Jesus Course

Once again a large earthquake has killed many people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those who have lost their lives.

Words always seem inadequate during these times but sometimes words are all we can use to express what we feel.

I know that it can feel odd to talk about a loving God when such terrible things happen. This is not the time to try to rationalise anything and get all philosophical. Such times don’t call for philosophy but for symbols of love.

For me, it is the vision of a suffering and dying Jesus that offers the most comfort when things seem too dark to understand. The willingness of God to suffer in such a terrible way somehow helps me to understand that although there is suffering God still loves me.

Of course, the cross is then followed by resurrection. It is a mistake to think that the suffering of Christ is the failure and the resurrection of Christ the overturning of that terrible mistake, because God achieves his victory both through the suffering and the resurrection. However, the resurrection helps us to see that the suffering has purpose and that in the end there is hope.

My prayers are with the people of Chile.

Jesus suffering, the cross

Death is always a tricky subject, most of us don’t like to think about it until we are forced to. When you are forced to think about death it can be pretty hard. As a minister of a church I had to think about death on pretty much a daily basis, people die and there is no way of getting around this.

Some people have wanted to discredit Christianity on the basis that part of what it says is that there is a life after death. Christians are accused of making up the story of Jesus so that they have a way of avoiding the finality of death.

Well just because something is desirable doesn’t mean that is can’t therefore exist. I think the nonsense of this argument is pretty clear really. I might desire to have a great big bar of chocolate but that doesn’t mean that the great big bar of chocolate therefore does not exist.

I want to go back to Jesus again. Jesus doesn’t make all the questions about life and death go away but he does provide some answers to the hardest questions. Jesus died on the cross – nearly every serious historian believes this. The evidence for this event is overwhelming.

Then Jesus rose from the dead. Most historians accept that the disciples believed that Jesus had risen from the dead. Now we could argue about whether the disciples were deluded but I think the evidence is pretty good that they weren’t and even in the ancient world people understood that when someone died they stayed dead. Something remarkable happened.

There isn’t time to explore the meaning of the resurrection in detail in a blog but let’s say that the resurrection of Jesus says something very important about death.

It tells us that there is something after death. Jesus described this something as pretty amazing and wonderful. We could spend a long time exploring that as well.

I think you should bother with Jesus because he tells us something very important about death – that it is not the end.

Jesus death, suffering

Is it right that Jesus should be judged on the goodness of his followers? On the one hand we find out how useful the things that Jesus said are by those who try to live by them, but on the other hand the people trying to live by them are just people and people are not perfect.

I get really sad when I hear about someone who is a Christian but they do something very un-Christian. No Christian can deny that Christians do and have done some pretty bad things. Whilst it is true that not all of the things that were done by Christians were done in the name of Jesus there are some things that Christians just can’t wriggle away from. Some bad things have been done by people who happened to be Christians but an awful lot of stuff has been done by Christians because they (mistakenly) thought they were Christian things to do.

Just look at the way the Jewish people were treated by Christians in the middle ages. This kind of treatment was appalling and made even worse because many of the people who were doing them thought they were doing them for Jesus Christ.

We find a similar thing during the crusades. Much of what took place during the crusades was typical medieval war-making (Christians did the same thing to Christians), and some was just propaganda encouraged to scare the Muslims (it must have worked well because it still has an effect today). However some of the terrible things that were done were perpetrated in the name of Jesus Christ.

Even today we find Christians are still capable of abusing their position and power.

There can never be an excuse for any of this and as a Christian some of it makes me ashamed that such things could ever be done in the name of my faith. I can understand why some are repulsed by Christianity when they consider what Christians have sometimes done.

But I can do nothing to change the past. Those who acted did so for reasons that seemed good to them but now we see that what they did was wrong – no matter what the provocation.

So does all this badness mean that Christianity is wrong? I don’t think so for several reasons. There isn’t room in a blog to cover them all in detail but here are some of them:

1. It’s the teaching of Jesus that shows us that Christians have sometimes done terrible things. Because someone who follows the teaching of Jesus does something wrong doesn’t mean that the teaching is bad. We know that what Christians have sometimes done is wrong because of the teaching of Jesus Christ. It is the very teaching of Christ that shows how wrong the actions were. This means that it is because Christians have failed to follow that bad things have happened and not because of the teaching itself.
2. People with no faith have done things which are just as bad – if not worse. The last century has been described by some historians as the century of dictators. These dictators were often people of no faith at all and yet were capable of terrible humanitarian crimes. If the problems were with the teachings of the faiths (and in particular Christianity) then we would expect people of no faith to be different, but we discover that they were not and in many cases they were worse.  This does not excuse the behaviour of some Christians but it does at least show that it is not religion that is the problem.
3. Christians have made a big impact for good on the world. A great deal of humanitarian work finds it roots in the Christian faith. Other faiths make similar contributions but we are concerned with Christians here so that’s what I’m going to concentrate on. Hospitals, learning, science, etc all have strong connections with Christians. Many of the great world changing people of history have been inspired by their Christian faith. The abolition of slavery worldwide was inspired by the Christian faith. Sometimes Christians take a while to realise that the teachings of Christ say something very important in a situation but when they do realise it they are inspired to make a difference for good. Much of the work undertaken to help children and young people has its roots in Christian movements (Scouts, YMCA, MAYC, Guides, Boys Brigade, YWCA, etc – to name but a few). When South Africa finally threw off the evil of apartheid the world waited for terrible vengence to be taken on the white people but none came. The reason given for the overwhelming feelings of forgiveness was due to the Christian faith of that nation.

I’m going to have to stop here otherwise this will turn into a book rather than a blog post.

As a Christian I am very sorry for the bad things that others have done in the name of my faith. I say – like many other Christians have said – that I am sorry and ask for your forgiveness.

Christians are people and like other people they sometimes get things wrong and others suffer. This is not a good thing. However because Christians sometimes get things wrong doesn’t mean that the teachings of Jesus and therefore the teachings of Christianity are wrong. Don’t let the stupid behaviour of a few blind you to the wonders that are available to those who follow Jesus Christ.

Thoughts jesus christ, suffering