Maybe He Isn't Just "All Right"
Several months ago Mike, at Waving or Drowning had this quote:
How do I evade Jesus’ teachings?No, Jesus isn't just all right. He's far too much for us as Fr. Rohr says above. "All right" is dull, boring, meeting our basic needs, never challenging us. If He is "just all right" we can evade his teachings when they don't make us feel "all right." When we, the comfortable are afflicted, Jesus will never be "just all right."
How is it that after two thousand years of meditation on Jesus, we’ve managed so effectively to avoid most of what he taught so unequivocally? This is true of all the churches. The most we could usually do is emphasize one or the other part of his teaching, and still call ourselves orthodox or “Bible based”.
- All of us, for example, have evaded most of the Sermon on the Mount.
- All of us have evaded the unmistakable teaching of Jesus on a simple life-style, non-status-seeking, non-greed.
- All of us have evaded Jesus’ teaching on non-violence (except for the Amish, the Quakers, and the Mennonites).
- All of us have evaded his straightforward teaching on loving our enemy.
Jesus is just too much for all of us!
Richard Rohr, Adapted from Simplicity, pp. 161 - 162
And He should never be.
1 comment:
You raise a good point by echoing Richard Rohr's quote. It seems that if we make too much of Jesus, make him too exalted, then we can expect to fall short; and if we make too little of him then we can ignore his teachings.
Post a Comment