(The Nationalist, 28 October 2005)
One of the more remarkable facts about the Gospel is that the principal opposition to Jesus came from the religious leaders of his time. Those who should have been the first to accept him were the first to reject him. And then they manipulated the civil authorities to bring about his death. Against that background, it is understandable that someone has written, ‘Nothing so obscures the face of God as religion’.
Jesus said to his followers, ‘You must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one Master, and you are all brothers’. And, ‘You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven’. He also said, ‘Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, since you have only one Teacher, the Christ’. It’s no wonder that religious authorities wanted him out of the way: Jesus was a leveller, an anti-hierarchical figure.
There can be few criticisms of religious hierarchy as severe as that made by Jesus in chapter 23 of Saint Matthew’s Gospel. And he voiced those criticisms near the Temple, right at the heart of religious power. His criticisms offer examples of what generally happens in institutional religion. If Jesus came on earth today, what would he say? He might say the same things, and for similar reasons. His criticism cuts close to the bone.
As an alternative to what he criticized, Jesus proposed service and humility. He said, ‘The greatest among you must be your servant’. And, ‘Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted. Humility is about being down-to-earth, fertile, open to new possibilities.
‘From the cowardice that shrinks from new truths,
from the laziness that is content with half-truth,
from the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
O God of truth, deliver us’. (Anon.)
For those in a hurry: ‘What matters in prayer is not length but love, not a system but desire for God’. (Mark Gibbard)