What would Jesus do?

I do find it odd that 55 people viewed this thread and no one seems to know what Jesus would do!

I do understand that half of the 55 could be atheist and not take Jesus seriously but what about the other half why would they not want to share their view points as to how they would think Jesus might act?

1 person voted down this thread about Jesus, "I can only hope that it was not a Christian and if it was would you please share with us all why we should not be considering what Jesus might do?

2 Replies

@reasoning logic,

There are a lot of atheists that contribute to the forum. The moment someone rises to the bait and discusses religion, we will hear from them - that is a given fact.

Personally I think there are a lot of Christians who recognise the difference between turning the other cheek and parading around with a note stuck on their face reading 'strike this one first'.

I am a Christian, but being human I am a sinner and I do not dare to judge anyone else. I have no doubt Jesus would treat all he met with compassion and love, but beyond that I could not speculate what He would 'do'.

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@ragnel,

Thank you for your honest reply. We are all in this together theist and atheist alike!

I have found that I can find similar behavior in both groups {atheist and theist} Some are kind and some are down right mean at times but they both claim their position.

You may find this very odd and I hope that you do not lose respect for me but I do love what I have learned from Jesus but at the same time I am an atheist!

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@reasoning logic,

No, I don't find it odd, and I have been brought up to respect people for what they do, not for their religious beliefs. Honesty, integrity, fair play, kindness, compassion, forgiveness - these, in my opinion, are the building blocks of ethics and morals, and they really do not, and should not, depend on any particular set of religious beliefs (or non-beliefs).

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@reasoning logic,

The social moral message of Jesus is contained in the following passage of the Gospel of Matthew; Chapter 25: 31-46. The parable is often referred as "The Sheep and the Goats" or "The Judgment of the Nations."

Quote:

31 "But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32 Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will tell those on his right hand, 'Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35 for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. 36 I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.'
37 "Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? 38 When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?'
40 "The King will answer them, 'Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' 41 Then he will say also to those on the left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you didn't give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you didn't take me in; naked, and you didn't clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit me.'
44 "Then they will also answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn't help you?'
45 "Then he will answer them, saying, 'Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you didn't do it to one of the least of these, you didn't do it to me.' 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

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@kuvasz,

Please do not take this the wrong way because that is not how it is intended!

I do not mean to sound negative but from my understanding of that we will all burn in hell!

Were you the good Samaritan that did all of these things for a stranger in prison that you did not know?

1 Reply

@reasoning logic,

reasoning logic said:

Quote:

I do not mean to sound negative but from my understanding of that we will all burn in hell!

Were you the good Samaritan that did all of these things for a stranger in prison that you did not know?

Yes, but I knew the guy beforehand, and drove him to and from the Federal Penitentiary in Butner, NC. while visiting him every few weeks while he was incarcerated.

In fact, one of my graduate school colleagues, and now a famous chemist has a prison program in Raleigh, NC that has people visit prisoners in the North Carolina's penal institutions, per that particular passage from Matthew.

btw

Quote:

But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Matthew 7:14

Yet,

Quote:

"a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
Robert Browning

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@reasoning logic,

I don't get why so many think jesus was so great or always had something good to say. There are many occasions where he said absurd or even retarded things. For example the fig tree incident. Regardless if that is just a parable or metaphor it gives a horrible impression. I am not surprised that most if not all christians gloss over that example.

If he is cursing the tree for not bearing fruit which could be the equivalent of a person who does not bear fruit or the wise thing. But cursing them just because of their ignorance is silly. Yet you find this a reoccurring theme within the christian theology. Just because someone doesn't have enough information it shouldn't qualify them for a curse or damnation and that is why it is absurd that he would do such a thing.

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I think a more important question -- what would I do?

1 Reply

@reasoning logic,

Six people including yourself posted on this thread, and it has a value of zero. That means that seven voted it down, not one.

1 Reply

@roger,

I didn't vote it down I simply made a comment.

Is it an A2K requirement that we must vote every thread up or down?

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@kuvasz,

Good stuff Kuvasz!

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@Krumple,

I do see your point and you do make good points!

I see him as great because he is a part of my culture and everyone said he was love, truth and the way when I was growing up.

I have read many things in the bible that I find to be very immoral but I would like to stay away from those ideas on this thread because I am more interested in sharing moral truths than talking about the many things that both you and I might think are immoral about the bible.

I know that I pick what I think Jesus said and the things that seem immoral I am not sure that he said them or if someone in power added the bad to use it for justification for war and division.

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@NickFun,

Yes that is where I am trying to take this thread if I am successful!

What would you do if you are a moral person? How far will you extend your ethical radius?

Will your morality be consistent or will it change when you walk away from your love ones and into society?

These are questions that I hope all of you will share with us your answers!

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@reasoning logic,

The circle of concern, theoretically ought to include all humanity, sentient beings, and life forms. But that is simply coffeehouse discussion. The reality is that humans "usually" have a hierarchy of concern that places family and friends as the inner circle of protection, and preclude strangers from concern. The advancement of humanity's morality has been through the work of its great moral teachers to increase the circumference of the circle of concern to include the "others."

a good example would be......

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"

Which sentient is found in Christianity, Buddhism, as well as other religions.

