The Christian church through the millennia has done a great job of turning the First Christian into a religious figure while often ignoring who he was as a spiritual teacher.
There is so much that the Christian church has said about Jesus. Christians have painted him with the beliefs of those who came after him. They have all attached their own version of the significance of his birth, life, and crucifixion.
Over millennia, Christianity has produced endless paintings and statues portraying him in a multitude of ways—seldom smiling, in agony, as a baby, and having risen from the grave. It has told many versions of the Jesus story. And it has promoted the teachings of people like the apostles Peter and Paul who claimed to be the chief spokespersons for Jesus’s message. But all too often, Christianity has failed to share the pure essence of Jesus’s teachings with the world.
The icons of Christianity are sacred to many, and so are the beliefs it teaches, no matter what their origin. And I don’t mean to trample on what is sacred to anyone. Whatever is precious to someone about Christianity, I honor and respect.
In America, and in many parts of the world, people are free to believe what they want to believe. And religious institutions are free to teach what they want to teach. And still, my concern is for all the people who have gotten so turned off by a Christian church somewhere. They’ve been turned off by religion, and in the process felt alienated from Jesus himself, and what Jesus taught. In the process, they haven’t really understood or appreciated the radical teachings that he brought to the world.
The Essential Message of Jesus' Teachings
So what was the essential message of Jesus’s teachings? What were his secret teachings that have been so hidden from the world? Have they been hidden within the Dead Sea Scrolls? Do you have to search the accounts of the Gnostic gospel writers to find them? Or do you have to learn Aramaic to find the historical Jesus and read what Jesus spoke in the original language in which he spoke?
You might find the essential teachings of Jesus in any of those places. But you don’t have to. His radical teachings are hidden in plain sight in the red-letter words of the New Testament gospels—the record of what he, himself, said, translated into English, the most commonly used language in the whole world.
Jesus as a Spiritual Teacher
Now imagine you had available to you the spiritual teaching of someone who was one of the greatest spiritual teachers of all time. He is not alive in the flesh. Nonetheless, what he said is available to you—his insights on your life and what it means to be a human being. He is giving you self-help instructions—things you can do for yourself to make your life better. He is offering guidance on your relationships with friends, family members, and colleagues. And he is doing it with great love, compassion, and understanding.
Most of all, he is inviting you to know the source of your own being, the Divine within you and within all people.
Imagine there is no shaming going on. No negativity. No threatening you with eternal damnation after you die. He is not playing the martyr, nor asking you to be one. There is only this wise and loving voice, guiding you on your spiritual path. He is bringing profound insight regarding the world and your own life.
What Was So Radical About Jesus' Original Teachings?
I have appreciated Jesus’ sayings all my life. Mostly, they have come to me in short verses or passages from the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each of those sayings has brought such insight and understanding.
At Christmastime 2023, I began a deep reflection. When you add it all up, what was he saying? What was the essence of his message? And what made it so radical?
This deep reflection became the text of my most recent book, Primal Christianity: Uncovering the Original Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. As I read through what he said, I found five essential teachings of Jesus. And all of them got back to this: The fulfillment of love in the human experience. And with that came something else: The fulfillment of the desire to know.
Transcending Fear and Superstition
People before Jesus had taught people to love God. But their version of loving God was full of fear and superstition. It was colored with a sense of powerlessness and attempts to appease the wrath of an angry God. This was the prevailing attitude of the civilizations of the ancient world toward the many gods they worshipped. It included sacrifice to those gods, even to the point of human sacrifice.
This is how Merriam-Webster defines superstition:
1a: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation
1b: an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural nature, or God resulting from superstition
2: a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary
Does any of that sound familiar? People suffer from superstition even today in this post-modern world.
The Israelite leaders sought to bring their people out of this pattern. In the Old Testament record, Abraham refrained from sacrificing his son, Isaac. Moses preached against human sacrifice. And yet it proved to be very difficult for the Israelites and the Jewish people who carried on their legacy to move out of the ancient superstitious pattern.
