posted by
David Kuo
|
9:36am Tuesday September 25, 2007
You may have seen Columbia’s president, Lee Bollinger, introduce Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday. It wasn’t exactly a love-in. That introduction plus all of the protests got me to thinking about how Jesus might have introduced Ahmadinejad. Would he have listed all of Ahmadinejad’s public policy sins? Would he have publicly challenged him on his horrific statements? His horrific policies? Would he, in short, have sounded anything like President Bollinger?I don’t think so.My guess is that Jesus might have gotten up and said something like, “This is Mahmoud and I love him.” From there Jesus would, I think, have gone on to explain all that he loved about Mahmoud. Perhaps he would have used a childhood nickname or a pet name used by his parents. Maybe he would have talked about a few moments from Mahmoud’s childhood or teen years and used them as examples of the goodness in his heart. He would, I think, have broken down his life in front of him in a beautiful way. And I think that had Jesus done that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might have wept and embraced Jesus and given a very different kind of speech. How odd then to sit here as a man who tries to follow Jesus and realize that I need to think of Mahmoud in similar terms. It is not my right to hate him. Nowhere does Jesus give me that kind of license. I may not call him all the things that I want to call him. I may not yell at him for being a barbarian. No, I need to be ready to get on my knees and offer to wash his feet. That, I sense, is what the radical Jesus would have me do. It makes no sense. But isn’t that exactly the problem people had with Jesus when he first showed up on the scene? Didn’t they desperately want him to take down the Roman Empire? Didn’t they want their sometimes barbaric rulers to be destroyed? And didn’t they see Jesus as the answer to their problem?Jesus’ solution, however, was rather different. He said he came to serve and not be served. He said that Rome should be given what Rome was due. He didn’t use his powers to change the Empire. He used to his life to change hearts. He gave his life to give life.It is the Jesus paradox and it is why, I sense, he might have introduced Mahmoud with a kiss on the cheek.
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How endearing.
Oh, and Mr. Kuo: JESUS WAS A JEW who lived in PALESTINE.
Ahmadinajad has publicly stated that he would have wanted him pushed into the sea.
I don’t see what point you were trying to make, but the Jesus of the Gospels also turned the tables at the temple, and blatantly criticized the priests of his day in Matthew 23, and he did so severely. Jesus didn’t go for rhetoric, like the Iranian President’s, he was straightforward and direct. He was the very embodiment of Truth. I can see some of Jesus in Matthew 23 in the introduction that he got: it was a good, Christian introduction. Not one thing that was said was a lie.
I think Jesus would go with the rambling and obscure story technique, of which he was past master. Here’s my version:
“I’m reminded of the man who was from Jerusalem, but happened to be in the north of Israel at a time when there was to be a big festival in Caesarea. Now this particular city had a very bad reputation among pious Jews, a reputation as a place of sinful amusements, gentile degeneracy, and in general a heckuva place for a Shriners convention. So the pious Jew from Jerusalem told his friends he wouldn’t go over to Caesarea and join in the festivities, but would stay in the small village nearby and pray all day. But his friends decided to go to Caesarea and have some fun.
Well, the friends went, and were drinking and hob-nobbing with loose Syrian women and gambling and all that sort of thing, when through the crowd they spied their religious friend. They couldn’t come up to him, the crush of the crowd of sinners and degenerate merry-makers was too great, but later, back at home, they asked him about it.
“Oh we saw you in Caesarea, for sure we saw you.” And the pious man admitted that he was there. “But I didn’t have a good time,” he said.
So that’s kind of the situation with my friend Mahmoud here today. He’s got to go back to Iran, one of the most boring places, and tell everyone “Oh I went to the Big Apple it’s true, but I was only there to convert the massage parlor girls to Islam. Honest.”
Just kidding, Mahmoud! Us pork-abstainers have to stick together!
It’s a tough time for Mahmoud, because it’s Ramadan, and he hasn’t had a thing to eat since he packed in 5000 calories at about 5:15AM. So he might be a little cranky.
Anyway, without further ado, please give a big welcome to a guy only a mother could love, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad!”
Yes, Jesus gave his life to give life…to the whole of humanity. It’s up to us to accept this gift. God loves all, but it is up to us to accept him. The Bible is full of examples of folks who could not accept Jesus, and while he felt remorse for the loss, he didn’t go running after them, begging them to come back. Jesus was aslo very critical of those who used the letter of the law to oppress people, so I’m not quite convinced Jesus would fall on bended knee to wash the feet of someone who has publicly sworn to kill him, a Jew.
The day is coming when Israel will have to defend it’s self from Ahmadinejad’s Iran, at which point will the greeting with a kiss mirror yet another betrayel?
Phil
SkipChurch, that sounds like Sholom Aleichem drunk off his feet. Nice homiletic!
