Jesus of Nazareth: Wanted Dead OR Alive

This Christmas season, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Jesus. Even though Christmas is about home and family, I can’t escape the purported reason for the season no matter how hard I may try. My wife invited me to read a book that characterizes her understanding of how Jesus is supposed to work in the average Joe’s life. This is something I have struggled with my whole life. I grew up learning that Jesus can make everything better. For whatever reason, I rarely found that to be true in my own life. Perhaps that’s a big reason why I struggle to believe in the “reason for the season”.

So how is Jesus supposed to take a part in my everyday life? In Mormonism, the story goes that when he was in the garden shortly before his death, he felt all the negative things that ever had or would transpire in the lives of all of God’s children. Pretty cool, right? Now wait a second. Even though millions (or billions) of people had already lived and died and many more would follow them, in the period of a few hours Jesus felt everything bad that would ever happen to them? So was this just based on a template of all the bad things that could happen to somebody (which means that if you’re really good then Jesus suffered a bit extra for you with no need to do so), or did God predetermine those bad things that would happen so Jesus could experience them properly, or did he let Jesus experience each negative feeling once and then just play a video in his mind of how that negative feeling would play out in each person’s life so that he could understand it? No matter how you explain the LDS concept of atonement, a lot transpired in just a few hours. I may be mistaken here, but it seems like the empathetic purpose of the atonement doctrine is unique to Mormonism. If the Mormons are wrong and the rest of Christendom is right, then the atonement of Christ happened to pay the price for man’s sins. Either way, I find the whole idea of an atonement confusing and unnecessary. I think Jesus’ legacy has much more power than whatever it is he did or didn’t do in Gethsemane.

So it’s probably no secret that I have a hard time believing that Jesus can just magically make us feel better no matter what we’re going through because he had a magical experience where he felt all of our feelings. So I take issue with the professors of religion who insist that we should never be sad or angry because Jesus already did it for us so it’s wrong for us to repeat the process (unfortunately this is a common theme in Mormonism). Not only is that idea impractical, but it is emotionally unhealthy. In practice, I think that human to human interactions produce much more emotional healing than a metaphysical experience with Jesus does. Nevertheless, I believe in the power of Christ to influence for good. My baby sister is an example of this. A few years ago, she committed her life to Christ and changed from being a selfish, whiny girl to a virtuous, angelic and selfless young woman. It’s worth noting that she is also one of the most disciplined people I have ever met, (and before her conversion she was very young and childish) so that has something to do with it. But when my sister found Jesus, she committed herself 100% to doing as he did. Maybe in her life, Jesus can magically make her feel better when she’s sad or disappointed. Regardless, I am convinced that Jesus can inspire us today to be more than we are, to forgive when it is easier to seek revenge; I believe that following Jesus’ example of  has the potential to melt away the icy grip of a grudge and offer healing to the deep wounds of resentment and judgment that can fester for years without recovery. And yet, I don’t believe in sin, needless guilt, or in the need for atonement. I don’t Jesus needed to die in order to make our lives all better. In my experience, peace comes when I do the best I can to fix my own mistakes. In my own experience, hearts are healed when human beings reach out to one another in love, compassion and empathy. Jesus represents all of these things. Is he the source of them? I don’t think so; I find it reasonable to believe that love, compassion and empathy existed for a long time before Jesus showed up. But Jesus was still a cool dude and a great example to follow in many regards.

I think that in order for me to have a literal belief in a living Christ, I would need him to have a drink with me or at least stop by and say hello once in a while. Certainly there are those who have had personal experiences with Jesus that confirm their belief. Since it seems that experiences like that are rare indeed, I’ll have to settle for viewing Jesus as one of my favorite rebels and a visionary whose legacy inspires both good and evil. I suppose the truth is that when it comes to human beings there is always a good side and a bad side. Some people believe in seeing only the good and ignoring or justifying mistakes. I find no compelling reason to believe that Jesus was anything more than a man. In fact, I find myself more endeared to him believing that he made mistakes just like everybody else. But if he could somehow manage to spend a few moment with me Christmas day, there’s a good chance that I could be convinced otherwise.

Christmas or Xmas?

Every first Sunday of December, the top leaders of the LDS church present a Christmas devotional in Salt Lake City, complete with decorations and music performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square. My favorite part has always the music. So while I didn’t take away very much from the talks, the music was excellent, as always. But I did pay enough attention to the talks to write a little bit today about what I consider the true meaning of Christmas. Or Xmas. Or ‘The Holidays’ or whatever you call December at your house.

I was surprised when Dieter Uchtdorf, second counselor to the prophet, admitted that his favorite Christmas memories weren’t of reading scriptures or attending church meetings but of doing things with his family, like skiing and visiting together. Over the last couple years, my feelings about Christmas have changed dramatically. For my whole life, everyone around me has preached incessantly on the need to keep Christmas focused on Christ. Plenty of ideas have been presented about how to actually do this, but in practice it always seemed like a sham. After all, Christmas isn’t really even Jesus’ birthday, so what’s the big deal, anyways? Like Uchtdorf, Christmas means family. Christmas means being at home and relaxing. Christmas means giving gifts and enjoying wonderful food with those you love. I like the idea of appealing to the divine within us at Christmas, but saying Jesus ten times fast isn’t helping anybody.

I used to be offended by the notion of referring to the most wonderful time of the year as Xmas. But the truth is that it is easier to type, write and say and it is honestly more accurate than to call it Christmas. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. And if you think about it, the letter ‘X’ is actually the shape of a cross so it is even more symbolic than calling it Christmas.