Great Author:

Yes, Luke 4…  So why does Jesus get offended, as he comes home and preaches, reads from Isiah in the synagogue, when they look at themselves and say, 'is that not the son of Joseph?'  Is Jesus simply highlighting that his time, and the time to believe faithfully, has come, that it's time to get with it?  Is he making some subtle point, observing that people are so what we might call today ego-driven, so rooted in the illusion of 'who a person is,' so attached to seeing a person as someone they already know, already defined, that they cannot open themselves to the the possibilities, the possibilities of seeing the deeper wisdom of someone else, which is surprising to them, but then also able to in their own lives respond to that wisdom…

Does that sound a little bit Buddhist, or a little bit Eckhardt Tolle?  Does the state of being free of one's ego, thus not judgmental, open spiritual potential?  Would that turn the world on its head, that the person we, through our egos and judgments, normally would not even think have the potential to teach great things might have as much value as that person whom we have already a professional expectation of being in that realm…  Where does the carpenter's son get the authority when he's not a rabbi…  Is that not radical…

But then, to temper our fears that we have turned into radicals, about to tip over the sacred, what do we have but these sketches of Jesus?  Is this enough to go on?  Do we not have a tendency to feel a little creepy even about reading Luke, I mean, if you haven't bought into the Catholic party line…  Is thinking about this stuff, meditating alone upon it, is that a bit creepy?  Shouldn't you focus on your job, or at least having some sort of feeling of envy to those who do have careers of note and societal worth… the television producer, the judge, the expert?  Do we feel a little sad ruminating over all the possibilities alone on a Friday evening, considering our reaction to Jesus here in Luke when they almost want to throw him off the edge for insulting their piety anyway…  Do we think that perhaps in some small metaphoric way that we might at least be wise like Jesus was, to make good sound judgments about what to do on a daily moral basis, even if we obviously have no power of miracles, which we wouldn't want anyway given how you'd end up being hounded to death by fame.

It's all theater, of the Christian sort, yes, but really not so different from reading Shakespeare, in a certain sense, who himself came out of the morality play, juicing it up.  So it's okay for us to read the Gospels, I mean, if you have to be apologetic about it.  And who is not at least in the beginning of a thing of two minds about it, not sure what to think…  Yes, if you stop too, to think about your own sins, do you not want to have some model before you, to help you make better decisions…  And hopefully, in the long run, Jesus is such a role model, though of course, given what happens to him, we don't want to be too much like him.  Will one cause a stir by even mentioning him, provoke a reaction, knowing that this can be a violent world when beliefs and religious systems are involved, yet another consideration, but one that points back to that strange thing, the ego in people, the defined sense of self or identity or whatever you want to call that fixedness.   When even our atoms aren't fixed…

I feel sad talking about these things, lonely in a way.  But in a way, also calm and stilled, I hope.  Time flies by, and here I am thinking about these things.  Is that the way being in the Garden of Gethsemane, tinged with a hopelessness, would have felt, I don't know, can't pretend to know, that feeling of being an amateur.   Isn't that the son of that guy we know...