Neubarth
At the Ballpark July 30th
Many years ago, there was a song that went, "Jesus walked around showing his tender love. Those who believed had a small taste of heaven above. People saw and were amazed at his healing power. God don't change as the Bible says, and he is healing people now."
So was Jesus this wonderful, all loving, all kind person who showed us how we were supposed to live our lives?
In the Bible we see a man, Jesus, who walked around several Roman provinces creating difficulty for the administrators of those provinces. People were rising up against the Romans and killing them in all of the areas that Jesus traveled to and spoke to the masses. He had a crowd of men who followed him. One of the men of that crowd was a Zealot who was active in pushing insurrection and fomented the killing of Roman officials. Because of his associations, the Romans did not like or trust Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus not only kept company with a bunch of ragged men who frequently slept out in fields at night, but he and his men were guilty of taking grain from the fields to eat without the farmers' permission. In the cities, Jesus kept company with whores and prostitutes and people who stole money from the masses. The saying used to be that "They will know you by the company that you keep." Well, certainly, Jesus did not keep good company.
Jesus had a bad habit of attacking dignified and devout Jewish religious leaders and calling them ugly names by the dozen. These good men who were trying to keep the populace placated so they would stop rising up against the Roman government were called "Blind, Fools, Hypocrites" and a host of other nasty names.
At a time where tensions were extremely high Jesus was seen with a whip hitting his fellow Jews and beating them viciously so that they were running in all different directions while Jesus ransacked their places of business. Obviously, this is not a man who was "Walking around showing his tender love." He was called by many, "A Mad Man." and many were afraid of him.
I could go on and on and on and on, but the reality is that if we were to pattern our lives on the life that Jesus lived, we would more than likely be in jail or in courts under trial for criminal and civil offenses. That is not exactly the type of example we would want to set if we were trying to create a new religion. Obviously something was wrong here.
So was Jesus this wonderful, all loving, all kind person who showed us how we were supposed to live our lives?
In the Bible we see a man, Jesus, who walked around several Roman provinces creating difficulty for the administrators of those provinces. People were rising up against the Romans and killing them in all of the areas that Jesus traveled to and spoke to the masses. He had a crowd of men who followed him. One of the men of that crowd was a Zealot who was active in pushing insurrection and fomented the killing of Roman officials. Because of his associations, the Romans did not like or trust Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus not only kept company with a bunch of ragged men who frequently slept out in fields at night, but he and his men were guilty of taking grain from the fields to eat without the farmers' permission. In the cities, Jesus kept company with whores and prostitutes and people who stole money from the masses. The saying used to be that "They will know you by the company that you keep." Well, certainly, Jesus did not keep good company.
Jesus had a bad habit of attacking dignified and devout Jewish religious leaders and calling them ugly names by the dozen. These good men who were trying to keep the populace placated so they would stop rising up against the Roman government were called "Blind, Fools, Hypocrites" and a host of other nasty names.
At a time where tensions were extremely high Jesus was seen with a whip hitting his fellow Jews and beating them viciously so that they were running in all different directions while Jesus ransacked their places of business. Obviously, this is not a man who was "Walking around showing his tender love." He was called by many, "A Mad Man." and many were afraid of him.
I could go on and on and on and on, but the reality is that if we were to pattern our lives on the life that Jesus lived, we would more than likely be in jail or in courts under trial for criminal and civil offenses. That is not exactly the type of example we would want to set if we were trying to create a new religion. Obviously something was wrong here.