The Big Question

As I mentioned, being a Christian married to a Jew and having Jewish kids opens one up to a number of comments and questions. But the one big question that I am asked most often is this: "How can you read John 14:6 and not understand that your husband and children must accept Jesus as their savior in order to go to Heaven?" (or some semblance of the same question) For those of you who do not know what the verse says, let me tell you. Jesus is telling his disciples that he is about to leave them to go back to his father, but he is going to be making a place for them. He doesn't go into details about when or where or any of that, so they are distraught and ask him how they will be able to find him. He answers, "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Many Christians, if not most, have taken this to mean that if you do not accept Jesus as the Son of God, you will go to Hell. When really, he doesn't say that. He never once says that he will be sending people to Hell who do not accept him as their Lord and Savior. It is a fact that during this time, there were lots of other rabbis (remember that Jesus was a rabbi) out there professing to know what God wanted. Most of these guys were pretty crooked and none of them had it right. In my opinion, Jesus is saying, "Listen guys, you want to know how to get where I am going? Then follow what I am teaching you. Not these other dudes. I am the one who knows the way, I am the one who is telling the truth and I am the one who is going to get you eternal life. The only way to get there is to follow what I have taught you." I am NOT saying that Jesus does not say he is God's son, I am saying that Jesus is not threatening to send people who don't believe that to Hell or even to keep them from Heaven. In fact there is only one passage I know of where Jesus is asked directly how to get to Heaven: Luke 10:25-28. In it a man specifically asks Jesus, "Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?" Does Jesus say, "You must accept me as the Son of God?" No! He says, "What is written in God's law? How do you interpret it? (please note that even Jesus mentions scripture as being "interpreted")" The man answers, "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus tells the man, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live." I just do not understand why THAT is not the passage that Christians have held onto. The bottom line is LOVE! That is what it is all about. Love God and Love everyone else NO MATTER WHAT! That is how Jesus Himself said we can get eternal life. So why do Christians today insist that it is only by accepting Jesus as the Son of God that we can gain eternal life? My friend Jessica pointed out to me that in The Message's intro to Hebrews there is an explanation of the letter: "More often than not we become impatiently self-important along the way and decide to improve matters with our two cents' worth. We add on, we supplement, we embellish. But instead of improving on the purity and simplicity of Jesus, we dilute the purity, clutter the simplicity. We become fussily religious. We get in the way." Is it possible that some where very, very early on, the true, simple and basic message of Jesus --to love God and love one another--got embellished? Food for thought.

In the Beginning...

Why am I here? And what the heck does that title mean? Well, let me explain. Throughout my life, I have encountered a number of people who question the existence of God. In so many cases, I have found that these people were raised in a particular faith and told that they must hold a certain set of absolute beliefs or live their lives in one particular way. If they did not fit into this particular "box", they were not a true Christian, Jew whatever. Which also seems to imply, "If you do not live inside this set of beliefs, God does not love you and/or you are going to Hell." Pretty alienating! One of my favorite quotes to illustrate this is from the book, "Sweet Dates in Basra" by Jessica Jiji. Where a young Jewish boy recalls being told something to the effect of "Jesus loves all of us unconditionally. Even you, Jew. But if you don't believe he is the Son of God, he will send you to Hell." Now, how is that unconditional? I loved that because that is virtually what I hear all the time. Being a Christian who is married to a Jew, I get all kinds of comments. But I also want to point out that I am not knocking religion. I do think that religion is important. The idea of God is so huge that it can be difficult to get a handle on unless one is given a framework. Religion to me is that framework that guides us in how we might worship God, think of God, include God within our lives, that kind of thing. The problems arise when people begin to get too caught up in that framework and lose sight of the Big Picture. The Big Picture is that we are God's children and He LOVES us. Like the way you love your kids x 100. We are God's children and He made us all--He made us individuals. He made us so that the way you see God and include God in your life may be completely different from the way I do. And that is ok. He still loves you. He still loves me. He is Love--Love Unconditional.