What was Important to Jesus

A sermon given to the Western Correctional Center for Women in North Carolina

This is probably the most important question you will ever ask. If you are a Christian, it means you have chosen to follow Jesus. After all, he didn’t ask the people around him to believe specific things about him, or his divinity, or even why he was willing to end up on a cross. All of that came after his death. Belief doctrines and creeds came from Paul with his mystical encounters with the cosmic Christ and then still later from our early church fathers. No, Jesus was not interested in beliefs. He asked us to follow him. So again, let’s ask ourselves, what was important to Jesus?

First let’s start with the fact that Jesus never addressed issues such as sexual orientation, gender identification, or abortion. Not once. You won’t find any mention of these in the gospels. It is incomprehensible as to why the conservative evangelical church has chosen these topics as their focus. You can have an opinion on these topics but do not claim that your opinion derives from a Christian perspective since Christ did not address those issues. What we know for sure is that Jesus was radically inclusive and compassionate so if you are developing an opinion regarding these matters, keep that in mind. Any conclusion you draw on the issues must be developed through a lens of love, compassion, and inclusiveness.

One of the best ways to decipher what was important to Jesus is to look at the parables. It was the principal tool Jesus used to teach. The most important matter for Jesus was letting us know that God has unconditional love and forgiveness for everyone and expects us to hold the same attitude, expressing it through acts of forgiveness and compassion. As we discuss this, keep in mind that Jesus did not come into this world to change God’s mind about us (emphasized in a lot of theology), but rather to change our mind about God. We see this most prominently through the Parable of The Prodigal (aka Lost) Son in Luke 15. When the prodigal son returns, the father, metaphorically representing God in this story, immediately accepts the lost son with joy. There is no demand for retribution and no probationary period (purgatory), no period of punishment. Jesus wants us to see God as a God of grace, not punishment. He wants us to know that any judgment rendered is a first step toward reconciliation, not a first step to punishment. We see the importance of forgiveness in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant where a king forgives his servant a large sum, but this servant does not forgive his fellow servant a much smaller sum. Needless to say, the outcome does not bode well for this unforgiving servant. Right before this parable, Peter asks Jesus how many times he must forgive, suggesting seven as a gracious number and Jesus replies, “Not seven, but seventy-seven’” or in other words, infinitely.

Jesus focuses our attention on how we should bring God’s love into the world through compassionate acts in the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. He already had taught that after love of God, the only requirement we have is to love our neighbor as ourselves. He places the Samaritan, a person who Judean Jews would have despised, as the example of what that looks like. Clearly all that matters are acts of compassion, not professing correct beliefs or creeds. Making the Samaritan the hero of this parable also teaches both his listeners and us to be inclusive in who we accept and respect. He brings the importance of compassion home in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats found in Matthew 25. The parable highlights that the way people treat "the least of these," (the poor, marginalized, and vulnerable) reflects how they would treat Jesus himself. The parable emphasizes that actions, not just intentions, are crucial in demonstrating love and compassion. We see God’s grace, God’s unconditional love and forgiveness, brought into the world compassionately by Jesus himself with his treatment of tax collectors, sex workers, an adulteress, the Samaritan woman at the well, lepers, the Roman Centurian, and the demon possessed Gentile across the Jordan living in the Decapolis. We see it in his healing a multitude of people and his feeding the hungry. Stop worrying about whether people have “right beliefs” and start focusing on how you can be compassionate in the world and inspire others to do likewise.

