What Happened to the Teaching of Jesus?
Imagine a great physician who discovers a medicine capable of transforming a sick world.
He sees humanity suffering from hatred, violence, greed, injustice, fear, loneliness, and division. He knows that the disease is not beyond cure. He has discovered a way of life capable of transforming human beings and, through them, transforming society.
He gives this medicine to his disciples.
“Take it,” he tells them. “Live by it. Share it with others.”
But something unexpected happens.
After the physician is gone, his disciples begin arguing about him.
What exactly was his nature?
How was he related to his Father?
Was he divine? Was he human? How could he be both?
How should his relationship with God be described?
Which explanation is correct?
The arguments become increasingly sophisticated. Councils are called. Creeds are written. Churches separate. New denominations emerge.
And while the disciples continue arguing about the physician, the medicine remains unopened.
The medicine has not disappeared.
It has simply been hidden beneath the arguments.
I sometimes wonder whether this is one of the great tragedies of Christianity.
What Was the Medicine?
What did Jesus actually teach?
At the beginning of his public ministry, according to Mark, Jesus proclaimed:
“The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.”
— Mark 1:15
The Kingdom of God was at the center of Jesus' message.
Jesus taught people to turn toward God and live under God's reign.
He taught them to love God.
To love their neighbors.
To love their enemies.
To forgive.
To show mercy.
To reject hypocrisy.
To seek reconciliation.
To care for the vulnerable.
To practice humility.
To resist hatred.
To place God above wealth and worldly power.
These were not merely beautiful moral sayings.
They described a way of life.
They described what it means to live under God's rule.
That, perhaps, is the medicine.
John Was Waiting. Jesus Invited People to Participate.
John the Baptist also proclaimed the Kingdom of God and called people to repentance.
But there is an important transition between John and Jesus.
John stands at the threshold of expectation. He prepares people for God's decisive action.
Jesus announces God's Kingdom and calls people to respond to it.
Jesus says something extraordinary about John:
“Among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
— Matthew 11:11
The Gospel does not explicitly explain why Jesus says this.
But one possible interpretation is that John represents the culmination of expectation, while Jesus opens the possibility of participation.
John says, in effect:
Prepare yourselves for what God is going to do.
Jesus says:
Respond to God's reign now.
This does not mean that Jesus rejected the future Kingdom. The Gospel traditions clearly contain both present and future dimensions of God's Kingdom.
But Jesus makes one thing unmistakable:
The Kingdom is not merely something to wait for. It is something to live.
“When Will the Kingdom Come?”
The question was put directly to Jesus.
The Pharisees asked him when the Kingdom of God would come.
Jesus answered:
“The kingdom of God is in your midst.”
— Luke 17:21
The exact translation of this verse is debated. Some translations say “among you,” while older translations say “within you.”
But whichever translation one prefers, Jesus redirects the conversation.
Instead of encouraging people to spend their energy identifying the date or location of God's Kingdom, he points them toward the reality of God's reign already present in their midst.
Perhaps the more important question is therefore not:
“When will God's Kingdom come?”
but:
“How will I live under God's Kingdom today?”
That is a very different question.
It Is Not God's Mind That Needs Changing
There is another important dimension to Jesus' teaching.
Human beings often imagine religion as an attempt to persuade God to become favorable toward us.
We cry out for salvation.
We perform religious duties.
We try to become worthy.
We fear judgment.
We wonder whether God will accept us.
But Jesus repeatedly portrays God differently.
Consider the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
The son leaves his father.
He wastes everything.
He eventually comes to his senses and returns home.
But the father has not stopped loving him.
The father runs to meet him.
The father embraces him.
The father celebrates his return.
The son's repentance does not create the father's love.
The son's repentance is his response to the father's love.
This leads to one of the most important ideas in this entire proposal:
It is not God's mind that needs changing; it is ours.
God does not need to be persuaded to love humanity.
We need to recognize that love and return to God.
The father has not moved.
We have.
What Has Happened to Christianity?
Christianity has spent nearly two thousand years thinking deeply about Jesus.
That is not a bad thing.
Christian theology has produced extraordinary reflections on the identity of Jesus, his relationship to God, his death and resurrection, salvation, the Trinity, Scripture, the Church, and countless other subjects.
Those questions matter.
But something else matters too.
Are we following Jesus?
It is possible to know an enormous amount about Jesus without living like Jesus.
It is possible to defend Jesus passionately while ignoring his teachings.
It is possible to argue about Jesus while failing to love the people around us.
It is possible to proclaim Christ while living in hatred.
And this is where Jesus' own words become uncomfortable.
He says:
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
— John 13:35
Notice what Jesus says.
He does not say that the world will recognize his disciples because they have resolved every theological disagreement.
He says they will be recognized by their love.
