Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Was Jesus a fair man?

As I was walking in the snow to work, the thought popped into my head... "Was Jesus a fair man?" I thought of the things he taught and asked of his followers, and frankly I've come to the conclusion (... perhaps belatedly in life) that in fact Jesus was NOT a fair man!

Jesus preached justice throughout his ministry. I think he taught us how to implement justice in our world. I think Jesus is the epitomy of justice.Yet, I do not think Jesus was a fair man.

If you look at what he taught us to do, they aren't actions or ways of thinking that we would consider to be "fair".

- Love everyone, including those who hate you? NOT FAIR!
- Forgive those who have hurt you or someone you love? NOT FAIR!
- Give up your worldly possessions and follow The Way? NOT FAIR!
- Do not judge others? KIND OF NOT FAIR!

... You get the idea.

Jesus was not a fair man. I don't think the issue of fairness really entered his mind because it was beside the point. The issue was justice.

Now the question is... "What is justice?"

I think a good starting point on the way to answering that question is looking at how Jesus went about implementing justice. He did it through (... yep, here we go again) unconditional love, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, nonjudgmentalism...

This is pretty powerful stuff. I think it has the power to change our lives and our world for the better. I think it has the power to bring us into unity, into oneness, into a state of perfect peace with God. I think that was the whole point of Jesus' life. I think that is path to "transformation".