By: Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published on April 20, 2019; Republished on March 31, 2024
Today, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. As a Christian, I, too, celebrate the resurrection of Christ on this Easter Sunday.
People around the world know Jesus's name and revere his life's story.
If you are a Christian, do you see a piece of yourself in how Jesus lived his life?
If Jesus were here today, how would Christians in the United States and around the world treat him?
I ask these simple questions because Jesus stood for everything that many of today’s political officials, religious leaders, business moguls, and 2.4 billion Christians do not. Here are some examples:
Jesus was an outside agitator who led an underground liberation movement. He was homeless most of his life. He was also anti-materialistic.
Jesus loved people -- all people. His love was unconditional.
Jesus exalted women and treated them as equals. He never tried to control their bodies. Jesus treated women better than they are treated today.
Jesus welcomed outsiders and foreigners. He favored the poor and afflicted over the rich. He did not “hate” on those who refused to follow his teachings.
Jesus also encouraged help for the sick and elderly. He practiced medicine without a license and healed the sick on the Sabbath.
Jesus distributed food without a permit. He made wine without a license.
Jesus paraded on public streets without a permit. He held numerous illegal gatherings.
Whenever children sat on Jesus’s lap, he was not molesting them. Instead, Jesus protected children and taught them in the way of the Lord.
Jesus aided and abetted known prostitutes. He also stopped the stoning death of a woman who had been accused of adultery.
Jesus treated the “least of these” with the utmost respect.
According to the Bible, Jesus performed at least 37 "miracles." Yet, nearly every one of these "miracles" is a prohibited act under governmental regulations and criminal laws in effect in the United States today.
Jesus sent revolutionaries out into the world to spread his word. Nearly all of them were executed in the most gruesome ways.
Jesus denounced violence, even when it involved his own crucifixion. He asked God to forgive those who killed him.
Finally, Jesus was not the white man who has been portrayed for hundreds of years in American and European versions of Christianity. Jesus was a Middle Eastern Jew with "bronze" skin (Ezekiel 40:3) and other Jewish facial features. His hair was like "wool" (Revelation 1:13-14). In Isaiah 53:2, the Bible says Jesus "had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."
Who among us today promotes, protects, and advances the Christian values practiced by Jesus Christ?