Why I Love Jesus Meme
So...got tagged by Talmida.
The Rules:
Those tagged will share 5 things they "love" about Jesus. Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers. Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here with their name so that others can read them.
1. His embrace of the poor and the despised, his condemnation of legalism, and his challenge to those who emphasise "purity" over compassion, reflects a value system I can really get behind. And he truly practised what he preached. Think about it: how many people actually do that?
2. He demonstrated that genuine authority comes not from holding some official title or institutionally-sanctioned position, but by speaking the truth, persuasively. Something our own religious authorities often fail to grasp.
3. Of all the founders of the major world religions (or the movements that became world religions, usually), I can't help but feel that Jesus was the one who really got it. There are important and profound insights in the teachings of, for example, the Buddha or the Prophet Muhammed. But the answer to the big question that religion is meant to answer -- the question of the very meaning of life -- is most adequately expressed, in my opinion, in Jesus's teaching about the reign of God (my own understanding of which is explained in detail here).
4. He transcended the narrow ethnocentrism so ubiquitous in his own day (and still extremely problematic in our own), and dared to assert that a Samaritan could better fulfill the commandments of God than a priest, or a Levite. That would have been pretty shocking, to hear that at the time. But Jesus wasn't afraid to be shocking.
5. He liked to party with his friends. Far from being a life-denying ascetic, Jesus knew how to have a good time.
The Rules:
Those tagged will share 5 things they "love" about Jesus. Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers. Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here with their name so that others can read them.
1. His embrace of the poor and the despised, his condemnation of legalism, and his challenge to those who emphasise "purity" over compassion, reflects a value system I can really get behind. And he truly practised what he preached. Think about it: how many people actually do that?
2. He demonstrated that genuine authority comes not from holding some official title or institutionally-sanctioned position, but by speaking the truth, persuasively. Something our own religious authorities often fail to grasp.
3. Of all the founders of the major world religions (or the movements that became world religions, usually), I can't help but feel that Jesus was the one who really got it. There are important and profound insights in the teachings of, for example, the Buddha or the Prophet Muhammed. But the answer to the big question that religion is meant to answer -- the question of the very meaning of life -- is most adequately expressed, in my opinion, in Jesus's teaching about the reign of God (my own understanding of which is explained in detail here).
4. He transcended the narrow ethnocentrism so ubiquitous in his own day (and still extremely problematic in our own), and dared to assert that a Samaritan could better fulfill the commandments of God than a priest, or a Levite. That would have been pretty shocking, to hear that at the time. But Jesus wasn't afraid to be shocking.
5. He liked to party with his friends. Far from being a life-denying ascetic, Jesus knew how to have a good time.
posted by PrickliestPear at 11:10 p.m.
1 Comments:
Nice. You're a Gospel kind of guy.
:)
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