Murray Haar On Religion: Problems with Jesus

Friday, October 12, 2018

Problems with Jesus

Jews, Christians and Muslims who think about their religious traditions will have problems with Jesus. The problems are not talked about much in public, but they are substantial.

For Jews, Jesus lacks the credentials to be the Messiah or Christ. Jesus did not rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. He did not bring peace throughout the world. He did not cause all Jews to live in peace in the land of Israel and he did not cause non-Jews to flock to Israel to study Torah. Historically, many Jews have been persecuted and killed in the name of Jesus. And the Christian Gospels have many texts that are anti-Jewish. Jesus may have been a prophet. He may have been a charismatic divine instrument trying to make gentiles as Jewish as possible. But for most Jews, as the messiah, Jesus is problematic.

For Muslims, Jesus was born of a virgin and is the Christ, but he is also not divine. According to the Quran, Jesus did not die on the cross but was saved at the last minute and someone else died in his place. Jesus as part of the Trinity is a problem because it means Christians are worshipping a man and engaged in idolatry. There is tremendous respect for Jesus within Islam, but for Muslims, the Christian Jesus remains problematic.

For Christians, the problem with Jesus is subtle and complicated. The problem is Jesus was an incomplete and insufficient Messiah. Christians are assured by their scriptures and traditions that God sent Jesus into the world to die for their sins and to be raised for their justification and eternal life. But, every Advent, Christians face the fact that Jesus came but has not come back to complete his work. Some have called this waiting for Jesus’ return, “the delay.” It has been over two thousand years and this delay is a problem.

Yes, there are problems with Jesus. But, despite all these issues, we have before us three communities, with something in common. They are waiting for God to act. There is an old Jewish prayer called Ani Maamin (I believe). “I believe in the coming of the messiah and though he tarry I shall wait, I shall wait, I shall wait.” For all the unresolved problems with Messiahs, and there are many, the secret still resides in the waiting. And maybe that is enough for now?

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Notes from The Door

Whenever you care for the neighbor in pain, at that very moment, God is real. At that very moment, the Messiah has returned. In every situation where there is pain and injustice do what you can do to stop the pain. Murray Haar
Religion was not created by God but by people. What God thinks of our religions only God can say. If your religion teaches you to love God and to stand with your neighbor in pain, it is a good religion. If it teaches you to hate and to be indifferent, it is a bad religion. Murray Haar
Get Busy livin or get busy dyin (Shawshank Redemption)
The Holocaust teaches us that it is possible to be alive but no longer human. Murray Haar
I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know; so I am likely to be wiser than he to this small extent, that I do not think I know what I do not know. Socrates
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead, Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now: put out every one; Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun; Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good. W. H. Auden
For the most part, Christian pastors and priests are not taught to think but to transmit. They go to a vocational school called a seminary where they are taught how to transmit and proclaim the gospel but not how to teach their people to think critically about what they believe. They do not know how to teach their parishioners that Christianity could be wrong. Pastors and Priests are not prophets; they are religious functionaries who care about people and love Jesus. They themselves are usually nice people, will visit you in the hospital and give you bread and wine but they are not, for the most part, great thinkers. So, to expect them to reform the Church is just not realistic. Occasionally though, pastors show up who can think and believe at the same time and it is in them that there is hope for a reformation. I have met them. They are real and I have hope in them. Murray Haar
We do not believe in the Bible. We believe in God. The Bible is a vector toward God and the neighbor. When the Bible points us toward God and the neighbor, it is true. Whenever it does not, it is not true. We have to learn not only to read the Bible but to argue with it. Then the text will become real. Murray Haar
“In religion, the question is more important than the answer to the question.” A Midrash
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Dylan Thomas
“He who saves a single life, saves the world entire.” The Talmud
“We do not choose to be born. We do not choose our parents. We do not choose our historical epoch, or the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing. We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live: courageously or in cowardice, honorably or dishonorably, with purpose or adrift. We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. But no matter how indifferent the universe may be to our choices and decisions, these choices and decisions are ours to make. We decide. We choose. And as we decide and choose, so are our lives formed.” Joseph Epstein

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Friday, October 12, 2018

Problems with Jesus

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