"If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments"

So what did Jesus teach? What is the Gospel of Christ, the "good news"Understanding what Christ taught is not complicated. He did not disguise his message, nor make it so only educated or intellectuals could comprehend it. He kept it simple. And he even used colorful graphic imagery to get his message across. And he warned that those who came after would pervert his message into the opposite of what he taught. Understanding his message and honoring it were his only requirement for entrance into his kingdom, yet today the vast majority of supposedly Christian voices are teaching things foreign to his message. Give us your money so we can build a bigger church. Healing large groups of people who all seem to be afflicted with undocumented hearing ailments (which mysteriously aren't bad enough to keep them from hearing their sermons). Condemning the minor sexual transgressions of others. And of course, telling the poor, the sick and those in prison how they deserve their lot in life.

These messages provide a stark contrast to the simplistic beauty of Christ's message given during his three year ministry. Christ's message was repeated throughout the Gospels, from his dealings with others to the sermon on the mount. And messages like the ones we hear today are the very sort of thing he condemned in the rich, religious "elite" of his day. Christ's Gospel was one of human compassion. Not his compassion for us, but our compassion for each other. His commandments to love him he directly tied to loving each other. In other words, if you want to honor him then honor your fellow man. Your friends, family neighbors and enemies. All need to be honored if we wish to honor him. His message can be drilled down to several key principles of simply how to get along with each other and how to exercise piety in our lives.

"What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah - the rest is commentary."

- Talmud, Shabbat 31a

These tenets on face value may seem simplistic at first glance and even naively idealistic. Yet reading the four Gospels, one cannot walk away without a keen understanding of these simple messages of faith, community and peace. It was a set of basic principles for living in peace and harmony with our fellow human beings. A way to stave off evil not by resisting it but by embracing the light. Light did not combat darkness. Where light exists, darkness ceases to exist. And where good is, evil shrinks into the shadows.

His kingdom he said was not of this earth. His kingdom he said, was inside each of us. What does that mean? How can the kingdom be inside of each of us? Well, that's a simple concept actually. It simply means that each of us has the ability inside of us to live as he taught and in doing so, turn this earth into his kingdom. After all, if we all learned to turn the other cheek, give to the poor, visit and comfort the sick, forgive our trespasses, not suit over petty grievances, put away our swords and do good one to another, then we'd be living in the kingdom of heaven without ever leaving home. In other words, we can make it here, now...if we so chose. Thus, the kingdom of heaven, is within us.

Thus we see Christ's message was not one of hate, war, intolerance or apathy to our fellow man. Yet today we see the most loud and vocal Christians embracing and exhorting these un-Christ like principles. Recently a prime example of this sort of intolerance was seen during a Presidential debate, as a group calling itself the "Tea Party" which claims to represent "mainstream Christian America" calling for the death of those who do not have health insurance. This same group openly condemns the poor as "unworthy and deserving of their fate. These messages are the exact opposite of Christ's teachings and are an abomination to his Gospel. Yet these ugly messages permeate the modern landscape and dominate the "Christian" message being taught nationwide.

"The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold." -- Aristotle

Where Did It All Go Wrong?

The Gospel of Christ taught compassion for our fellow man and would never call for the deaths of our fellow man, even the most undeserving among us. Christ taught us to be meek, lowly and humble, and to serve each other in all circumstances. So where did this "warrior gospel" come from? When and where did the Gospel of Christ become this hate filled Gospel of war, intolerance and apathy? It clearly was not a development of recent times as anyone perusing early Christian history of the Crusades, the Inquisitions, etc can see that the Gospel had been twisted long ago. But did it begin there? Or did it begin, much, much earlier?