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Friday March 16, 2007

A more human Jesus scares some Christians

by rabbi shmuley boteach

The controversy and interest generated by the Discovery Channel’s “The Tomb of Jesus” points to a popular desire for a more human Jesus and more humane religion.

Religion has become so harsh in our time, so inhuman, that millions have turned to the New Age to accommodate their spiritual needs in rejection of organized faith. Everyone wants to be spiritual. But too many feel that organized religion passes judgment and offers condemnation even before it offers the outstretched hand of love and acceptance.

To be sure, those most to blame for religion’s bad rap in our time are Islamic extremists who kill in the name of God. But Christians and Jews also are guilty of displaying the hard edge of faith. Many of Christian evangelical brothers and sisters believe that the essence of Christianity is best captured by condemning gays and decrying liberals. But God accepts the love of even blemished offerings like you and me. He sees promise where others see flaws.

Yes, people are tired of harsh religion that is all about judgment not redemption, rejection not acceptance, condemnation not inspiration.

As a Jew, I have watched the “Tomb of Jesus” debate with utter fascination as many of my Christian brethren the world over shout sacrilege. But what is the offense? Is the documentary calling Jesus a pedophile, echoing former Southern Baptist Convention President Jerry Vines’ undue comments about Muhammad? Does it portray Jesus as a murderer, the way that Mel Gibson portrayed the Jewish leadership in “The Passion of the Christ”?

No, the documentary’s blasphemy lies in suggesting that Jesus took a wife; that Jesus, like us, got lonely; that he sought the divinely-sanctioned companionship of marriage; that he sired children within wedlock; and that before he died on the cross at the hands of the Romans, he took comfort in knowing that not only his teachings, but his offspring would endure.

How fascinating that a man’s humanity could itself be considered profanity, that human frailty could be considered an affront to faith, that the very notion of Jesus as a man could so offend my Christian colleagues.

To be sure, I love my Christian brethren, especially the devout. And I do not wish to appear insensitive in any way. I understand that a documentary questioning Christian teaching can be offensive and hurtful. But, as a non-Christian, it is the suggestion to the contrary that causes offense. It is the men who think they don’t need others, who go through life without ever truly connecting with, or leaning on other souls — the bachelors who think that no woman is good enough for them — who are the truest affront to God.

In Judaism, it is not marriage that is a sin, but celibacy; not the admission of loneliness but the posture of arrogance. Is the human condition really so decrepit to my Christian siblings that the mere notion of Jesus sharing in any of its vicissitudes would constitute the ultimate assault to belief?

As a Jew, I cannot be inspired by a man who wasn’t a man. I personally relate to Jesus as a fellow Jew who sought to lead a Godly life amid the turmoil and persecution of the cruel and brutal Romans. When my Christian friends ask the famous question “What would Jesus do?” — a query meant to guide them in their own choices in life — it seems to me that their understanding of Christ renders the answer irrelevant. If Jesus was a god, then his actions are something a mortal man could never relate to. For, while we are tempted, he had no inclination toward evil. We strive to overcome flaws while he was congenitally perfect.

For many of my Christian brethren, righteousness implies perfection. Jesus was righteous because he harbored nothing within but goodness and Christian saints are likewise paragons of complete and unalloyed virtue. But for Jews, righteousness implies not perfection, but struggle; not a total devotion to rectitude, but a conscious decision to wrestle with one’s demons and choose uprightness amid a predilection to choose otherwise.

I personally identify with the imperfections of Abraham, the blemishes of Jacob, and the inconsistency of King David, who all, amid a human penchant for sin, ultimately triumphed over their natures and lived lives of exemplary spiritual nobility.

But people prefer to accept teaching from perfect personalities so they may live vicariously, almost as if identifying with perfection will compensate for their own glaring flaws. They are afraid of defects — because what could a flawed man possibly teach me? People choose heroes who are larger than life rather than those who are condemned to forever wrestle with their spirit.

I have seen the same when it comes to counseling. Television has two kinds of family therapists. There are those who feign faultlessness. They are not afflicted by the same failures as their supplicants and talk down to their “patients.”

On “Shalom in the Home,” I employ precisely the opposite approach. When I see a husband who loses his temper, I confess to him the same transgression and share with him how I wrestle to overcome destructive, family-harming patterns, gaining strength as time progresses. Indeed, I have often felt inadequate to host so blessed a program, given that I am often guilty of some of the same infractions I counsel against.

But then I am comforted by remembering that God does not demand perfection but exertion, not victory but struggle, and that the definition of a good man is not one who has never erred, but one who is not so arrogant as to believe he is any better than any other of God’s beloved children.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is host of TLC’s ‘ ‘Shalom in the Home,” whose second season began last week. His new book of the same title also was released last week.

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