Jesus’s gospel was an invitation to transcend a fearful, superstitious way of relating to the Divine.
What Made Jesus' Teachings so New?
Jesus taught love fulfilled. He didn’t teach people about a distant, unrequited love. He didn’t teach people to love a God doesn’t love you back. And he taught people to know the fulfillment of their love in the living of their life—to love one another. Not only your friends but people you might have thought of as your enemies. He taught people to turn the other cheek.
That was new then. And it is new now. It is radical.
What happens when we love someone or something? We are attracted to them. And if they love us back, we draw closer. We join with that person in some way.
Jesus taught that if it is God we are loving, we are joining with God. And God is joining with us. In that communion, we are reaching out in love to our world. This is how Jesus said it in the Gospel of John:
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:
This is the fulfillment of love that Jesus knew for himself and shared with the world. And when we experience the fulfillment of love, we come to know who we love. We have joined with God so we know God because of it. We have the capacity to join in spiritual intimacy with other people, so we come to know them in that way.
Becoming Disciples
It is not too late to become a disciple of Jesus, the spiritual teacher. Personally, I’m not up for becoming a disciple of Jesus, the religious icon, or of a church. But it is an honor to follow him and his teachings.
He has never taken advantage of me. His wisdom has never let me down. His loving guidance has always been true. And liberating.
The Eternal Christ Light
I invite you to consider something further regarding the teachings of Jesus. It is clear they are historical. Or at least, they have a historical dimension. They come from out of the past, from a different time and a different era of human development. In fact, that’s an important consideration when attempting to gain a clear understanding of what he said. But there is a dimension of who he was and is that transcends time. And there is a spiritual transmission that is likewise beyond time—eternal.
Consider this statement by Jesus from John 8:58:
Before Abraham was, I am.
From the standpoint of English grammar, it doesn’t quite make sense. But reflecting on it deeply, what could it mean other than that Jesus was claiming what he knew for himself—that there was a dimension of himself that was and is beyond time.
According to Jesus’ own statement, he was speaking for the heavenly Father—for what is eternal. That reality is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and everything in between. It transcends time.
Meditating deeply on Jesus’ words as recorded in the Bible, it is possible to perceive the eternal source from whence they come. You can tune into that source now in this present moment. And in that deep listening, it is possible to feel the holy spirit, the non-verbal emanation of eternal life and the highest love now, transcending time.
How Did Christianity Become Like This?
The word Christianity covers many religious denominations and traditions, and there is something unique about each of them. Many of them go to a beautiful spiritual depth.
But don’t you wonder how Christianity as a whole became what it is today? And why it is hard to find a clear, pure expression of Christ’s teachings brought by Jesus himself? Why is it so hard to connect with the holy spirit that transcends time?
Why do you go into so many churches and see a statue of a bloody man dying on a cross with people venerating that statue, something that the first Christians never did? That didn’t happen until the 6th century A.D.
There have been reasons for the path that Christianity has taken, dating back to the apostles, early Christianity, the Roman Empire, Martin Luther, and more. I became curious about what became of the teachings of the original Christian. That is not a topic that fascinates most people, but it does me. I really wanted to know how Christianity became what it is today, and where it deviated from the profound teachings of its founder. So I studied original documents that showed just where it happened.
If that fascinates you too, you might enjoy my book, Primal Christianity: Uncovering the Original Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It illuminates the teachings of the first Christian. And it shows how Jesus’ teachings got lost over the centuries. What’s more, you will have a fresh look at what Jesus, himself, was saying.
Bringing Primal Christianity to the World
The word primal simply means first. So primal Christianity is simply the original truth that Jesus Christ brought to the world.
I am on a journey to explore primal Christianity myself and share it with others. I invite you on this journey with me. And if you are already on the journey, let’s go together. Let’s bring primal Christianity to the world.
If you want to read my book, you can find it here. Or on any Amazon site around the world.
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