person’s status. Your aggressor would be forced to acknowledge your dignity as a human being. Societal status would be upended for those who sat on the lower rungs. In other words, in a non-violent manner you have turned the tables on your enemy.
Same thing if someone demands your coat; give them your shirt too. Jewish law stated you had to return the coat by sundown because for many that was the only blanket or bed they had. Yet, the law also forbid nakedness, and any who caused another to be naked carried the fault. For a society who only wore two garments, taking both would shame the offender. Again, Jesus delivered a nonviolent hack which upset the oppressors of the time.
Golden Rule
Therefore, these specific directives are centered in the customs and the oppressions of the day. For all of it though, it boils down to, “Do unto others as you would have it done to you.” It doesn’t mean passively accepting what’s laid on you that’s abusive, nor does it advocate detrimentally harming others. Instead, seek the good welfare of all involved, your enemy and yourself. Should they not return the favor and love, know that God sees the good work you do by showing the world there’s another way.
Judgement vs. Forgiveness
Yeah, these are tough, but again mostly because there’s a misunderstood perspective about their meaning. Judgement is not criticism or intolerance of any or all lifestyles. Jesus never knocked down the moral law either. Instead, use the premise of the Golden Rule; treat others as you’d want to be treated. Don’t judge. That is, don’t look for the worst in others, directed again toward your enemies, or judge them by what you assume their motives are. Put yourself in their shoes. To act otherwise is to invite the same kind of censure upon yourself.
With that outlook, learn to forgive. Don’t interpret this as letting someone off the hook, not taking responsibility for actions or avoiding consequences. Rather, with the generous capacity that comes from the mercy of God, forgiveness releases the soul from the need to retaliate or be consumed with hatred and revenge. The freedom forgiveness brings thus delivers mercy to both the forgiven and the forgiver.
End at the Beginning
“Whatever measure you use in giving-large or small-it will be used to measure what is given back to you.” So if you want the blessing, the favor, the mercy, and grace of God, the spiritual principle is give the same to others so it will be given and afforded to you: love, forgiveness, mercy wrapped together into grace.
Jesus began this lesson by saying this is for those willing to hear, listen, attend to and live it in your own lives. Only a revolutionary spiritual position would reverse the societal and cultural norms of behavior that destroy and oppress others. And yes, it is moralistic, aspirational, but realistic?
Jesus answered that with his own life. Good leaders can’t ask followers to do what they won’t do themselves. But he did. He turned the other cheek to those who beat him, and his coat was stripped off as he was hung naked on a cross. He called out to God to forgive those who would have him dead. He loved his enemies then and extends that same love now.
Jesus gave in full measure all that life is so that these whom he loves, his enemies, may know his love, “with room for more and running over.”
The Trouble with Jesus: Considerations Before You Walk Away by Constance Hastings
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