A Stick To Stir The Shit

I love Jesus but isn't Jesus dead?

Jesus is dead. So is my Dad. So is my Mam. So are many other friends and family.

They lived and they died. All too soon. Including Jesus.

I still love them all.

There's one big difference.  Jesus rose from the dead.  For a while at least.

But it's that short term resurrection that has me a thinking my favourite question of the moment ~  Why?

Was the resurrection the ultimate miracle that Jesus as a man / as God performed to make us sit up and take notice?

Certainly the books in the bible describe wonderful words and deeds that Jesus said and did as a man whilst professing to be God. But did anyone truly believe that he was?  Truly? His closest followers were all set for denying, hiding or buggering off sharpish, when Big J got busted and executed.

All that Jesus had said to them in person, all that he had demonstrated to them before their very eyes meant diddley squat when the shit hit the fan.

It took a resurrection of a tortured, disembowelled dead man to make people actually believe in God. ~ Why?

Because they had seen this man, lived with him, fallen in love with him and watched him die.

But then come back to life!! Fully back to life!  Only God is possible of such a feat.

So they believed.  They believed so much that they were willing to die themselves to say it out loud and proud. “God is real”!

Not just a dozen close  mates but hundreds of first hand eye witnesses.

And so began a movement of believers.

I believe that.

What I don't believe in us the way that the message of belief in God became the message of power, wealth and control , that became the organisation known as the christian church. 

I don't think it's what Jesus, what God, had in mind.

Also I struggle with penal substitution theories. I struggle with the Scapegoat Theories - personal sacrifice for the sins of the world.

Certainly the idea of sacrifice in biblical times would be an incredible metaphor. Society was used to “paying penance” via sacrificial animals but that illustration doesn't quite translate into 21st Century North West England.
That's not to belittle my personal understanding of biblical sacrifice. It just means that if I was to try and “evangelise” sacrifice on the streets of Preston as a way of getting totally non believing people to think about a Loving and Graceful God, I'm not sure how big the sign up would be.

Actually, I am. I've done it many times. The sign up is minimal. Whereas, I believe the “need” for people to come to a God realization is Maximal.

Perhaps the marketing strategy and the USP might need a rethink?

So: Maybe God simply wanted to prove His existence by performing the ultimate miracle.  A man brought back to life.

It has worked. Millions believe in God because of the man Jesus.

We call these millions christians.

It certainly works for me.....

Now here's a stick to really stir the shit:

"If God performed this great miracle to get the attention of one group of people who became known as christians;  is it possible that God has revealed himself in other ways to other people who have become known as other things"?

So. My parents are dead.
Jesus the man is dead.

I believe this to be so.

I also believe that God is very well thank you very much and sitting in his heaven laughing his sack off at my attempts to work Him or Her out.

"You Believe What"?!