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Who Do Others Say That I Am?
A Sermon Given
by Rev. Roger Fritts
on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2003
at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church
Bethesda, Maryland
Today millions of people around the world celebrate the resurrection of
Jesus. But who was Jesus? Each religious tradition answers the question in
their own way. Most of us are familiar with the traditional Christian view of
Jesus, but what do Muslims, Jews, Hindu and Buddhists say about Jesus?
According to Islamic scholars, Jesus was a link in a chain of
messengers sent by God. This series of great Messengers includes Abraham,
Noah, Moses, and Mohammed. Muslims love and respect Jesus as much as they love
and respect other messengers from God.
Many similarities exist between traditional Christianity and Islam. Islamic
leaders teach that Muslims should follow the moral and ethical teachings of
the Old and New Testaments as long as they are consistent with the Koran.
Along with traditional Christians, Muslims believe in the Virgin Birth and the
second coming of Jesus. According to a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, Jesus
will return to earth and stay for forty years. Muslims say these years will be
the happiest years of life on this earth.
On the other hand, Islamic teaching rejects the Trinity. Instead Islam
teaches that the great messengers of God; Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus and
Mohammed, are human recipients of revelation from God. In support of their
position, Muslim scholars point out that some churches in the west, such as
the Unitarian church, do not worship Jesus as God.
Jews have a different perspective on Jesus. As children, some Jews
remember being called "Christ killers" by other children. They remember that
followers of Jesus were responsible for the Crusades and the Inquisition. They
remember the many followers of Jesus who did not speak up during the
Holocaust. Most Jews cannot ignore or forget the suffering caused by the
religion created in Jesus’ name.
Still Jewish Scholars point out, if Jesus were among us today, he would be
most comfortable not in a church, but in an Orthodox Jewish synagogue. In
synagogue Jesus would be at home with much of the content, the metaphors the
prayers, and even the Hebrew language.
Today for many Jews, Jesus is like a cousin whose behavior many years ago
caused embarrassment in the Jewish community. He is the cousin who became
world-famous by saying insulting things in public about the Jewish family, the
one who got in trouble with the law for his outrageous behavior. For Jews,
Jesus is the engaging egotistical cousin who ended up dead because he believed
in his own presumptuous myth. Like an embarrassing cousin, most Jews do not
talk much about Jesus. However, family is family. If Christians forget that
Jesus was Jewish, Jews are quick to remind them.
Some Jews feel a hint of pride in Jesus’ accomplishments. Consider the
story of an elderly Jewish woman who ended up in a Catholic hospital. Facing
her bed was a big picture of Jesus. A considerate nun, knowing the woman was
Jewish, asked if she would like the picture taken down. "Oh no," replied the
old woman, "such success by one of our boys! Leave the picture up!"
So Muslims see Jesus as a human messenger from God.
And Jews see Jesus as an embarrassing cousin who died a tragic death.
But what is the Hindu view of Jesus? The writings of Mohandas Gandhi
offers one answer to this question. Gandhi wrote that he regarded Jesus as a
great teacher, but he could not accept the belief that Jesus was the only son
of God. Gandhi was also disappointed that Jesus was not a vegetarian. Still as
a Hindu, Gandhi had great respect for Jesus. Gandhi wrote:
My Christian friends have told me on more than a few occasions that
because I do not accept Christ as the only son of God, it is impossible for
me to understand the profound significance of his teachings. I believe that
this is an erroneous point of view, and that such an estimate is
incompatible with the message that Jesus gave to the world. For he was
certainly the highest example of one who wished to give everything, asking
nothing in return, and not caring what creed might happen to be professed by
the recipient. I am sure that if he were living here now, he would bless the
lives of many who perhaps have never even heard his name, if only their
lives embodied the virtues of which he was a living example on Earth: the
virtues of loving one’s neighbor as oneself and that of doing good and
charitable works among one’s fellows.
What then does Jesus mean to me? To me he was one of the greatest
teacher’s humanity has ever had. To his believers he was God’s only begotten
son. Could the fact that I do or do not accept this belief make Jesus have
any more or less influence in my life? Is all the grandeur of his teaching
and of his doctrine to to be forbidden to me? I cannot believe so.
So Islam sees Jesus as a human being sent by God to deliver God’s
message.
Jews see Jesus as an outgoing Jew whom the Romans tragically killed.
And a Hindu sees Jesus as one of humanity’s greatest teachers.
But what is a Buddhist view of this man whose life is celebrated
today? Buddhists have had a mixed experience with Jesus. For example, the
Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, heard Christian missionaries in his
country attack Buddhism as sinister and deceitful. In the early 1960s the
Catholic Archbishop of Vietnam leaned heavily on the political power of his
brother President Ngo Dinh DiLm.