Saadaya, I think Brer Mahmoud would say (and said yesterday) that he never called for pushing Jews into the sea but the State of Israel.
I think it’s a dangerous thing to link ethics and courtesy to best guesses about a person’s motivations or predictions of how they will act in the future. Better to consider the golden rule.
“My guess is that Jesus might have gotten up and said something like, ‘This is Mahmoud and I love him.’”
From there Jesus would, I think, have gone on to explain all that he loved about Mahmoud.”
David, how do you arrive at such an assumption? Does Jesus anywhere in the gospels, say to an unbeliever, “I love you”?
I can think of one possible example, where he encounters the rich young ruler. The text says, “Jesus looked at him and loved him.”
Yet what he said to him was not, “I love you,” but “Go, sell all you have and give to the poor . . . then follow me.”
When we start saying, “I think Jesus would have . . .,” do we base our assumptions on what we observe in the gospels or upon our own assumptions not found in Scripture?
I think you and I, David, part theological company on this speculation you have posed. You’ve posed a smarmy non-judgmental Jesus to introduce this guy. I don’t see Jesus that way. One of the elements of His multifaceted Lordship is that He becomes the divine judge. He didn’t ooze love on the people He met in every case. Some He surprisingly showed mercy to (the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, and the Roman Centurian.) Others, like Judas and the rulers who heckled Him as He preached, He passed judgment on. Of Judas He said it would have been better for him if he had never been born. Would He say that about Ahmadidinajad? I don’t know. More likely, He would have said something like Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus in a blinding light, “Mahmoud, Mahmoud, why are you persecuting Me?”
I’m waiting for someone who shall remain nameless (and whose name rhymes with Yanni) to weigh in with the info that his Jesus, who has a concealed carry permit, would have have produced The Most Powerful Handgun In The World, snarled something like Make my day,punk, and shot Ahmadinejad in the kneecap.
Anyway, it’s the kind of question that naturally produces absurd speculations or at least highly imaginative answers…
which I very much enjoy and approve of.
Maybe He would say, “You’re sins are forgiven, Mahmoud. Now go, and sin no more.”
It seems people always remember the first part, but always forget that last part.
David,
I find your remarks unusual in that you do, in my opinion, articulate the heart of the Jesus I believe urges us always to forgive.
As a young theology student, I was reminded that Namo dat quod non habet, that is, I cannot be to others what I myself do not possess.
The many mythological stories in Sacred Scripture direct us to that place within that merges, links, touches God and illuminates the heart. But we miss the meaning of Gospel stories when we try to use human logic and upstairs rationalism to be certain that we understand with the head and not the heart.
Thanks for the brief but timely reflection and reminder.
David Kuo has been walking with Jesus for more than 20 years, during which time he has served as special assistant to the president in George W. Bush’s White House, policy director for Sen. John Ashcroft, and speechwriter for a gaggle of conservatives (plus a few liberals here and there). He is the author of “Tempting Faith,” a book about God and politics, and is currently the Washington editor for Beliefnet.com. He is in love with his wife Kim and three other females named Laura, Rachel, and Olivia, conveniently also known as his daughters. He is a member of the Association of Professional Bass Fishermen.
David Kuo has been walking with Jesus for more than 20 years, during which time he has served as special assistant to the president in George W. Bush’s White House, policy director for Sen. John Ashcroft, and speechwriter for a gaggle of conservatives (plus a few liberals here and there). He is the author of “Tempting Faith,” a book about God and politics, and is currently the Washington editor for Beliefnet.com. He is in love with his wife Kim and three other females named Laura, Rachel, and Olivia, conveniently also known as his daughters. He is a member of the Association of Professional Bass Fishermen.
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posted September 25, 2007 at 10:20 am
How endearing.
Oh, and Mr. Kuo: JESUS WAS A JEW who lived in PALESTINE.
Ahmadinajad has publicly stated that he would have wanted him pushed into the sea.
I don’t see what point you were trying to make, but the Jesus of the Gospels also turned the tables at the temple, and blatantly criticized the priests of his day in Matthew 23, and he did so severely. Jesus didn’t go for rhetoric, like the Iranian President’s, he was straightforward and direct. He was the very embodiment of Truth. I can see some of Jesus in Matthew 23 in the introduction that he got: it was a good, Christian introduction. Not one thing that was said was a lie.
posted September 25, 2007 at 10:22 am
I think Jesus would go with the rambling and obscure story technique, of which he was past master. Here’s my version:
“I’m reminded of the man who was from Jerusalem, but happened to be in the north of Israel at a time when there was to be a big festival in Caesarea. Now this particular city had a very bad reputation among pious Jews, a reputation as a place of sinful amusements, gentile degeneracy, and in general a heckuva place for a Shriners convention. So the pious Jew from Jerusalem told his friends he wouldn’t go over to Caesarea and join in the festivities, but would stay in the small village nearby and pray all day. But his friends decided to go to Caesarea and have some fun.
