Hypocrisy in action... what joy.

I came across this quote today while doing my usual web surfing.

"Putting aside the myth, he was a great man and teacher, with a greater message of peace, goodwill, and standing up for what is right. And as long as we keep that in mind, the date and how it’s celebrated don’t really matter."

The post had started out with a small paragraph that took some jabs at the Christian basis of the current holiday, and to be fair the next paragraph took some jabs at the commercialization of the holiday. But then you run across that little gem of a quote and kinda cringe.

It should be apparent to anyone who has read my blog that I am a Evangelical Protestant (I.E. Christian, not Catholic. There is more to it, but today's lecture is not on that...) and so it may surprise some when I say that Jesus was NOT a man with "... a greater message of peace, goodwill, and standing up for what is right." In fact, it is arguable that he was near the opposite of the first two, and the third point is so far from what the Christ was about that it is nearly laughable.

Peace.

Many think of the angels with the shepherds having said peace on earth, goodwill towards men, etc. That's what the song says, right? Well, lets turn to Luke, chapter 2.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 14 “Glory to God in the highest,

   and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke is clear on the peace resides with those who are in God's favor. It is further reasoned that based on the ministry (and the response to...) of John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ, this group who was in God's favor was... smaller then the carol suggests. Much smaller. Peace belongs, rightfully, to the favored of God, and even then it can be a fleeting thing. (Ask Job.) That it was offered at all is incredibly generous. 

Neither was this peace to be a lasting thing. If Jesus was a guy who had a greater message of peace, why would he say,

"34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."  (Matthew 10), 

or this,

 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. (Luke 12),

To presume a message of peace when He explicitly denies such a message is folly in the highest. 

Goodwill.

Find the word "goodwill" in your Bible. You'll find it less times than you expect, I almost guarantee it. Goodwill is when you have or seek a favorable opinion or relationship with someone. Jesus didn't care about the favor of anyone except the Father. He taught us to obey and to serve God. this may have the appearance of goodwill, but do not confuse the means with the goals. Obedience is goal one. Goodwill is incidental. 

Standing up for what is right. 

Ooooh... where do I start? Tell me, what did the Christ stand up for? I mean, really... 

He made a stand for Himself. For the truth of His claim to Deity. For his innocence of the crimes he was charged with. He took a stand against sin. And that is about it. Not women's rights, not health care, He did not stand against slavery, or the economic rape of the Jewish state by the Roman Empire. He stood for Himself, and let the chips fall where they may. The Christian faith has been dressed up real nice and pretty the last few decades, and it glosses over the fact that it is by it's nature a mutually exclusive faith. You cannot be both Muslim and Christian. When it comes to the day of judgement it is either Christ's way or the highway. Your choice. Choose wisely. 

This is reflected in his time in ministry. he stood for Himself, His Father, and the Covenant. That. Is. It. And He stood by it to the point of death. 

Was Jesus a great man? Yeah. He still is. Was He a great teacher? Yeah, and again, He still is. Was he a Myth? Nope. Is the faith around Him and the beliefs about what he was accused of and executed for a myth? Nope. We have the Roman records of His execution, and the charges relating to it. He claimed to be God, and Jewish leaders, who said this was heresy (in their defense, for anyone else it would have been...) convinced the Romans to charge Him with attempting to claim sovereignty over Judea and have Him killed for what amounts to treason against the state. This is in hard record. The only part in any real dispute is the Resurrection, 

Jesus's entire ministry is wrapped around the concept that He is God. If He lied about that, then the whole house of cards comes down, and quite frankly He would have deserved what He got. Myth? I think not. There would have been too many times to catch Him in the lie if He was a fake. Think about how many people were out to get Him. They would have pounced on a piece of dirt on Him like the media jumped all over Anthony Weiner. 

You must either admit that He was a total fake who got very very lucky that no one caught him in it (and just decided to stick it out to the point of being executed in one of the must gruesome ways possible) or that He was, in fact, Emmanuel. God with us. And if He was a fake, then it taints the whole of His teaching and we should have nothing more to do with Him. Let Him disappear into the waste bin of history. 

Logic tells me that if Jesus was a fake, they would have caught Him out and decimated Him with it. And no one will die for a cause they know is a fraud unless it will give some greater cause strength.  I cannot find such a cause. 

So don't give me that load of bullcrap about how nice and friendly and kind Jesus was, and how we need to remember that this season. 

What do I have to say to that attitude? Shove off. 

What is Christmas about? It is about the arrival of God on this world, in the form of a man, send with the express purpose of dying for an ungrateful group of fools of have no idea of the cost of seeing the Father turn from the Son in shame, unable to see the burden of sin the Son took from those self same fools and literally went to the gates of hell for them and then spitting in death's eye and rising again! It is the celebration of the arrival of the Christ. The Christ. Messiah, Savior, Anointed One. The one who would die for every single person on earth, past present or future, even though the vast majority would care about as much for it as they would a fly.

We celebrate the arrival of our greatest hero. Our greatest leader. Our Lord and Master. We celebrate His birth because we live under a covenant paid for by His death, given power by His resurrection.

So you can take that mealy mouthed fancy-fied mouthful about how nice He was and stuff it. You may as well cheer on the arrival of modern medicine for all the boob jobs it enables. And I won't stand for that either.