I like Jesus

Deepak Chopra is someone I frequently disagree with, but not today. He recently posted a very simple but accurate piece on The Huffington Post about the hijacking of Jesus.

Chopra speaks of three Jesuses. The first is the historical Rabbi from 1st century Palestine. The second is the Jesus of Christian dogma. The third is the universal teacher Jesus who can be an inspiration to all people because of his core teachings of love, compassion, tolerance and peace.

I don’t think that well-intentioned fundamentalists mean to pervert the third Jesus; I suspect they’ve never heard of him. He has one great disadvantage, however. You can’t own him. You can’t say “he’s all mine and nobody else’s.” The third Jesus won’t work if you need to justify a war, if you need evil enemies, or you want to brand “them” as godless.

Sadly, many fundamentalists need Jesus for all these purposes. So the third Jesus might not return to them, but if Christianity is to survive among moderate and liberal believers, who used to be the mainstream of the religion, won’t it take the return of the third Jesus? The first one is long deceased, the second has fallen prey to politics and narrow-mindedness. What alternative is there? Loss of faith and a slide into deeper and deeper meaninglessness. That would be a terrible fate for all of us, not just the Christians.

I like Jesus. In general, he has a great message; one that stands out among great teachers. Too bad so few people know him. Those who claim him the most insistently certainly do not.