Orville Taylor | Know Jesus; know peace. No Jesus: no peace

No! This is not some attempt to have people dropping on their knees and shouting “Lord! Lord!.” Neither is it intended to increase the flock who gather on Sundays and Saturdays, worshipping a man, nailed on what looks like a stylised plus sign. Feel free to doubt that Jesus Christ ever lived, much less being the son of God, sent by him to be murdered for our sins.

Rather, it is simply a reality check for Christians.

In 1976, Bob Marley and the Wailers paraphrased the 1963 speech of Rastafarian revered figure Haile Selassie I, in the very popular War. “Until the philosophy which hold one race, superior and another inferior, is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned ... everywhere is war.” He continues, “That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race … dis a war.”

A timely song, Jamaica was in the middle of an undeclared civil war. A major chasm divided the world between Soviet bloc, Warsaw Pact nations, led by Russia and NATO countries, led by the US. Multiple conflict abounded in Africa, Latin America and Asia, often, with each side aligned to one of the two blocs. The Russians and Americans hardly ever got involved directly. However, they sent equipment and essentially delegated proxy wars.

Selassie was part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, a Christian denomination which accepts the core of who and what Jesus was, the Tewahedo, him being divine and perfectly human simultaneously. Thus, he acknowledged Jesus’ instructions in Matthew 7:12, “… do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Inasmuch as this somewhat reprised Leviticus 19:18,”You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge... Love your neighbour as yourself and Deuteronomy10:19, “Love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt,” this neighbourly requirement was for residents both Jews and those who lived among them. It did not apply to non-residential aliens.

In fact, treating one’s fellow citizens is not unique to the Bible. In Hinduism, the Mahabharata and the Vedas, instruct, “treat others as oneself and avoid actions that cause pain to others.” Similarly, Confucius’ Analects 15:23, teaches “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.”

An untrained Rabbi, Jesus consorted with criminals, prostitutes, tax collectors and essentially the scrub of society, and running against the grain of the privileged clergy, carried a message of equality, direct relationship with God and abolition of ascriptive statuses.

This revolutionary message, backed up with, kicking over stalls of usurers and cambio operators in the temple, shook up Jewish society. Most powerful and deeply disturbing to the status quo was that, God was bringing back not only the lost sheep, but goats, and all other human animals whom he had created; the Gentiles.

Imagine, a humble ‘nobody’ with no theological antecedents or kingly descent, having an amazing impact on crowds, and usurping the Priests’ online access to God, now claiming to have the Almighty on speed dial.

Claiming a direct line to God, digits unknown to the Pharisees and Saducees, rumours abounded that he is the son of God himself. For centuries, the nation of Israel, was accustomed to ‘Chosen’ people status. This allowed them to do heinous atrocities, under authority from God.

In Deuteronomy 20:16-17 the Israelites were instructed to annihilate the Canaanites: “You shall save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them.” In Numbers 3:17-18 it repeats, “Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man intimately. But all the young girls who have not known a man intimately, keep alive for yourselves.”

And in 1 Samuel 15:3, “kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.” Given the relationship between peace and equality, Jesus understood that, that had to end.

Now, the confusion between the state of Israel created in 1948 and the Biblical nation of Israel is understandable.

However, how do Christians who eat pork, shrimp and crab, go to church on Sunday instead of Saturday, do not circumcise their males and despite their frequent hopscotching between the New and Old Testament reject the death penalty for homosexuality, adultery, parental disrespect and a slew of other travesties?

Even stranger is the one-sided affinity with residents of the state of Israel, whom, they believe are the Biblical Israelites. Now, even if they were/are; the fact is; the belief in Jesus totally obviates any notion of a chosen people.

More paradoxical is that the adoration that some Christians feel and the assumption that because Christ is our ‘brother; we become Jews once we are saved. Consequently present day Jews and Israelis automatically think the same.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, because these Christians are misguided on several premises. First, Jews including those who live in Iran, do not accept that Jesus is the Messiah, is still alive, and came and died and was resurrected for our sins. Jesus is not even a major prophet.

According to Christianity, rejection of Jesus’ divinity is a sin and a passport to hell; he is the ‘only way’.

It might be very cathartic to some Christians to know that up to two years ago or so there was an Israeli proposal to pass legislation preventing anyone from declaring that Jesus is God or to attempt to convert anyone to follow him in Israel.

To Christians who interpret the current hostilities in the Middle East; just know that the UN’s standards are closer aligned to Jesus’s teachings, than to the Talmud, Torah or Sharia.

Orville Taylor is senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.