a Christmas wandering of thought by Benjamin M. Walsh

Ah, Christmastime. The time when everyone's lives grow terribly hectic and everyone's running around like a bunch of rabid chickens - nyaaaaoh, rrrrr-ssss-rrrr, nyaaaaooooh! - yeah, all running around trying to eat each other, buying presents like crazy, and generally trying to tear each other apart to get a parking space at the mall.

Sad, isn't it? That's why every year around Christmas, virtually every preacher in America (or so it seems) puts together a sermon on how to be good for Christmas, and presumably get brownie points for doing so. Well, I'm no preacher, mind, but I sure do like to talk a lot; and so, without further ado, we'll take a good long look at the basic meanings of Christmas, and maybe talk a bit about Jesus while we're at it. Or, then again, vice versa.

Because it all started with the birth of Jesus, you know. One of the greatest teachers our world has known, he was born into humble beginnings, not the royal palace that everyone expected. For it seems that the coming of a 'The Savior' (the characteristics of which we will talk about in a moment) had been predicted long before Jesus's own birth; however, the predictions were for a great king to come and save humanity and whatnot, and so the closed-minded people of ancient times didn't initially realize that Jesus himself was a great king of sorts. The only difference was, they expected a great king in terms of land, and riches, and wealth, to say nothing of social status; Jesus was king over himself.

But why did Jesus come? If he's a Savior, what'd he come to save?

Well, let's examine saviordom for a moment. Presuming that Jesus was indeed a Savior, why would God send Jesus down?

Well, my own personal view is that it was NOT to act for us as an intercessor in Heaven, as often seems to be held. Jesus himself might have chosen to do this for the world, whom he apparently loved, but this was not (in my opinion) why he was actually sent. If he wanted to help us become just so that the Big Hands of Justice would not have to whack us with the Mallet of Bad Karma Catching Up To Our Headlong Fleeing Tails, then I say, more power to him. It takes great inner peace and a lack of hatred (and anger) to truly feel unconditional love! But God itself, being (presumably) a loving all-powerful deity, could release its own created people (that is, its 'children') from karmic debts of its own accord, couldn't it? To assign a specific avatarial manifestation of oneself to the task seems kind of ridiculous when one could do it directly even more easily. Heck, even if God wanted to make the fact known to everyone as well, it could have sent angels singing about it to everyone and saved Jesus the trouble.

But this wasn't how God had it; Jesus was born, so the story goes (with enough references backing the basic story (before it gets covered in legends) up to lend it good credibility), Jesus was born to the virgin Mary, and eventually grew up to become what most Christians hail as the Messiah, and most other ethics-based people (if I can say that, taking ethics as a pre-defined and already good-aligned term) respect. Must've been an interesting kid to have in school on career day, no?

"So, there, master Jesus, do YOU want to be a shepherd when you grow up?"

"Nah. I wanna be the Messiah when I grow up!"

Of course, I suppose it probably didn't go quite like that (although shepherding was apparently a pretty popular business back then, at least around ancient Bethlehem). Actually, such a brilliant guy as Jesus presumably was probably never would have thought of himself in such a way; or, if he did so, it would have been in a totally objective (and therefore honest, fair, and accurate) way… but I digress. So, the question (unsurprisingly unhelped by my rambling yet pointless reference to career day and shepherding or, as a great poet once had it, sheeping) remains: why did God send Jesus out into the world to be a Savior? Well, here's my two cents on the matter.

It seems to me that the value of Jesus's life, insofar as it relates to his being a 'Savior', essentially lies within his role as a great teacher. (It of course would have had other values as well, as anyone's life would… we don't want to deny Jesus the simple pleasures in life simply because he's a Savior, now do we?) I mentioned this fact earlier, that he was a great teacher; now, we see it come into play. Yes, the books of the New Testament of the Bible do indeed tell of angels singing, and people praising the glory of God, and enough miracles to make Saramon the Wise or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named turn green with envy (performed without a wand, no less, by sheer miracleness or whatever one would use to work miracles (virtue? worthiness? justness of cause? inner peace and harmony with the universe? just being special?))... however, it seems to me that one of the most important things about Jesus, and something that it seems like many people miss, is that Jesus taught people how they should behave. It wasn't always just-believe-in-me-and-I'll-save-your-immortal-soul-from-Heck or that sort of thing, as my sources (YES! blame my cluelessness on THEM! Whoever THEY are... maybe it's really just me again, bungling my ears… *SIGH*) tell me many people believe. There is an aspect of works needed as well... if we behave well, God and the universe note it down, and we get justly paid back somehow or another (even if that is 'only' in the simple yet oh-so-elusive achievement of inner peace). But conveniently enough, if we're doing things for the sake of the reward itself (presuming that we view it as a reward; it might be somewhat different if we're looking at it objectively as self-betterment), then God notes that down too, and we're rewarded accordingly. If our 'reward' is the achievement of Zen with everything, then, well, of COURSE we wouldn't benefit so much for doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Our own emotions would be heavily involved in the matter, and they would hold us back. One ultimately cannot hide the truth from oneself!

But at any rate, the fact seems to be that Jesus loved the world at large, and sought to better himself, and sought out the secrets of the universe, and tried to help people to the best of his ability and to the best of their capacity for being helped; and if Jesus was sent down here to redeem us all from sin, it was perhaps through setting US a good example and showing us a better way.