1 Reply

@Krumple,

Krumple wrote:

I don't get why so many think jesus was so great or always had something good to say. There are many occasions where he said absurd or even retarded things. For example the fig tree incident. Regardless if that is just a parable or metaphor it gives a horrible impression. I am not surprised that most if not all christians gloss over that example.

If he is cursing the tree for not bearing fruit which could be the equivalent of a person who does not bear fruit or the wise thing. But cursing them just because of their ignorance is silly. Yet you find this a reoccurring theme within the christian theology. Just because someone doesn't have enough information it shouldn't qualify them for a curse or damnation and that is why it is absurd that he would do such a thing.

Admittedly I, a Christian (universalist variety), don't fully understandt the fig tree story. I'm not sure what you mean by "glossing over" -- perhaps that's what I'm doing in this post. Apparently like you, I haven't been satisfied with standard Christian interpretations of the fig tree incident. Like much of the New Testament, this one seems to fall into the "it helps to know more than most Christians, including myself, do about Second Temple Judaism and the Old Testament and the New Testament authors and audiences" to fully grasp the fig tree as Israel analogy (also what is meant by "cursing").

All I've really learned thus far in researching the above is that there is a LOT of material to sift through concerning Second Temple Judaism.

Re: teachings of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament, I've been looking into similarities with the Hasidim Movement of the Jewish Second Temple Era (not to be confused with the much later 14th century-ish Hasidim Movement), referred to sometimes as the Galilean Hasidim since Galilee was its center. "Gemilut Hasadim" roughly translates as "loving kindness", apparently the essence of that movement; some have referred to Jesus as "a Hasid". On the other hand, some analysts find similarities between the teachings of the New Testament and the apparently Hellenistic author of the Old Testament apocryphal book "The Book of Wisdom" a.k.a. "The Wisdom of Solomon" (not to be confused with "The Wisdom of Sirach"), which was included in the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament compiled in Alexandria in...?? B.C.E.). Both ideas probably have some merit to them, as the early Christian church had both Hellenistic and Judaistic factions.

For anyone interested in learning more about Second Temple Judaic sects and teachings which might have influenced the New Testament, especially the Galilean Hasidim, the trail I'm following includes Rabban (Rabbi) Gamaliel the Elder (perhaps Paul's teacher, now revered as a saint in the Catholic Church), Rabbi Yochanan (Johanan) ben Zakkai, and a couple of colorful Galilean charismatics, Honi (Onias) the Circle Maker, and Hanina ben Dosa. I haven't yet gotten to a couple of earlier "flash-in-the-pan messiahs" (analysts' descriptive, not mine) whom I've seen mentioned: "Judas the Galilean" (those crazy Galileans again!) and "Theudas Magus". I have no idea what they're about, but it seems they came along way before the Bar Kochba revolt, and probably before Jesus.

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@reasoning logic,

reasoning logic wrote:

Yes that is where I am trying to take this thread if I am successful!

What would you do if you are a moral person? How far will you extend your ethical radius?

Will your morality be consistent or will it change when you walk away from your love ones and into society?

These are questions that I hope all of you will share with us your answers!

Great thread. Thoughtful and thought provoking ideas.

Even though we naturally have an emotional hierarchy which puts family first, that's not necessarily a stumbling block to caring for others as well (unless you are blessed with a truly and desperately needy family, which can drain you of all your resources).

Re: fairness and sharing, a little gem of wisdom I recently heard: you don't look through other peoples' walls to see if you have as much as they do, you only look through other peoples' walls to be sure they have enough.

I know how self-centered this is going to sound, but there were times when I ventured forth to "do good", sometimes motivated by genuine compassion (and other times by self righteous arrogance), into areas for which I simply was not properly equipped. I found myself drowning in more suffering and sorrow than I could possibly assuage or emotionally "handle" . Yes, my emotional meltdown was nothing compared to the suffering of the people around me, but it paralyzed me and made me virtually useless in that scenario. I couldn't possibly help all who needed help, I couldn't choose some while abandoning others who were just as dear and desperate. Has anyone else gone through a similar experience?

Now I try to do what I can on a more limited basis, still sometimes self-centeredly feeling wounded and completely "played out" from exhaustion and frustration, feeling guilty that I can't, or don't, do more, feeling an almost intolerable sorrow and melancholy for the suffering and inhumanity I see every day, the suffering and cruelty and inhumanity of a world system that seems foreign to everything I know and believe in. I really don't see the meek inheriting the earth in the near future. How do others here cope with similar feelings?

Re: "What would Jesus do?", I also ask, "How did he find a way, find the strength and wisdom, to do what He would do? COULD He really do all that He WOULD do?"

"No peace until there is peace for all. No rest until all has been fulfilled." Dag Hammarksjold

1 Reply

@melonkali,

Thank you for sharing all that you have, both you and Dag Hammarskjold do seem to have much to offer.

It must mean something for a man to be the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize!

Thanks again.

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I have been studying ethics for a couple of years now and I find it to be odd that Christians and atheist alike have very little interest in talking about morality!

It could be because I have not spent much time on other forums but I do plan to see if this makes a difference!

1 Reply

What would Jesus do?

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