Well, the friends went, and were drinking and hob-nobbing with loose Syrian women and gambling and all that sort of thing, when through the crowd they spied their religious friend. They couldn’t come up to him, the crush of the crowd of sinners and degenerate merry-makers was too great, but later, back at home, they asked him about it.
“Oh we saw you in Caesarea, for sure we saw you.” And the pious man admitted that he was there. “But I didn’t have a good time,” he said.
So that’s kind of the situation with my friend Mahmoud here today. He’s got to go back to Iran, one of the most boring places, and tell everyone “Oh I went to the Big Apple it’s true, but I was only there to convert the massage parlor girls to Islam. Honest.”
Just kidding, Mahmoud! Us pork-abstainers have to stick together!
It’s a tough time for Mahmoud, because it’s Ramadan, and he hasn’t had a thing to eat since he packed in 5000 calories at about 5:15AM. So he might be a little cranky.
Anyway, without further ado, please give a big welcome to a guy only a mother could love, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad!”
posted September 25, 2007 at 11:08 am
Yes, Jesus gave his life to give life…to the whole of humanity. It’s up to us to accept this gift. God loves all, but it is up to us to accept him. The Bible is full of examples of folks who could not accept Jesus, and while he felt remorse for the loss, he didn’t go running after them, begging them to come back. Jesus was aslo very critical of those who used the letter of the law to oppress people, so I’m not quite convinced Jesus would fall on bended knee to wash the feet of someone who has publicly sworn to kill him, a Jew.
The day is coming when Israel will have to defend it’s self from Ahmadinejad’s Iran, at which point will the greeting with a kiss mirror yet another betrayel?
Phil
posted September 25, 2007 at 11:40 am
SkipChurch, that sounds like Sholom Aleichem drunk off his feet. Nice homiletic!
Saadaya, I think Brer Mahmoud would say (and said yesterday) that he never called for pushing Jews into the sea but the State of Israel.
I think it’s a dangerous thing to link ethics and courtesy to best guesses about a person’s motivations or predictions of how they will act in the future. Better to consider the golden rule.
posted September 25, 2007 at 11:56 am
“My guess is that Jesus might have gotten up and said something like, ‘This is Mahmoud and I love him.’”
From there Jesus would, I think, have gone on to explain all that he loved about Mahmoud.”
David, how do you arrive at such an assumption? Does Jesus anywhere in the gospels, say to an unbeliever, “I love you”?
I can think of one possible example, where he encounters the rich young ruler. The text says, “Jesus looked at him and loved him.”
Yet what he said to him was not, “I love you,” but “Go, sell all you have and give to the poor . . . then follow me.”
When we start saying, “I think Jesus would have . . .,” do we base our assumptions on what we observe in the gospels or upon our own assumptions not found in Scripture?
posted September 25, 2007 at 2:08 pm
I think you and I, David, part theological company on this speculation you have posed. You’ve posed a smarmy non-judgmental Jesus to introduce this guy. I don’t see Jesus that way. One of the elements of His multifaceted Lordship is that He becomes the divine judge. He didn’t ooze love on the people He met in every case. Some He surprisingly showed mercy to (the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, and the Roman Centurian.) Others, like Judas and the rulers who heckled Him as He preached, He passed judgment on. Of Judas He said it would have been better for him if he had never been born. Would He say that about Ahmadidinajad? I don’t know. More likely, He would have said something like Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus in a blinding light, “Mahmoud, Mahmoud, why are you persecuting Me?”
posted September 25, 2007 at 2:22 pm
I’m waiting for someone who shall remain nameless (and whose name rhymes with Yanni) to weigh in with the info that his Jesus, who has a concealed carry permit, would have have produced The Most Powerful Handgun In The World, snarled something like Make my day,punk, and shot Ahmadinejad in the kneecap.
Anyway, it’s the kind of question that naturally produces absurd speculations or at least highly imaginative answers…
which I very much enjoy and approve of.
posted September 26, 2007 at 5:52 am
Maybe He would say, “You’re sins are forgiven, Mahmoud. Now go, and sin no more.”
It seems people always remember the first part, but always forget that last part.
posted September 26, 2007 at 11:36 am
David,
I find your remarks unusual in that you do, in my opinion, articulate the heart of the Jesus I believe urges us always to forgive.
As a young theology student, I was reminded that Namo dat quod non habet, that is, I cannot be to others what I myself do not possess.
The many mythological stories in Sacred Scripture direct us to that place within that merges, links, touches God and illuminates the heart. But we miss the meaning of Gospel stories when we try to use human logic and upstairs rationalism to be certain that we understand with the head and not the heart.
Thanks for the brief but timely reflection and reminder.