Month: March 2020

On Sifter of Dust, we highlight passages from the Gospels of Jesus and then the great religion of Islam. One of the most important teachings of Baha’u’llah is that we should understand the revelations of God within their historical context, as God reveals them according to humanity’s capacity at any particular time in history. One of the major steps in humanity’s spiritual and social development was the emergence of the concept of One God. It’s most helpful, in order to understand the significance of this idea, to see it within historical context. 

If you were to travel through the villages and towns of the ancient world, in whatever land, you would find that different local peoples worshipped different “gods”.  These “gods” often reflected characteristics that the people of that area admired, and were somewhat a symbol of their unity, in the way flags function in our modern society.  If a tribe conquered another tribe, the loser would have to pay homage to the conquerors’ “god” and bow before it.  In a 100 mile square area, you might encounter several different tribes, all worshipping different “gods”. 

In the 500-1000 years before Christ, this pattern was beginning to change and nowhere was this change more evident than among the Hebrews, the Jewish people. Many cultures might have a god that they worshipped above all others- a “high god”, or a “sky god”- but the Jews were different. The God they stubbornly worshipped was a single transcendent Force, the Creator of all that is, and the only God worthy of worship.   When Moses went up to Mt Sinai and encountered this God, and asked of His name, the only reply was “I am that I am”.  This God also cared about human beings, nurtured them, wanted them to behave according to fixed laws and commandments, and tied our worship of Him to our spiritual and moral development. 

The Jews were the most prominent promoters of this idea, but they were not entirely alone in their conception. Though the Buddha declined to engage in a discussion of the “gods” of His day, He appeared to be alluding to the same Reality when He stated- “There is, O monks, an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed. Were there not, O monks, this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unformed, there would be no escape from the world of the born, originated, created, formed.” Whether the Buddha was alluding to God or Nirvana is a subject of some debate, but in either case there is the assumption that there is an “eternal” aspect of the world that is our ultimate home as humans.  The Chinese civilization of the time promoted the idea of “Heaven” or “Ti’en”, an invisible Force that kept order in the world and to whom people and even emperors owed their allegiance. The Duke of Zhou, who lived over a 1000 years before Christ, whose “path” Confucius claimed to be renewing, promoted the idea that leaders of society needed to treat their people with justice, or “Heaven’ would remove them from power.  The Greek philosophers talked about the “good” in abstract terms, something clearly distinct from the gods of Athens, and Socrates was killed for “corrupting the minds of the people” and spreading such blasphemy.  Even the Greeks’ main rival, the Persians, worshipped a single God through their homage to the teachings of the ancient prophet Zoroaster.

With that background, we can now appreciate the significance of a conversation of a young itinerant preacher named Jesus and a tribal woman at a well near Samaria.  After traveling with His companions, Jesus broke off to get some water and was sitting at the well when a Samaritan woman approached to gather water.  He greeted her kindly, which surprised her, because she was not a Jew and He was, and Jews regarded her people as “untouchable”.  Jesus then proceeded to tell her aspects of herself and her life that made her appreciate His knowledge and wisdom. The dialogue continues-

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth. The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

The message that Christ brought would go on to become the single greatest unifying and civilizing force in the history of the human race. In the next 1500 years, Europe would progressively lose the tribal worship of many ‘gods’ and would unite around the worship of an abstract God that was neither in a temple or in a mountain, who was a “Spirit” and “must be worshipped in Spirit and in truth”.  Moreover, Jesus Christ, with his message of love of others, compassion, and care for those less advantaged, was the representative of that God on earth, and worship of that single transcendent Force meant following Jesus’ teachings.  So many aspects of our modern society- such as the concepts of justice, equal rights before the “law”, care for others- even fundamental concepts of modern science itself- that the world is well-ordered, consistent, rational- were raised on this foundation. That metaphysical idea has come to be known as the “oneness of God”, and no serious religious thinker since Jesus has even considered denying it.

There was also another aspect of Jesus’ teaching that is worth emphasizing. The ancient world was brutal, with tribes fighting other tribes constantly, rampant disease, imperialist societies like the Romans subduing whole countries to have access to their resources. The Romans sent troops against Britain and killed 80,000 people so that they could mine tin and other minerals. 

What was it about Jesus’ message that was so powerful and so influential? It didn’t matter what class you were from, whether you were Roman or conquered, Jew or Gentile, pagan or Druid, the message of Christ was transformative.  Why?  And how did He know that this would be so? 

In a meaningful passage in the Gospels, some of His disciples raise concern against a woman who was applying expensive oil to His feet, oil that could be sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus intervened and told them to let her be, that one day, when His Gospel was preached throughout the world, this woman would be honored for what she had done.  So… Jesus, who at that time was considered an insignificant preacher in the bowels of the great Roman Empire, knew that His message would someday transform the world. And just as He predicted, you are now sitting here over 2000 years later reading about her, on a completely different continent!  (Hmm…maybe there is something to this religion thing after all…)

Comments closed