This last post in this series on "The Mythic Jesus" brings us back to what I started to write about a year ago this past August; the need for a Copernican Revolution within Christianity. At the center of this revolution is the question that haunted Jesus throughout his ministry, "Who am I?" or to put it in the question Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?"
An attempt to answer those questions was given some 300 years after Jesus' time on this earth, in 325 CE in the second article of the Nicene Creed:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end."
This particular article of the Nicene Creed has defined what it means to be a Christian for the past seventeen hundred years. It is the creed of the Imperial Church of the Roman Empire and it has remained the litmus test for identifying a true Christian believer ever since Christianity was proclaimed the one and only religion of the Roman Empire in 381 CE.
A lot has happened since that time.
The world is not the same place it was in the fourth century, but Christianity, for the most part, has not changed. The Church has had its schisms and reformations throughout its history, but there has been no fundamental change to its doctrinal position about Jesus. The Imperial Church which continues through the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the original Protestant denominations, and the increasing number of smaller independent denomination and individual churches that have branched off of them have not made any significant changes to the doctrinal position of the Nicene Creed, even though many of the later Protestant denominations and independent churches rarely use the Creed in their services. Jesus remains the only-begotten Son God, the Christ or Messiah who will come again to judge both the living and the dead. As such while many Christians claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus, Jesus remains remotely distant in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father.
What has been lost or, better yet, who has been lost these past seventeen hundred years is Jesus, a first century Jew living in Galilee. The mythic Jesus of the Gospel of John, for example, stands in stark contrast to the historic Jesus found in the Synoptic Gospel, who is depicted as a devout Jew who possessed a unique understanding of Judaism; a compassionate human who, as a Jew, was amazed at the faith demonstrated in people who were not Jews. Jesus' understanding and vision of justice and righteousness was eons ahead of his time and, to be honest, remains ahead our time. Yet, it is belief in the mythic Jesus that has become the basis for Christian faith rather than the teachings of the historic Jesus, which literally receive lip service in all Christian denominations, but play second fiddle to the teaching about Jesus.
The difficulty with the myths about Jesus is that the truth they promote in the minds of most Christians is Jesus being the only begotten Son of God; that Jesus is God. And the problem with that premise is that it diminishes the idea that Jesus is one of us, a pure human prone to both brilliance and error. To follow Jesus is to follow his radical teachings and seek the direct relationship he had with God.
Myths are contrived stories to convey spiritual or transcendental meanings or truths that cannot be proven in any demonstrable fashion. As such, myths are not bound to a particular truth. Myths can generate other ideas and other truths. The doctrines which have defined these myths, have set particular meanings in stone, as it were.
For example, Christians belief in the concept of Absolute Truth is rooted in the doctrinal insistence that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God; that what it says is to be believed literally as fact which of course has been proven by scientific, historical, and anthropological data not to be the case. Metaphor and myth abound throughout the Holy Bible. Christianity 's most sacred doctrines and rites are based on these myths.
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There is a growing amount of evidence that Christianity is a hybrid religion that is not only emerged from Judaism, but also emerged from the mythic mindset of of the polytheistic religions of ancient Egypt, Greece, Persia, and Rome. Christianity survived and thrived in the early Roman Empire due to the likelihood of its ability to co-opt and adapt the beliefs and practices of other religions and reframing them within a Christian context, thus making Christianity appealing to a broad spectrum of individuals living in the cosmopolitan world of the Roman Empire.
Whereas the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels depict an inclusive message of Jesus' teachings, the Gospel of John and the Epistles speak of Christianity in exclusive terms regarding who is saved and who isn't While Christ died for all stands as the first credal premise of early Christianity, it is only those who believe that or, more to the point in some New Testament scriptures, only those chosen by God to be followers of Christ who will be saved: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" - John 1:12. 'He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God "- John 3:18.
The club mentality of Christianity can be readily traced in letters of Paul: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Roman 8:-29-30. "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." 1Corinthians 12:27.
For orthodox Christians, those who affirm the Nicene Creed, these verses are not bothersome and most gloss over the the fact of how exclusive they sound to someone outside of their religious circle. There is something comforting about seeing oneself as part of Christ's inner circle, as well as, recognizing that those outside of this circle, well... might be lost causes because they were not predestined to be saved or were not called to be justified. One might think, "What is the point of trying to waste one's time on those who are condemned already?"
What one needs to understand is that such thinking is not evident in the teachings of Jesus. This is why the Synoptic Gospels, regardless of the attempts to edit them to conform to the teachings about Jesus found in the Gospel of John and the Epistles of Paul and to make them useful to the power structure of the Imperial Church of the Roman Empire, fortunately, contain what is likely the original teaching of Jesus.
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The dynamics of any religion is the ability to bind people together through ideological beliefs. It would appear that Jesus, himself, did not set out to form a new religion with him as its leaders. Jesus appears within the Synoptic Gospels (if one sets asides their mythic stories about him) to be in line with the prophets of the Old Testament. What is unique about Jesus in these Gospels is his reinterpretation or highlighting teachings found in the Old Testament. His messianic message was not about conquest but rather about realization and revelation of the Kingdom of God that already exists if only people would recognize it in their midst.
The mythic stories about Jesus are not irrelevant nor should they be set aside. While we have been indoctrinated to see their intent as proving Jesus is the Son of God; that is, God in the flesh, they also allow us to examine our own experiences in their light. As I have mentioned in many posts and in the homilies I have posted in this blog, "What is true for Jesus is true for us and what is true about us is true about Jesus." Jesus as a human being like us is more important to understanding his teachings and purpose than making him the only begotten Son of God.
For example, the stories of the birth and resurrection of Jesus are myths simply because they cannot be proven to be factual, but both the birth myth and the resurrection myth have meanings and applications that go beyond the attempt to establish Jesus as the second person of the Trinity. Every person is an incarnation of God. Resurrections occur when one is willing to gracefully let go of something that is dear to one's heart especially when letting go is the right thing for oneself and others. Resurrections occur throughout out lives. Walking on water is a metaphor for the ability to rise above the chaos of life to bring calm and reassurance to those who are on the verge of being swamped and falling overboard amidst the storms of life. People are spiritually fed with the little we possess, sharing kindness, like sharing food can give sustenance to others in ways we do not often comprehend.
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It is vitally important to the survival of the Christian Church that the various denominations take a deeper look at their doctrines regarding the Holy Bible and who Jesus is. They must re-examine its salvation theology that insists that Jesus specifically came down to earth to become a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Such a theology and doctrinal stance is contrary to every humanitarian impulse we humans possess. God's biblical mode of operation in human affairs is not to send his Son down as some sort of Greek god, but rather to raise one of us up to be our exemplar, like Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. Jesus' teachings need to be studied more deeply. Our scriptures must be critically re-examined. The notions of inerrancy and infallibility must be discarded as guard rails against heresy and inquiry into the relevance of scripture in the times that we live.
Truth in religion cannot be concretized against the constant evolving knowledge about the world and universe we live in. The teachings of Jesus are vital to creating a safe, more caring world. They are desperately needed to change the course of human affairs which are increasingly detrimental to the earth's environment and the welfare of the vast and various life forms on this planet, which all eight billion people living on this planet are dependent on.
The Christian mindset is perhaps best suggested in one of Paul's letters which I am paraphrasing to reflect t 21st century understanding: "Let each of you look to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Jesus who being made in the image of God, did not regard God as something that can be exploited and used to harm others, but emptied himself to make room for others that all might be abundantly filled and drawn to follow his example.
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Until next time, stay faithful.
Norm
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