This focus of Jesus on God’s love and forgiveness ties into what he refers to as the Kingdom of God. Jesus is always talking about the Kingdom of God, so what exactly is that? Well, most people assume it is a reference to Heaven, a place or condition that exists after we die, but that would be missing the point. People think that because in the Gospel of Matthew, the Kingdom of God is referred to as the Kingdom of Heaven, but that is because Matthew is writing to a Jews, and Jews cannot use the name of God. No, the Kingdom of God is whenever and wherever God reigns in the hearts of humankind. Jesus spent his entire ministry trying to convey that the Kingdom of God is now, not just in the future. He says, “May your kingdom come here on earth as it is in Heaven” in the Lord’s prayer. Jesus said, “People will ask where is the Kingdom of God? Is it here or is it there, but I tell you the kingdom of God is within.” In other words, it is whenever you choose to connect with the God within. He says at the very beginning of his ministry, “The Kingdom of God is at hand,” meaning now, not just in your future. So, what did Jesus then teach us about the Kingdom of God in his parables. Well, to start in the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13, Mark 4, Luke 8) where the seed is spread on different types of ground, he teaches us that we must have a receptive heart and mind to receive the Word of God. In the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price (Matt 13) he teaches the immense value of the Kingdom of God, that it is worth sacrificing everything to obtain it, that it should be prioritized over all earthly aspirations and possessions. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matt 13, Mark 4, Luke13) and the Parable of the Yeast (Matt 13, Luke 13), he teaches us that the Kingdom of God may initially seem rather insignificant but has incredible hidden and transformative power that will eventually impact our entire world. In the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matt 13) and the Parable of the Fishnet (Matt 13), we are taught that there will come a time when good and evil will be separated. From everything else Jesus teaches, we learn that the choice is ours. All we must do, like the prodigal son or the tax collectors is choose to return to God and we are immediately accepted, forgiven and loved. The Parable of the Sheep and Goats found in Matthew 25, and mentioned above, tells us that any judgment that is made is based on how much compassion we bring into the world. Jesus states, “ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,  I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” This should be our focus, not figuring out how to get more possessions, power, or prestige. Finally, Jesus tells many parables, including the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, the Parable of the Two Sons, and the Parable of the Tax Collector and the Pharisee to demonstrate that the Kingdom of God is open to all who choose God, not just the religious who are in fact sometimes too self-righteous to truly accept and follow the ways of God as taught and modeled through Jesus.

One of the most common themes taught in the parables is the generous use of our resources, especially our money and property wealth. Jesus spent more focus on this through his parables than perhaps any other topic, so we darn well better pay attention to it. In the Workers in the Vinyard Parable, the workers who are hired late in the day are paid the same as the workers hired earlier in the day. They are all paid the equivalent of what was needed to feed their families for that day. We, like the workers hired earlier in the day, are appalled that they did not receive more. In our world, we expect to be paid in accordance with how much we have worked. But we need to change our perspective if we are to follow Jesus. Jesus taught the “God economy”. The God economy principle is that everyone should receive enough, not necessarily the same, but enough to live healthfully with a roof over their head and food in their belly. We need to keep this in mind when we choose what our regional and national policies should be regarding healthcare, housing, and food security.

There are two other parables addressing wealth, the Parable of the Rich Fool, found in Luke 12, and the Rich Man and Lazarus found in Luke 16. If you go back and read these, you will see that the wealthy men are not condemned because of their wealth, but rather because they refuse to be generous with that wealth. How generous are we with our wealth? It is of critical importance to Jesus. Are we contributing to local food banks or national and international organizations addressing food insecurity. Are we volunteering at or financially supporting shelters and organizations trying to find housing for the unhoused? Are we donating our unused clothing and other property to organizations that can help those who have no property? If not, you are not doing the one thing that was most important to Jesus, being compassionate with what you have with your time and resources. I’m not saying this is easy. We are usually far too insecure to follow Jesus’ directive on generosity. Perhaps that is why Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Perhaps it is also why he told the rich man who thought he had done everything he needed to enter the Kingdom of God to give away all his wealth. Although some of us will have gifts of wealth that can be distributed, others of us will have other talents. The Parable of the Tenants and the Parable of Talents, make it clear that we are to use whatever gifts God gives us to further God’s plan for the world, God’s plan to bring the Kingdom of God into fruition now, in the world we currently live.

Well, I haven’t covered all the parables, but enough to give you an idea of what was important to Jesus. His focus was on radical love, compassion, generosity, and forgiveness. In my mind, being the heretic that I am, lol, it is striving toward these goals that saves me, reconnects me with God, and places me into the Kingdom of God, not embracing a specific set of beliefs about God and Jesus that were determined by a church long after Jesus’ lifetime. No matter what your beliefs are, how about we focus on following that which was important to Jesus. It is what he asked us to do.