You see, by “liar” I don’t mean someone who says what they know to be untrue – like the stereotypical used-car salesman, or politician. Jesus wasn’t a con artist, so please don’t start frothing at the mouth in a delusion that I’m trying to claim he was.
Yet so many things Jesus said contradict the golden truths of our age that it’s impossible for me to not tick the "liar" box. “Blessed are the poor”; “the first shall be last”; “leave tomorrow for tomorrow” – all these (and countless more similar sayings) cut so deeply against the grain of our society’s accepted wisdom that most churches I’ve experienced prefer to ignore them, or else explain them in such away as to suggest they actually mean the diametric opposite.
I’m not comfortable with these exegetical sleights-of-hand. I’d rather just admit that in some kind of absurdist game Jesus contradicted everything society taught me to be true.
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1 comments:
What does it say about me that it looks like a giant, lumpy breast?
And I agree with you about churches trying to explain away the hard sayings---it makes me uncomfortable too.
I'm no literalist---but when Jesus says "It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven," I don't buy that "What he REALLY meant was...[fill in rationalization of your choice]."
Same with divorce, lust, etc. I think he calls us to a life of struggle in one sense---but I also rest in the knowledge that he said "My burden is easy and my yoke is light" and "Peace I give you, my peace I leave you."
Contradictory fellow, that Jesus. Probably one reason he appeals to me so much...
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