Savior of the World

“Rabbi Helder, you just said Jesus is the Savior of the world. I understand what that means to those who are programmed and so inclined to defend the Penal Substitutionary Atonement Theory (PSAT). But, knowing you are not a fan of PSAT, in what sense are you using that language?”

“I mean, Savior, in as much as what She taught him in his first thirty years and then anointed him to teach, would certainly have saved the world from itself—which is all we need to be saved from—had the people heard and then practiced it. Actually, Rabbi Jesus taught relatively few precepts, and the application of any one of them would have radically transformed life on earth as we know it.”

“Would you be more specific? Which teachings exactly?”

“Well, Passerby, clearly not all in one sitting, but let’s begin with the two biggies. Is there another cuppa in the Chemex and another of those shortbread cookies that you made last night?”

Jesus replied, “The most important one is this: ‘Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment more important than these two.”

Mark 12:28-31

Jesus answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself. The whole Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:37–40

These two texts begin with a line from Deuteronomy 6:5 and are part of the most essential Jewish prayer commonly known as Shema, the summary of the law of Moses, the Torah, and the five books of Moses, which contain 631 laws to be obeyed by every faithful Jew—an impossible task no matter how faithful you imagine yourself to be.

If you may, Passerby, imagine with me for a time a culture, a world in which these two instructions were honored and then joyfully obeyed.

What might life be like?

As one of the CAC’s core principles states, we don’t think ourselves into a new way of living but instead live ourselves into a new way of thinking. Let’s begin with the second greatest commandment: “ Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18).” I would rather begin here because, without the living, the loving can seem a little bit abstract.

Jesus’s life and teaching were neither theoretical nor abstract but substantive, with both feet on the ground and in the game. Jesus teaches us, by example, to live life with one foot here and one foot in the heavenlies (the unseen). The reign of the Spirit on earth, just like it is everywhere else in the universe, was the message he was most passionate about, in third place, behind demonstrating what it means and looks like to be human and setting the record straight about who his Father actually is.

His agenda for this new way of being human was, with the historic message of Her other Prophets—JUSTICE. In his kingdom manifesto (a collection of his teaching probably not given at one time), known generally as the ‘Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7),’ Jesus discloses Her ‘Preference for the Poor’ and describes exactly how life will be better for those, notably women, who have so far, suffered mightily at the hands of their oppressors—patriarchy, and the economic, political/social, and religious domination systems of Jesus’ time.

Economically, Jesus was a socialist, affirming that there was always plenty to go around (Mark 6:30-44. Especially vs 43), providing that the hoarders and bullies had not dammed up the ‘River of Life (Matthew 14:13-21).’

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:14-17

Politically, Jesus was an anarchist. Governmental structure is helpful only in the amount that it is helpful in overseeing the unbiased distribution of power and wealth to all, for all, and is not only serving the perceived entitlements of the Patriarchy in power, which has most often been the case historically. He consistently denied classism, privilege, exceptionalism, and elitism their presumption (Mark 9:35, Galations 3:28).

And religiously, Jesus was Her Prophet, one in a long line of many hated by the status quo (Matthew 23:37), whose historic vocation is to provoke, through direct confrontation, the religious domination system into fulfilling in themselves—through repentance—and for Her ‘Little Ones,’ Her created purpose for the human-kind to be the Lovers of and for Her.

We are Jesus’ followers, his friends, and we must follow in his Footsteps by loving others with the same Love with which he Loved his own flesh. Jesus taught inclusivity. He knew it was not enough to just do things for people or even to be with them, although those things are important. Jesus knew he was the people, each one of them (Matt 25:40, Acts 26:15), so…Loving and caring for them was caring for himself.

When someone strips another of his clothes, he is called a thief. Should not someone who has the power to clothe the naked but does not do so be called the same? The bread in your larder belongs to the hungry. The cloak in your wardrobe belongs to the naked. The shoes you allow to rot belong to the barefoot. The money in your vaults belongs to the destitute. You do injustice to everyone who you could help but do not.

St Basil the Great

I recently read an article on the distribution of wealth in which the author asked the question, “How many living wages do you earn?” The point being, like St Basil in the above, if we earn more than one, we could look for a home among the poor for the other ones. At this time in the state of Colorado, a living wage for a family with two children is $46/hr, $25/hr for a single person.  LINK TO ARTICLE

As his followers, we have learned to keep our eyes firmly fixed on the back of his head, walking the way, watching, and listening, for our passion is to imitate him in word and deed. And when we have been faithful and so succeed, those little ones of Matt 25 will no longer be hungry, naked, lonely, or thirsty because we will have loved them even as we have Loved ourselves in Her name and according to Her good will.

So…Passerby, you recognize that I was speaking in metaphor just now, yes?…good.

It is possible to fall in Love with Her before falling in Love with what She Loves first. I know that’s true since that is how it happened for me, but I think that it is more common for someone to fall head over heels for what She Loves and then, as a result, discover that the Love they came to know through you was in truth, Her all along. However, that shakes out in the end, actually, not theoretically or in some abstract way; falling in Love with Her, and so with all She Loves, is all that matters.

That said, Passerby,

Imagine a world practicing the teaching of
Jesus, the ‘Savior of the World….’

Then we may apprehend the ‘Rule of the Spirit on Earth’ —as it already is in the rest of the universe—that Jesus told us was the new way of being human.