Believing in Jesus and Following Jesus
There is a distinction we need to recover.
There is a difference between:
believing things about Jesus
and
following Jesus.
The two do not have to be enemies.
A Christian can believe deeply in the divinity of Jesus and follow Jesus.
Another Christian may understand Jesus' identity differently and still sincerely seek to follow Jesus.
The theological differences are real.
They should not simply be ignored.
But must those differences prevent Christians from loving one another, worshipping together, serving humanity together, and recognizing one another as fellow disciples?
Perhaps not.
Perhaps Christianity needs to make a distinction between theology and discipleship.
Theology asks:
Who is Jesus?
Discipleship asks:
How shall I live because of Jesus?
Christianity needs both.
But perhaps we have sometimes given too much attention to the first and too little to the second.
The Problem of Christian Division
Christianity has divided repeatedly throughout history.
We should be fair about the causes. Christian division has never been caused by theology alone. Politics, culture, geography, institutional power, language, national identity, and personal conflicts have all played important roles.
But theological disagreements have also become powerful boundaries.
One group says:
Our understanding of Jesus is correct.
Another says:
No, ours is correct.
Soon the question changes from:
How can we follow Jesus together?
to:
Who is a real Christian?
And once that happens, the medicine can disappear beneath the argument.
What If We Changed the Question?
Imagine Christians across denominational boundaries saying:
“We disagree about some theological questions concerning Jesus.
But we agree that Jesus calls us to love.
We agree that Jesus calls us to forgive.
We agree that Jesus calls us to show mercy.
We agree that Jesus calls us to love our enemies.
We agree that Jesus calls us to seek reconciliation.
We agree that Jesus calls us to reject hypocrisy.
We agree that Jesus calls us to care for those who suffer.
We agree that Jesus calls us to live under God's reign.”
Would such Christians have nothing in common?
Of course they would.
They would have Jesus.
They would have his teachings.
They would have his way.
They would have the Kingdom of God as the vision toward which they are moving.
Their theological differences could remain.
But their differences would no longer have to destroy their fellowship.
A Different Kind of Christian Unity
Perhaps Christian unity does not require complete intellectual uniformity.
Perhaps unity means walking in the same direction even when we do not understand everything in exactly the same way.
Imagine a group of people walking toward the same destination.
They may disagree about many things.
They may take different paths for part of the journey.
They may understand the landscape differently.
But they are still moving toward the same destination.
Perhaps this is what Christian unity could become.
Not:
“We all believe exactly the same things.”
But:
“We are committed to following Jesus together.”
That would not destroy Christian theology.
It would put theology in the service of discipleship.
The World Needs the Medicine
The world today does not lack religious arguments.
It does not lack competing ideologies.
It does not lack people defending their beliefs.
What the world desperately lacks is love.
It needs people who can forgive.
It needs people who can love enemies.
It needs people who can cross religious and political boundaries without hatred.
It needs people who can disagree without becoming enemies.
It needs people who can practice mercy.
It needs people who can seek reconciliation.
It needs people who can put human dignity above tribal identity.
If Christians actually lived these teachings of Jesus, Christianity would have something extraordinary to offer the world.
Not merely another doctrine.
Not merely another institution.
Not merely another argument.
A way of life.
The Medicine Is Still There
The physician's medicine has not expired.
The teachings of Jesus are still there.
They are in the Sermon on the Mount.
They are in the parables.
They are in his teaching about forgiveness.
They are in his teaching about enemies.
They are in his teaching about mercy.
They are in his teaching about the Kingdom of God.
They are in his command to love.
They are in his example of serving others.
The medicine is still there.
Perhaps it has simply been buried under centuries of theological argument, institutional competition, denominational identity, and religious division.
We do not have to throw away our beliefs about Jesus.
We do not have to abandon Christian theology.
We do not have to erase centuries of Christian tradition.
But perhaps we need to uncover the medicine.
Perhaps we need to take it ourselves.
And perhaps we need to give it to a wounded world.
A Simple Challenge
We have spent centuries asking:
What must Christians believe about Jesus?
Perhaps we now need to ask with equal seriousness:
Are Christians actually living what Jesus taught?
If Jesus said the world would recognize his disciples by their love, then perhaps love should become one of the most visible foundations of Christianity.
If Jesus taught forgiveness, perhaps Christians should become the greatest practitioners of forgiveness.
If Jesus taught mercy, perhaps Christians should become known for mercy.
If Jesus taught reconciliation, perhaps Christians should become builders of reconciliation.
If Jesus proclaimed God's Kingdom, perhaps Christians should begin living according to that Kingdom now.
The future of Christianity may not depend upon Christians becoming more uniform.
Perhaps it depends upon Christians becoming more faithful.
The medicine is still there.
It is waiting to be taken.
Keep the beliefs.
Recover the teaching.
Live the love.
