Jesus of Nazareth and
Paul of Tarsus never met face to face, but if they have done so in another dimension, the meeting might
well have gone something like this....
Jesus: “I’m so glad
to finally get a chance to talk to you.
The two of us have a lot in common! We both have other people telling
our story – as if they caught it all on camera.
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all say they are telling my story – but
they [whoever they really were] wrote many years after you wrote to your churches, and they can’t agree on
what to say. Your problem is a little different, what you wrote in your letter
to the churches in Galatia about your conversion experience is very different
from what Luke wrote about that experience of yours in his book ‘The Acts of
the Apostles’. Even your actions
following the experience are different! And what about your problem with Peter
about following the food laws of my people? Obviously, from your writing you
had never heard of Peter’s vision of the tablecloth that Luke writes
about! Why do people feel that they can
put words in our mouths? ”
Paul: “I have no
idea where Luke got his ideas from - certainly not from me!”
Jesus: “Speaking
of where ideas come from – where did you get your ideas about my mission,
seeing we never met? At least the
Gospels [as people now call them] are based, albeit loosely on remembered
stories about things I said and did in those three brief years in hot and dusty
Palestine. Some of it even happened! Too
bad I hadn't been able to leave some written record.”
Paul: “God
revealed you to me in a dream, so that I could preach about you to the
Gentiles. I eventually went to Jerusalem
after 3 years, and after that time, I did speak to Peter for a couple of
weeks. I understood you as the Christ of
Faith who had died on the cross for the sins of the whole world – Peter felt it
was also important for your followers to follow the Jewish laws, but that was
much too difficult for me to ask of the Gentile ‘God-Fearers’. Who would have gotten circumcised in order to
follow you? – and really, what difference did it make anyway? I felt then, and still do, that keeping the
law of the Old Testament was, and is, unnecessary to be your follower.“
Jesus: “I don’t
remember ever talking about dying for the sins of the world – instead I tried
to encourage the oppressed to take their destiny into their own hands: opposing
the Roman forces by using passive aggression.
You should have seen their faces when I suggested carrying the pack of a
Roman Soldier for a second mile! They know it would get that soldier into trouble
with his superiors! I wonder how many actually tried it?”
Paul: ”But the
gospels also tell the story about your death and resurrections - and about your
appearing to your disciples. It wasn't just me.”
Jesus: “ No, but
thy read your letters before they wrote the gospels – ever Mark, who was the
first was at least 40 years after your first letters appeared.”
Paul: “But you
were crucified, one among a great many, but you are the only one to be
remembered 2000 years later. There must
be a very special reason for this to happen – everyone sins and what can be
more important a reason for dying than that, the forgiveness of sin?”
Jesus: “I was put
to death because I was undermining the authorities/powers of my day and was
inciting revolution among the oppressed. As has happened to many in the last
2000 years, I was quashed – still the easiest way to deal with discontents.”
Paul: “So you’re
saying I got it all wrong?”
Jesus: “No, not
entirely wrong. I was put to death
because of my opposition to the sins of the world of my time, and I continue to
inspire those who follow me to stand up to the sins of the world they find
themselves in. By doing this, they well might
end up dying as well! My call to those who would follow me was - and is- that
their way of life, however unpopular with the powers that be, must be one where
compassion, justice and love for others, friend and enemies, known and unknown, is the
only possible way to live.”
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