Jesus Christ - The Eternal Revolutionary

WHAT IF the real purpose of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was NOT to establish a sectarian "holy club," a middle-class "country club," or a rich and powerful religious institution?

WHAT IF he came to demonstrate and proclaim the "kingdom" (or commonwealth) of God's unlimited love for all humanity and the whole creation?

WHAT IF the honorary title "Christ" or "Anointed One" rests uniquely and even decisively (and paradigmatically) but not exhaustively and exclusively upon the Spirit-filled man we know as Jesus of Nazareth?

WHAT IF the word "Christ" is a symbol of the "divine logos" that is continuously at work luring the emergent creation toward the progessive fulfillment and ultimate consummation of God's creative and redemptive purposes?

WHAT IF the radical ministry of Jesus was centered in opening the human heart to the non-coercive power of God's creative, liberating and transforming love?

Is "Jesus, the Christ" the exclusive religious and cultural franchise of Christians, or is he more like Bonhoeffer's idea of "the man for others?" Is he essentially the founder of another parochial religion or is he more like Thomas Beckett: "a man for all seasons?"

Is Jesus one more cranky religious sectarian announcing the end of the world, or does his life and message embody something transcendent and universal, a wideness and depth of divine love, mercy, goodness and compassion that reaches out in promise and hope in profligate extravagance to one and all, including the "lost ones" whom polite society regards as scandalous, inferior, worthless and expendable?

Raimon Panikkar writes about "the Unknown Christ of Hinduism." Could there also be "an Unknown Christ of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism?" "Of Shamanism, Judaism and Islam?" You get the idea. And isn't the ultimate "mystery" of God's inscrutable essence a universal tenet of all the world's religions, even those that paradoxically proclaim the Word of divine revelation? The Eastern Orthodox tradition speaks of the eternal mystery of God's essence, but the revelation of the divine energies - of perfect beauty, goodness, wisdom and love.
WHAT IF the Universal Divine Spirit, the Cosmic Christ that was so powerfully present in the unique life and ministry of Jesus, is at work in the hearts and minds of millions of people from many different spiritual and contemplative traditions? Can we have uniqueness without exclusivity?

WHAT IF the world's spiritual traditions are not ultimately either identical or contradictory but rather complementary and corrective to one another? Where does the revelation (or self-disclosure) of God as transcendent, relational and immanent love for all humanity and the whole creation fit into all this?

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE whether the Great Mystery in which (whom) "we live and move and have our being is" friendly, hostile or utterly indifferent to our highest and noblest human hopes, longings, dreams and aspirations?

Well, it's quite a kettle of fish to cook up for one afternoon! What do you think?