Thoughts about the mission of Jesus

[weareunity]

I think it is possible to portray the mission of Jesus in terms which are able to sit alongside the more familiar portrayal which is set within a religious context.

The purpose of exploring this possibility is not to seek to contradict the familiar portrayal nor to disrespect that portrayal in any way--rather the opposite, for the purpose is to attempt to increase understanding. An understanding which I think Jesus had of people, their behaviour and their motivations, an understanding which makes it possible to portray the mission of Jesus as a purposeful study and application of psychology.

The lifetime of Jesus was, as we know, during a period of Roman domination over the Jewish people and their own system of government. Both societies were subject to the influence and actions of ambitious factions, rivals plotting against one another, seeking and creating allegiances to further their own often personal ambitions. Ambitions which could be served by setting one interest group against another. In short--divide and rule--resulting in a society more fractured than it might otherwise be.

Jesus had the great gift of insight into how and why people behave as they do and with what consequences. I think he saw that personal ambition for power and wealth could very often be motivated by a great need for a sense of personal significance, and that within the aspirational culture of the time--as indeed in our own time--that personal significance was very often measured by the mechanism of relative measurement. That is to say by the relative measure of " more than, greater than, etc.

This relative system of measurement depended (and still depends) entirely upon the existence of differentials between persons, upon differences often contrived and falsely constructed. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier regarding "divide and rule", the difference themselves, the creating of differences, were a means to gain significance. Thus differences became simulataneously both the means and the consequence--a sort of feed back loop of perpetuation.

I think it reasonable to suggest that Jesus viewed the manipulation of differences for personal gain not only as a selfish act but as an act which gave false legitimacy to future acts of similar nature. The question then--By what means could this perpetuation be stopped?

Coercion had been tried but again entailed division. Legislation had been tried and with some success if left in peace but could not withstand being overwhelmed by force or corruption. A way was required which was not a way of coercion but was a way of choice, and needed to be a way which offered the transfer of significance between all people in a manner not depending upon relative measure.

To teach and to demonstrate such a way is how I think the mission of Jesus can be portrayed, with the process of loving being the chosen method of fulfilling that mission.

People, all people, were asked to accept that upon seeking forgiveness--that is to say, to choose to turn their backs upon behaviour not in accord with the process of loving--would find themselves loved and valued simply for being themselves, not for their wealth or position but by simply choosing to share in the process of loving by which means both the loving and loved become significant in each others eyes.

Jesus walked the walk along the way which he advocated. A way which he knew would greatly undermine the status quo of factionalism and division. He walked the walk to its conclusion--and to those of religious belief--beyond.

For those not sharing such religious belief there remains however a reality which is a potent component of the mystery of the process of loving. It is that loving is a process which is able to transcend time. Love observed as having been given then can be experienced today, can move us today, can influence our behaviour today-if we so choose.

With good wishes. petex