And we can all follow in his footsteps, can't we? We don't need to be idolized like Jesus has been recently (as well as getting the arbitrary last name of Christ... what is up with that? Personally, I see Christ as a sort of Zen state of being, where one is taking the straight and narrow path... a sort of process of self betterment, I suppose. But that's just my definition of it… Anyway, let's see if you can remember where this sentence started without looking back!) to help teach the world how to be good. Being a philanthropist might not be a job that brings in tons of cash, but it certainly pays well. Material wealth is only good insofar as it brings about the fulfillment of a useful cause, such as happiness or charitable purposes; and let's face it, it's not usually all that good for bringing us happiness, now is it? It can do some things for us, like broaden our fields of experience, but that is all. Wouldn't it be better to buy happiness a more direct way... through a sense of real purpose and meaning in life, achieved through philanthropy?

All this has implications, mind you - everything does. If Jesus's most important aspect of saviordom is his skill as a teacher, then we can let off Judaism and Islam, both of which religions hold Jesus as a great teacher (by my sources, who did something right for once) as well. Their religions don't have to become mysteriously invalid just because they don't idolize Jesus like we do. (And mind you, while one tends to imitate one's idol, there IS a difference between hero-worship (as in respect) and hero-WORSHIP, (as in making someone into a god).) For that matter, I would let off just about anyone who believes in the core tenets of Jesus's teachings (which I myself would hold to be the secrets of happiness and virtue, that is, ethics) as having a virtuous enough religion for my concern. In fact, their own search for truth might never involve Jesus at all… because remember, if God meant for only a portion of its children to reach Heaven, then it wouldn't be an all-loving God, now would it? (Of course, how we define Heaven is also important… it could be a place, or simply a state of being, to give you some examples of what I mean.) Unless we hold reincarnation as a valid doctrine (which I suspect you are less willing to do than I am), if Jesus was a necessary part of everyone's lives in ALL times, then before Jesus's birth, everyone would have been doomed (unless simply WAITING for the Savior works too… not sure about how that would work exactly, in view of the rest of this limbo of thought and possibilities). And even WITH reincarnation being taken as a basic assumption, it wouldn't make much sense. It would have kept a lot of people waiting for a long time after the creation of the universe (depending upon who all benefits from Jesus's saviordom, anywhere from thousands to billions of years), with no particular reason and no way for worthy individuals to reach Heaven before the coming of Jesus. I believe in an equal opportunity God! Heh…

And beyond all this, didn't Jesus preach tolerance? Okay, that should be the rest of them. You can rest easy, people. Even intolerant beliefs must be tolerated, because if we believe in tolerance but cannot tolerate them, then WE are the hypocrites. We instead have to show them a better way, and the only way I know of to do that is through example itself.

Taking this all one step further, though, if the important part of a Teacher is its Teachings, then does the same hold true for deities? Maybe we can substitute a deity's values for their 'name'... and, since everyone speaks a different language (half literally and half figuratively... decide for yourself whether it's the 'everyone' or the 'speaks a different language' that's literal, and which one is figurative, and it either becomes a lesson in linguistics, or refers to everyone's uniqueness in understanding, outlook on life, etc., which lead everyone to lead a different life), this might make a good deal of sense.

Because, let's face it, aren't we all 'Children of God', like Jesus was (and indeed, still is)? God might never grow old, being perfect, but we are still young, and have much growth ahead of us. Even at the end of physical life, it would seem that true life is only just begun... only the closing of one's mind to God, that is, to the truth, newness, the reality of our own fallibility, and everything else can prevent us from experiencing that. And because we are young, we are also inexperienced, and cannot really name the whole of God. Someday, when we, too, have become whole, when we have grown up, perhaps we will be able to use and understand the names of God properly. But until then, why bother fighting over it? It's exactly the opposite of Jesus's message. If ever there is an Antichrist, it is war, hatred, and intolerance. These can assume the guises and false justifications of anything they want... religion, chess, or cream-filled donuts, WHATEVER. And so, do your best to make good use of that ever-helpful slogan - "What would Jesus do?" (Its current meaning to society as a slogan for whomever and whatever, whatever that and whoever they may be, notwithstanding.)

But throughout all this, bear in mind that Jesus himself was not perfect. He was immensely wise, yes, and at such a Zen with the universe that he was able to seek seemingly impossible favors (i.e. his miracles) from the universe and the worlds and have them granted... but he still was basically human. And that is one of the great truths about his story - Jesus was human, just like the rest of us. There was divine blood in him, just as there is in all of us - whatever and wherever 'divine blood' may actually be. And because he was able to do great things as a seemingly weak, fallible human, so can we, if only we can behave as well, be true to ourselves, find a path, and stick with it.

Jesus - the guy in whose honorary title is the first syllable of Christmas. I don't know whether he really was divinely conceived, whether he really was the direct son of God in that way. I don't even know that Jesus was an avatar of God, or that, when an avatar of God comes again, it will be Jesus himself - after all, why should it be? (God's avatar could just as well be anyone from anywhere, and not even necessarily a Christian, except in deed and heart!) And I can't even remember his real name. But as far as *I* know, Jesus was a great teacher, and unless my knowledge of him AS a teacher is not well-founded, then my faith in the world and in the power of individuals is unshaken. It may be hard to be good... but golly, it sure feels good when one IS good. Merry Christmas.