A Reflection on the Historical Person Known as Jesus
Jesus can be seen as the most revolutionary person to ever live. How so?
He overthrew the most dominant force on earth: human nature.
Human nature says: despise your enemies, Jesus taught: “love them”
Human nature says: don’t put boundaries on me, Jesus taught: “not my will” only and “deny yourself”
Human nature says: dominate others, Jesus taught: “he that is greatest among you shall be your servant”
Perhaps the most knowledgeable world historian ever, the person who literally wrote the 11-volume Story of Civilization, Will Durrant, who did not himself believe in the divinity of Jesus, was asked who his most admired person in history was. His instantaneous response: “without any doubt, I would say Jesus Christ.” His teachings are “enormously important to living in a social order.” They are “enormously desirable as a counter action to our natural individualism”
Another historian observed that beyond his role in Christianity, Jesus is a “figure of significance in Islam, a messenger of God who appears in the Qur’an. Many Hindus and Buddhists have interpreted him favourably within the perspectives of their own traditions. Recently, some Jewish thinkers have been reclaiming Jesus as an authentically Jewish teacher. There have been appreciative Marxist readings of Jesus. There are New Age versions of Jesus. Moreover, respecting Jesus while denouncing the church has become a common attitude.”
Even so, it’s common and easy to criticize and blame Jesus and religious traditions for numberless human conflicts. This criticism and judgement is misplaced. Human nature will always find plenty to fight about, it doesn’t need help from religion. On the contrary, the teachings of Jesus (many of which are shared by other faith traditions) are the most powerful forces on earth to overcome the destructive parts of human nature.
Why is all this relevant for a professional audience? Because many of the revolutionary teachings of Jesus are exactly those that would help employees and by extension businesses thrive.
So regardless of whether you call yourself atheist, agnostic, christian, buddhist, jewish, muslim, hindu, unaffiliated, or something else, we can all be grateful for the teachings of Jesus. The same should be said for the wise words from all of history’s other great teachers.
How is it that, 2,000 year after he was born, we are still talking about a man from an obscure village with no wealth, political office, or military power?
We each form our own answer to that question but one thing I believe is: “there is no greater, more thrilling, and more soul-ennobling challenge than to try to learn of Christ and walk in His steps.”