The Puzzle of Christianity. Peter Vardy

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СКАЧАТЬ each other as God acted towards them and should be willing to forgive again and again – and yet again.

      Jesus was absolutely clear that the way Christians behaved towards other human beings would determine the way God behaved towards them. God would judge a person by the innermost nature of their heart and not by appearances. Jesus therefore condemned those who would make a display of their religious observances. If people were fasting, He said that they should disguise the fact; if people gave to charity, they should do so anonymously. If the real motive for doing good was in order to be recognised by other people, then the good actions were actually just self-centred (Matthew 6:1–4). Jesus said that people should do acts of kindness without others knowing; God sees into the hearts of everyone and will reward those who do good and punish those who do evil. Jesus was clear that God knows everything: not even a sparrow dies without God knowing about it. Humans are worth more than many sparrows and all human actions are seen by God and judged accordingly (Matthew 10:29–30).

      Jesus was, however, clear that God’s love was a demanding love. God had to be placed at the centre of a person’s life and the love of God had to be shown in action. There was no room for complacency, and the idea of trusting in the love of God and ignoring the need for practical action runs contrary to Jesus’ message. Jesus specifically warned of a rich man who decided to take life easy and enjoy his wealth: that very night his soul ‘was demanded from him’ (Luke 12:16–21). In other words he died and had to face God and account for his life. Anyone who ignores those in need, or the demand for practical action to relieve suffering, effectively ignores God. Words without action are empty.

      The one category of people that Jesus did condemn was those who deliberately ignored God or pretended to be devoting their lives to God when they were not. He utterly condemned the priests and religious leaders who were so proud of their own reputation as holy and good people but, inside, were self-centred and corrupt. His language about these people was anything but temperate (Matthew 12:34–37). The one incident that the Gospels record when Jesus seemed to have lost His temper was when He went into the Temple in Jerusalem and found it filled with merchants selling things and people who changed money. He was angry that they had turned what should have been a house of prayer to God into, as He termed it, a den of robbers. He took out a whip and physically attacked the merchants. His anger was greater because He is recorded as calling the Temple ‘my Father’s house’ (John 2:13–17) referring, of course, to the Christian claim that Jesus was the Son of God and not the son of any human father. Instead of a place of holiness and devotion to God, the Temple had become something very different. The extent, therefore, to which Jesus would have been seen as a scandalous and uncomfortable figure by those with money and power is hard to over-emphasise.

      For Jesus, prayer should be at the centre of a person’s life. Prayer was like talking to a close friend and Christians should bring all their concerns to God. His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, and the Gospels record what has become the most famous prayer for Christians, called ‘The Lord’s Prayer’:

       Our Father in heaven,

       hallowed be your name,

       your kingdom come,

       your will be done,

       on earth as it is in heaven.

       Give us today our daily bread.

       And forgive us our debts,

       as we also have forgiven our debtors.

       And lead us not into temptation,

       but deliver us from the evil one.

      (Matthew 6:9–13)

      The word ‘Amen’ is generally added at the end of Christian prayers and means ‘so be it’. It is used at the end of all prayers, even prayers said by the priest or leader of worship, and links those participating with the prayer. It is important to note that Christians ask to be forgiven by God in the same way they forgive others; in other words, if they do not forgive others, God will not forgive them.

      If God is truly at the centre of a person’s life, then all the things that normally preoccupy people will assume lesser importance. When Jesus’ called His first disciples He called them to leave everything behind: friends, family and possessions. Disciples are required to put God centre stage in their lives and, if this is done, then money, reputation, sex, appearance and all those things that most people value so highly will be seen in their proper perspective. This does not mean that they are irrelevant, just that once a person seeks to devote their life to God, these other things can only ever be of peripheral importance. It is not possible to serve both God and worldly desires and interests.

      Jesus preached the coming of the kingdom of heaven, but this was not what the people amongst whom He was living expected. He did not preach a new Davidic kingdom which would throw out the Romans and establish Jerusalem as the seat of a new Jewish government. The kingdom that Jesus proclaimed was a kingdom in people’s hearts. This was in some ways a radical and new idea, although the basis for it lay in the Hebrew Scriptures and the teaching of the prophets. Bringing people to see this new understanding of God’s kingdom was not easy; it was not the message that people wanted to hear.

      Jesus realised that His message would not be readily received. He likened it to a farmer who was scattering seed: some of it fell on stony ground and withered almost as soon as it germinated; other seed fell on poor ground and sprang up but had no roots and died; whilst still other seed fell on good ground (Matthew 13:3–9). Similarly, the message of Christianity would not be well received by many; some would either ignore it or else take it on board with enthusiasm, but abandon it as soon as doubts or difficulties came along. Jesus never expected that His message would be accepted by everyone, nor that it would be popular. He said that following Him would involve pain and suffering, misunderstanding and rejection, and it would be hard (Matthew 10:17–18, 38–39). On one occasion He said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (this is a reference to a very narrow gate into the walled city of Jerusalem which a loaded camel would have been unable to enter) (Mark 10:23–25). Someone with wealth and possessions will find that his or her heart is anchored in these and it will be almost impossible to centre life on God. Jesus said if money or power or reputation is really important to a person, then this is where their heart will be.

      Jesus found the greatest faith in people who were on the outside of conventional society: a poor widow who had almost no money but gave a few coins which, for her, represented a great deal; a Roman centurion who trusted Jesus’ power to heal and accepted that, when Jesus spoke, his servant would be healed even though the servant was a long distance away; a woman caught in adultery who trusted Jesus even though everyone else condemned her; another woman who wept for her sins; blind beggars, lepers who were despised and outcasts – these were Jesus’ followers initially.

      The rabbis and teachers of Jesus’ time had built up a set of rules that regulated every aspect of the life of a devout Jew, and for many of these people keeping the rules had become an end in itself. The Pharisees in particular considered that devotion to God could be measured by the extent to which one kept the rules. Jesus cut through this and taught that what mattered was the change within the heart of a person, not whether they kept the rules. For instance, He and His disciples were criticised because, when crossing a cornfield on the Jewish holy day (the Sabbath) they ate a few ears of corn. This broke the rules, as picking corn was considered to be work and work was not allowed on the Sabbath. Jesus’ critics said that Jesus’ failure to condemn His disciples meant that He was not a devout Jew (Luke 6:1–5). On another occasion, He failed to wash before a meal and He was criticised because this was one of СКАЧАТЬ