The Jesus I Hear About Most

“Jesus was a radical revolutionary who fought with religious leaders all his life and finally they crucified Him because they couldn’t handle his revolutionary ways. His biggest enemies were the religious people not the sinners. Even Rome would probably have let Him alone except for the religious leaders of the day. As always, the worst enemies of God are in the religious institutions. Jesus was a prophet who gathered around him a small cluster of people to do life together—but when He rejected all formal religion they rejected Him and eventually killed Him.

Take the record in the Bible, for instance. Jesus is rarely is seen in the Bible attending a synagogue. When he does show up he stirs up trouble and the people wanted to kill him. When he goes to the temple he does not do so to worship or sacrifice but He goes to drive out the corrupt people of organized religion who were ripping off the people for their own profit. Jesus constantly took stands against religion.

Rather than gather at a synagogue or in the temple, Jesus gathered with his disciples in the open, alongside lakes and rivers and in the cool forest. If he were here today he would not be found in church but in the woods, or in Central Park, or hitch-hiking. Jesus was a man of the open fields and deserts not the inside of synagogues. He rejected the rules of organized religion and loosed people from their bondage. When the religious people wanted to condemn rule-breakers he never condemned them but believed in them, forgave them and defended them. He spent most of His time hanging around with sinners not with religious people. His values weren’t rules and regulations but simple loving relationships—just being with people and caring for them—this is what Jesus was all about.

But most important, Jesus showed us a new way of relating to God—we could “go direct” to God and cut out the middlemen of priests, religious leaders and religion itself. He taught us we don’t need church or religion to get to God but can get everything we need directly from God on our own—by listening to God’s still small voice inside us. Jesus went often away alone to pray or meditate in the open. This is how to find God—get away by yourself not go to a building sponsored by some organized religion. God is inside us and if we slip away we can hear Him speak.

It is no wonder that they killed Jesus for this. He was a threat to organized religion and their priests. What He intended to launch was a simple association of loving people who “do life together”—He never started a formal religion. Unfortunately after He was gone His followers begin making a religion out of Jesus’ emphasis on relationships. Eventually when the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity it drove the final nail in the coffin of what He started—gone was the simple emphasis on relational intimacy with God and all that was left was dead formal organized religion. Ever since we’ve had mostly formal religion instead of a simple personal relationship with God.

But there is hope. Recently there is an emerging re-emphasis on this true inner spirituality. It may be a revival and could be as significant as the Reformation—indeed some are calling it a “new reformation.” This new revival has nothing to do with organized religion or churches or institutions—it is about spirituality. One third of Americans now are committed to this new kind of spirituality. It is spirituality without the church, relationship without religion. It is sweeping the nation as people turn inward and tune into the revolutionary voice of God inside them as people follow a revolutionary Jesus bent on overthrowing religion. This new independent personal spirituality is practiced alone, or with a few friends in the park or at a back yard cookout. It is doing life together seeking the overthrow of dead formal structures of. Today’s religious people in churches are no better then the religious leaders of Jesus’ day—the church mostly just gets in the way of the real thing: a personal relationship between one person and one God.”

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If this is not an accurate picture of Jesus we all have some serious teaching to do… for it is the most common one I hear about from the youth coming into college from our youth groups. (and from a significant number of great communicator-speakers).

Keith Drury 9/12/2005

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