December 12, 2024

Jesus followed the prophetic prototype
in presenting himself as a reformer come to
reverse, revise, renew the drift of religion
of the day
with his "You have heard it said, but I say unto you,"
and his challenges to established authority 
from his youth.

His Parable of the Prodigal Son
is a direct refutation of the
Garden of Eden tradition
and the idea that sin has to be redeemed
and atoned for.

The son does not have to earn or deserve
his father's forgiveness,
and Jesus makes a point of dismissing
littanies of confession and repentance
via the father's declaration,
"That has no place here,
for once you were lost but now are found,
you were dead, but now you are alive!"

How vastly different are the images of St. Peter
at the Gate of Heaven,
reading our sins from the book of life
and weighing our virtues against our transgressions
before allowing us into eternal life
or sending us into eternal damnation!

Jesus was at odds with the religion of his day,
denouncing everything about it,
culminating with turning over the tables
of the money changers in the courtyard of the Temple,
incurring the wrath of Joseph ben Caiaphas,
the Chief Priest,
and a collaborator with Pontus Pilate
working together to maintain the peace of Jerusalem.

It was Caaphas who said,
speaking of Jesus, following the disruption at the temple,
"It is better that one man die for the people
than that the whole nation perish."

And setting in motion the crucifixion of Jesus
As punishment for Jesus' opposition
to the way of religion as it was being lived
in Palestine around 2,000 years ago.

That Jesus died for the sins of the world,
inherited from Adam and Eve, was an idea
circulated at the time by opportunists
who saw it as a way of creating wealth and power
for their own aggrandizement via the churches 
of Constantanople and Rome and others,
with the able assistance of Irenaeus, the Bishop
(and the Butcher) of Lyons, who led the persecution
of heretics, particularly Gnostics in the second century.

And, here we are today.