President’s DiLm’s 1963 decree
prohibited the celebration of the most important Buddhist national holiday and
caused tens of thousands of Buddhists to demonstrate for religious freedom.
The demonstrations led to the overthrow of President DiLm.
In such an atmosphere of persecution and conflict seeing the positive in
Jesus’s teachings is difficult.
On the other hand, when Thich Nhat Hanh came to America to speak out
against the Vietnam War, he met people like the Reverend Martin Luther King
Jr., Father Thomas Merton, and Father Daniel Berrigan. They taught him about
the understanding and compassion of Jesus.
As a result, Thich Nhat Hanh has taken Christian theology and fit it into
his own Buddhist perspective. For example, speaking about the Trinity, he says
"I felt that all of us also have the seed of the Holy Spirit in us, the
capacity of healing, transforming and loving. When we touch that seed, we can
touch God the Father and God the Son."
Buddhists do not believe in God. Still Thich Nhat Hanh sees words like God,
the Trinity and the Holy Spirit as symbols that Christians find helpful in
expressing their beliefs. Instead of arguing about words, he looks for the
universal human experience that people are trying to express with the words.
For example, he sees a connection between the practice in Buddhist monasteries
of eating meals in silence to make it easier to give full attention to the
food, and the last supper. During the last supper, as Jesus broke the bread
and poured the wine, he said "this is my body this is my blood, drink it and
eat it." The Buddhist says this was a dramatic way to encourage his followers
to give full attention to the food. Thich Nhat Hanh sees communion as a way of
encouraging Christians to be fully awake, in the same way that Buddhism
encourages us to be fully awake.
Like the Vietnamese Buddhist, the leader of the Tibetan Buddhists strives
to find the common experiences that underlie the different words and stories
of Christianity and Buddhism. So the Dalai Lama of Tibet sees the resurrection
of Jesus as like the Buddhist belief in reincarnation. Instead of arguing
about the words and symbols, these Buddhist religious leaders work hard to
find the universal human experiences that give rise to Buddhism and
Christianity.
What do others say about Jesus?
An Islamic scholar says that Jesus was a messenger from God.
A Rabbi says Jesus was a rebellious, somewhat embarrassing Jewish man.
A Hindu political leader says Jesus was a great humanitarian.
A Buddhist monk says Jesus was a deeply spiritual man.
But what do Unitarians say about Jesus? The Catechism of the
Hungarian Unitarian Church in Transylvania summarizes a Unitarian view. It
says:
We do not call Jesus God, because we know that he was in reality a man.
We know that Jesus was a real man from the Gospels, where he first called
himself a man, and the son of a man. But his real humanity is verified by
his whole life as well: he was born, grew up in body and spirit, was happy,
sorrowful, hungry, thirsty, suffered and died.
This is a common Unitarian position on Jesus. Still in this church we have
no creed and no interpretation of the Bible to which you must all agree. Here
each of us is free to make up our own mind about Jesus.
What is my own view? If Jesus turned to me and asked, "Who do you say that
I am?" I might have replied, "You are the first great teacher of non
violence."
Of course, when it came to living a life without violence, like all of us,
Jesus was not perfect. He got so angry that he drove out all who were selling
and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers
and the seats of those who sold doves. Still he also said "blessed are the
peacemakers" and "if anyone strikes us on one cheek, we should offer the other
also."
We live in a time of wars that are often thought of in religious terms. For
many the war in Iraq is a war between Muslims and Christians. The war in Sri
Lanka is between Hindu and Buddhists. The war in the disputed lands of Israel
and Palestine is between Jews and Muslims.
Still Jesus’s words of peace give me a strong hope for the future. While I
do not believe in the literal resurrection of Jesus, I do believe in the
resurrection of Jesus’ message. Each year the flowers bloom, and the trees
become green again and I feel hope again that someday the people of the earth
will learn to live together in peace.
* * * * * * * * *
Sources:
Bruteau, Beatrice, editor, Jesus Through Jewish Eyes,
2001. An anthology of nineteen essays about Jesus by Jewish writers.
Cragg, Kenneth, Jesus and the Muslim, 1985, 1999.
The author is an Anglican Bishop, who served academic and ecclesiastical
posts in the middle east and in Africa.
Dalai Lama, The Good Heart, A Buddhist Perspective on
the Teachings of Jesus, 1996. Texts of lectures by the Dalai Lama at
Middlesex University in North London, with responses by Father Laurence
Freeman and others.
Hanh, Thich Nhat, Living Buddha, Living Christ,
1995.
Mitchell, Stephen, The Gospel According to Jesus,
1991. Includes the quote from Gandhi used in the service.
Office@CedarLane.org
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