Modern
Jesus
“Jesus
was short on sermons, long on conversations; short on answers, long on
questions; short on abstraction and propositions, long on stories and parables;
short on telling you what to think, long on challenging you to think for
yourself.”
Brian
D. McLaren
I’ve
just finished reading Sue Monk Kidd’s latest work, The Book of Longings,
about Ana, the wife of Jesus of Nazareth. Before you jump up and scream, it is
a NOVEL. A story. A story set for the most part in the decade before Jesus
began his ministry, the years we know almost nothing about. One thing I like
about this book is the way it humanizes Jesus. It shows his gentle,
understanding heart, his compassion toward women and the poor. But the book is
not about Jesus so much as the woman, Ana, whose father was head scribe in the court
of Herod Antipas, the governor. She could read and write, unlike other women of
her time, and she was fiercely independent and rebellious, which I’m certain
would have gotten her killed in first century Israel. It’s a good story whether
or not you believe its basic premise is true.
During
the last six months, I’ve thought a lot about Jesus and what he would say and
do if he was here now. I can see him, in his tunic and sandals, throwing open
the doors of the immigration holding cells and over-crowded prisons of this
country, in a fury about mistreatment and injustice. I can see him going room
to room in hospitals around the world, laying his healing hands on men, women,
and children. I can see him, in mask and protective gear, blessing the exhausted
health care workers and hospital staff, and encouraging them in their tireless
efforts to keep people alive. I wonder whether you can imagine Jesus in the
middle of modern life here and now, or will he forever be trudging through the
dust of Nazareth in the first century?
One of
the problems, as I see it, with our lack of Christian charity toward people who
are different from us, is this business of seeing Jesus as static in time and
place. As having been crucified two thousand years ago and resurrected three
days later in the same place and time. But, if we could fast-forward Jesus into
the 21st century, what do you think his take would be on the inequities
of our time, in the land of the free and home of the brave? Would he still
stand with the poor and the marginalized people of our world? Would he still scorn hypocrites who speak love out one side of their mouth, and condemnation
out of the other? Would he approve of our divisions, our violence?
In Sue
Monk Kidd’s book, one year after his crucifixion, Jesus appears to Ana in her
home in Alexandria. She says, “Jesus. You’ve come!” and he replies, “Ana…I
never left.” (p.402) And so it is. Then and now.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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