Mmm…Just
musing about the one who claimed to be the king of kings but rode on a donkey on
palm Sunday instead of a bejeweled chariot in the sky led by a brilliant host
of stallions. Jesus is really something. Even if you were not a believer,
you would still have to give it to him for his achievements. Napoleon, Gandhi
and Einstein had all paid their personal and individual tributes to this man
who had taught and lived a life that is emulated even till today, and for
decades to come.
Even atheists
would have to admit that no man, or very few of them, had attained equivalent
posthumous status like Jesus did. And mind you, none of them would say that
Jesus’ life and ministry were merely incidental or coincidental to the
widespread popularity he is still receiving today. In other words, it is not a
fluke. And Jesus did all this without an itinerant biographer or the hounding
media or a proper printing press. My god, he lived almost one thousand and five
hundred years before the printing press! Eat your heart out man, Gutenberg.
Secular historians
may deny or resist his claim to messiahship or savior-hood or his proclamation
that he had come to fulfill the scriptures. But they would be hard-pressed to
deny him his rightful place in the annals of history as the one who, in living,
had touched lives in the most personal manner conceivable; and who, in death,
had given his life in the most intimate sacrifice possible; and who, in his
self-proclaimed resurrection, has revived hope in the most sustainable way
imaginable (to his believers worldwide).
The standing
churches, the charities established in honor of him, and the modern world
formed on the back of his radical, almost counterintuitive, ideas beginning at
the sermon of the mount, all stand as a testament to the fact that Jesus was sui generis (an exception to the general
rule), a class above the rest, and a cut not made from this worldly cloth.
If I were to
study Jesus as a humanist or a secularist, I would have to admit that he was no
ordinary person. Putting all my bias aside as a Christian, I would have to come
to a point to acknowledge that he was more than a history maker in the likes of
Alexander, Genghis Khan or the great helmsman Mao Zedong (not that I particularly
admire them). There is just something about Jesus that distinguishes him from
the rest of the history movers and shakers.
He changed
lives in the most intimate way. He liberated women. He mixed with the rejects
of society and gave them hope. One author wrote, "In Jesus we have the holiest man who ever lived, and yet it was the
prostitutes and lepers and thieves who adored him." Further, he
offered more than the other cheek at the Cross. He represented non-violent
resistance or submission. He lived a humbled existence, rejecting what this
world would deem important like fame, fortune and power. He died in the worst
manner possible in order to secure the best alternative conceivable. A modern
day psychologist once remarked, "Jesus
approached each individual with a psychological brilliance that was compelling.
No one who met him could ever forget how it felt." If first impression
lasts, then meeting Jesus meant that it lasted for a lifetime and more.
But above
all, what captured me most about Jesus is that he was born not to rule a
kingdom on earth but the kingdom in our hearts. I truly believe that that is
the only way to change the world, that is, changing hearts - one heartbeat at a
time.
I guess that
is why Jesus did not say that he wanted us to be "fishers of political
systems", "fishers of ideologies", or "fishers of fashions,
fads or trends". He simply wanted us to be fishers of men. And in so
doing, he wanted us to reel in the hearts of men (and women) and change the
world from inside-out, one soul at a time.
Napoleon once
waxed lyrical about Jesus, "I know
men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between him and every
other person in the world, there is no possible terms of comparison. Alexander,
Caesar, Charlemagne and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the
creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love;
and at this hour millions of men would die for him." What high praise from a conqueror of empires
himself!
Sometimes, we
have to give credit where credit is rightfully due. John Ortberg wrote to the
effect that Jesus was never married yet he knew the heart of women more than a
husband knows his. He never held office and yet he ruled as a prince of peace
in the hearts of many. He never wrote a book and yet books have been written
about him, his teachings and his claims. And the collective impact persuaded
great minds, transformed hardened hearts, and inspired the most stubborn spirit.
Let me end
with this unconventional thought and I hope the atheists can appreciate this.
Jesus seemed very much like he came from another world. He talked about the
other world most of the time. It is rumored that he knew the way, the truth and
the light. In fact, he said that he was the embodiment of all three in one. He
even declared that he was God, the son of God. What audacity if such were the twaddle of a trickster! In fact, CS
Lewis narrowed the options for us: “Either this man
was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut
Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall
at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing
nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to
us. He did not intend to.”
Of course,
there are always other options. Atheist scientist Richard Dawkins hinted that Jesus
could be mistaken and not know about it;
a kind of self-deluded grandiose. Some
are even claiming that Jesus was no different from Joseph Smith, Jim Jones or
David Koresh. Well, I am sure the
difference is obvious from the life Jesus led and the life he eventually gave
up. In any event, I am not here to argue for or compare those questionable
lives with the life of Christ. But my point is this, whichever way you see it, Jesus had really left us with no other
choice; for those who take him seriously of course.
For me, I
guess there is no middle way or a sit-out at the back benches or a straddling-on-the-fence
position. And the real tragedy of man is ironically not so much about making
the wrong choice. Surprised? I think
the greater tragedy is never to have made that definitive choice and then carry
on living a life pretending that one had already been made.
I can
think of a no more insufferable existence than one that is stranded between two
great unknowns, be it of glory or otherwise, after the expiry of a life because
of a refusal or a neglect to make that choice. At least an atheist or a theist
can't say that they have not made their choices. And as they have made it, they
can then proceed on their chosen paths of discovery. What then is the hanged fate of the luke-warmer, the half-hearted or
the undecided?
You see, Jesus came not to run for office,
campaign for presidency or chair over board meetings (its modern equivalent that is). He came for us, for me – so says he. His visitation is personal.
He claims to be God reconnecting with his creation; a divine reconciliation, a
meeting of hearts. It is literally the deep calling to the deep. It is not
disputed that he spent 3 decades of peaceful co-existence to devote 3 years of
ministry and teaching so as to endure 3 days of unspeakable cruelty for us. The
least we can do is to take the time to make this choice and to either live it
up for him or walk away for good. But to live somewhere in the muddling middle
and never coming to a decision is to live an existence no different from the
proverbial Buridan’s ass that died of hunger and thirst because it could not
decide between a stack of hay and a pail of water. Cheerz.
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