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9

If Jesus Were Alive Today9

The Easter season is upon us. It is a season of failure and triumph, of depression and resurgence in life. Next to Christmas, it is one of the most significant times of the year, not just on the Christian calendar but in our lives. It is a time when our feelings run deep.

Easter, of course, is historically about Jesus—his passion, trial, and crucifixion. Since next Sunday we will be considering some contemporary non-Christian interpretations of the season, it behooves us this morning to focus on the meaning of Jesus, clearly one of the greatest human beings who ever lived. He must have been a warm, loving, courageous, engaging person for people to think so highly of him after his death, and for him to have been revered so long.

It strikes me that one of the best ways of understanding what he meant is by hypothetically transporting Jesus, or his equivalent, across 2,000 years of time from a Middle Eastern country to North America, to this century in American society, and by trying to think of what it would mean if Jesus were alive today. We can best understand this by asking three questions. If Jesus were alive today: 1) What kind of a person would he be in our time and culture? 2) What kind of things would he be saying and what kind of problems would he be addressing? and 3) What would what our reaction be and what would we do?

First, what would he be like? What would he be doing? What kind of a person with he be in America? Judging from the attitude Jesus had toward Judaism, he would be interested in religion, and he would not be trying to work outside of organized religion. He would have probably come from a lower middle-class family: his father would possibly be a construction worker. He would have an undistinguished childhood. He would have gone to a public school or community college, and he would have an interest in religion, going on to theological school, perhaps a Presbyterian or Methodist one.

He would, however, be disillusioned with contemporary Christianity. He would preach reforms without any intent to break off from Christianity or to establish a new religion. He would be displeased with the formalism of churches, with the preoccupation they have on ceremony, and the absence of genuine religious feeling and action. He would condemn people who just go to church on Sunday and give lip service to their principles, while forgetting them during the week.

He would probably decide not to stay in a particular parish, but would travel the country speaking at large meetings, perhaps even revivals. He would attract a good-sized group of friends and followers. They would not be intellectuals, but the equivalent of Jesus’ disciples today would be small businessmen or tradesmen. Perhaps one would be a machinist, another a butcher. He would not be rich, but as a result of our culture he would have an organization that would arrange speaking places, public relations, and advertising. There would be rumors that he was able to cure people of cancer and heart disease.

In short, if Jesus were alive today, he would be very much like contemporary evangelists such as Billy Graham or Robert Schuller. If you will remember, in Jesus’ time there were other prophets such as John the Baptist traveling around Palestine. Jesus was one of many. At the time it was hard to single him out. So, he would be today. Perhaps he would be distinguished by the quality of what he preached or by his impact, but visibly he would be very much like others.

Second, what kinds of things would he be saying? If Jesus were in twentieth century America, what would his message be, based upon what we know of him in the New Testament? I think it is clear that one of the first things he would protest would be our cultural preoccupation with material things. He would preach against our materialistic standards, our effort to compete for social status through newer cars and designer clothes. He would say that the really valuable things in life have gotten lost. He would say that material things have become more important than people, that we are more concerned about saving money and financial setbacks than we are about values such as love and integrity. He would say that money and material things are vulnerable. We may lose them.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. . . . For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matt 6:19–21 RSV)

He would say that we need to invest our hearts and find our identity in principles and things of the spirit that cannot be destroyed. If we put our hearts into material things, what will happen when they are lost? Where will we be then? He would even say that it might be necessary to make a choice between wealth and principle. This is how he put it to a man in his own time: “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Matt 19:21–22 RSV).

What this all means to us, I think, is that we have become too intent upon our financial security; our lives are devoted to building earning power. We take jobs that pay the most and do what is necessary to keep those jobs. How many of us are willing, are courageous enough to take the kind of a job we most like, do the kind of thing we really want, even if it isn’t the most profitable? How many of us consider leaving our businesses to join the Peace Corps or their equivalent? “When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions” (Matt 19:22 RSV).

The Jesus that we know of the New Testament, if he were alive today, would be a strong agitator for civil rights, and he might even get involved in politics! He would not to spend his time speaking in large auditoriums, but would probably spend a great deal of his time travelling about. He would spend time in the deep South, not just on special occasions, earning the right to take the African-American’s side by living with them. He would have been a Freedom Rider, he would have been at the lunch counters. He would have spent time in Southern jails.

He would regularly be in conflict with civil authority. He would declare that God’s laws take precedence over man’s laws. He would insist that principle is more important than legality. He would take the lead in the practice of nonviolent resistance, as was practiced by Martin Luther King Jr. He would say that the principle of love and equality for all men is the most important thing in the world. If he were born in the South and his family believed in segregation, and he had to make a choice between principle and going along with his family (as many young Southerners do today), he would choose principle. One of the hardest things to understand in the New Testament is how Jesus subjugates family ties:

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. (Matt 10:35–36 RSV)

Finally, if Jesus were alive today, he would be uncompromising for the cause of world peace, advocating such measures as ending nuclear testing and disarmament. I have no question but if Jesus were alive today, he would be a proponent of pacifism, much in the manner of Gandhi and Bertrand Russell. He would not condone the use of war or force in any form. He would probably argue for unilateral disarmament. “But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt 5:39 RSV).

He would consider it inexcusable that a nation with as much potential as ours would waste so much of its resources on preparing for war that could destroy mankind itself. If Jesus were alive today, very much as in his own time, he would preach that the end of the world was coming, that our only hope is the establishment of a new kingdom, a world order of peace.

Third, what would we do? What would our response be to such a Jesus? We would find him an entertaining preacher. A good speaker. An interesting idealist. What he says is fine, we’d say. We’d give him lip service as we do many for other idealists today. But if what we know about the appeal and power of Jesus of Nazareth is correct, slowly he’d gain popular approval and power. There would be growing support for his ideas about materialism and discrimination and peace.

Then do you know what would happen? I think it’s very clear. What was previously distant and abstract would be in danger of becoming a reality. It is one thing to give lip service to the ideal. But when it comes down to it, we really do not want to change. We like material standards. We have a need for prejudice. We want our preparations for war which contribute to our economic comfort. We would resist such idealistic teachings. If there came to be a chance of changing the way our society is, it would pose a threat to us.

Jesus’ ideas on peace and disarmament alone would have serious results. Once people begin to listen to him, they would accept his ideals. If there came to be any question that the people would no longer support a war effort and if there was any possibility that they would not fight, it would pose a threat to our country.

Do you know what would happen then? I think there’s no question that even in our society the government would have to take steps to curb his influence and quiet him. If he were really influential, it would only be a matter of time and he would be accused of being—a communist! He’d be taken before a Senate committee, perhaps on Un-American activities. If his influence continued, he would be arrested.

If Jesus were alive today, I think there’s no question about what we do. We’d crucify him!

9. Sermon delivered by the author at the Church of the Reconciliation Unitarian Universalist, Utica, New York on April 7, 1963.