Burnishing Bigotry - 3rd edition

Lucy #392: You then claim that, ―The Jesus you speak of was a deceiver and a liar.‖
Hmmm … Well, I can see why you would feel that way, my Friend, and yet that is most
certainly not how I personally feel about Jesus‘ crucifixion, nor is it how I feel the Scriptures
show Jesus to be … Yes, it is pretty clear that Jesus was incredibly frustrated with his inability to
get people (even his own disciples) to understand what he was actually sharing with them. They
kept wanting him to be the Son of God – or the saving Messiah – or even the God Himself, and
yet that was NOT who Jesus felt he was (see Mark 10:18 & Mark 12:35-37), nor was that what he
wanted to be (see John 5:41 & John 8:50-54 et al). Instead, he simply wanted people to understand
that there was a way to live life (a manner of being towards others that he called ―The Way‖) that
allowed anyone practicing it to Bliss-fully experience a literal re-union with the all-Loving
essence that resides at the foundation of the Universe; the all-Loving essence Jesus called his
―Father‖; the all-Loving presence many of us call ―God‖ (see Matthew 5:48 + John 14:20 et al).
And the way to access this State of BEing – the way to enter what Jesus called ―The
Kingdom of Heaven‖ (see Luke 17:20-21 + most of his parables, all of which clearly speak of Heaven
in the present tense) – was to purposefully and joyfully sacrifice one‘s own comfort &/or abandon
one‘s own desires in order to further the Peace &/or Joy of others; especially in those times when
we least wanted to do so, and especially for those people ―least deserving‖ of the same (see
Matthew 5:44-48; Luke 6:37-38 et al).
Well, as it turns out (and as the Scriptures plainly show), despite his incredibly patient and
wonderfully clever way of teaching that Truth, folks just weren‘t getting it. This led a highly
frustrated Jesus to come up with his ultimate plan – he would stop telling people about his Way,
and he would radically show them instead … And the Scriptures clearly show that this is exactly
what he did – where, enlisting the aid of Joseph of Arimathea (and Pontius Pilate, & Mary
Magdalene, & Judas Iscariot, & more than a few others), Jesus pre-planned & fully orchestrated his
own crucifixion; showing everyone in quite graphic detail thereby that joyful self-sacrifice was
not only possible, but that it was The Way … But don‘t merely take my word for it, you can go
to www.issuu.com and check out the article of Biblical scholarship I wrote on the subject
(entitled ―Exhuming Easter‖) and let the Bible tell the tale for itself!
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