The Jesus Principle describes how Christian belief and practice can move followers towards Jesus, or away from his teachings and how we believe he would live his life if he were here in person today.
The Jesus Principle
How Christian beliefs and practices
lead us towards or away from Jesus.
Jesus himself described actions that align with his teachings when he told followers to:
- tell the truth,
- act from a place of love and compassion,
- follow the Golden Rule by treating others as you want to be treated,
- help and protect those he called “the least of these,” the less fortunate among us.
The Jesus Principle talks about beliefs and practices that can be both good and bad, that move us towards Jesus or away from his teachings. Let’s look at an example of the former.
Moving Towards Jesus
The good part is easy. There are so many good-hearted Christians across the country who, individually and through their churches and charities, focus on living conscious, moral, and ethical lives that live up to the standards that Jesus set.
First, I like to remember that Jesus was not timid or weak in his approach to the power structures of his time, as described by Jim Palmer in his book, Inner Anarchy. According to Palmer, Jesus was an anarchist and he was put to death for his defiance of authority:
Jesus was a threat to the religious and worldly ruling class who used their belief systems to rule over people. He took on the religious establishment and the worldly authorities of his day. He told them that they may look good on the outside, but…They were loaded to the hilt on the inside with all sorts of diabolical wickedness and treachery 1.
The two primary Jewish groups that enforced religious codes of conduct in Jesus’ time were the Pharisees and the smaller Sadducees. They were equivalent to modern-day Christian denominations. It was these Jewish groups that, as Jim Palmer described:
…concentrated on policing so-called outer sinful acts with codes of conduct2
Compared this to Jesus, who focused on an inner spiritual journey that manifests in the world around him as love, compassion, treating others as you want to be treated, and helping “the least of these.”
It’s also important to remember that there was a merging of religious and political power in the time of Jesus. Jesus lived in Roman-controlled territory, but the Romans deferred regional political power to local Jewish leaders who provided local government. The Pharisees and Sadducees not only enforced religious laws but were influential in the local Jewish government, as well.
Jesus acted out his anarchist approach to the power structures of his day by breaking religious rules enforced by the Pharisees and Sadducees. His rule-breaking included touching lepers, not keeping strict Sabbath rules, improper contact with women, and so on. He also denounced these religious leaders, and he wasn’t shy in how he described them:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity3.
Jesus didn’t mince words. Also, by calling them hypocrites, Jesus was effectively saying they talked a good game, but they didn’t walk their talk. In that spirit, we move forward in time a few thousand years to find 90-year-old Arnold Abbott and two local church pastors considering it their mission from God to feed the homeless in the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2014.
What do Abbot and Jesus have in common? Just as Jesus acted as an anarchist by defying the religious rules of his day to help the less fortunate, Abbott defied Fort Lauderdale city by-laws that made it illegal to feed the homeless.
Abbott and his pastor friends spent years feeding the homeless. The city tried to change that when Democratic Mayor Jack Seiler followed the lead of many other cities around the country and led a move to crack down on the 10,000-member homeless population in his city.
There is no doubt that a large homeless population is a problem for any city. For example, local residents consider urban camping an eyesore, and not having public bathrooms available creates its own distasteful problems.
There are many ways to work with the homeless, and Mayor Seiler, being a Roman Catholic, was exposed to many humane and compassionate policies that could have been used. Instead, what Mayor Seiler did was to make it illegal to share food with its most vulnerable citizens who faced hunger every day of their existence on the street.
Arnold Abbott was a second world war veteran and had made it his mission in life to feed the homeless for the last few years. His non-profit was providing hundreds of meals a week and he wasn’t about to let a local city ordinance stop him now.
It was November 2014 when Abbott and two local pastors were technically arrested, though not taken into custody, and each received a citation threatening 60 days in prison and a $500 fine. Like Jesus, they weren’t going to let local authorities stop them from doing what they considered to be ethical behavior, doing God’s work, and following Jesus’ command to help “the least of these.”
The Least of These
Why was Arnold Abbott so convinced that he should defy local authorities in order to help the unfortunate? He probably read Matthew 25 where Jesus spoke of the importance of helping “the least of these.” Let’s learn more about “the least of these” with this excerpt from my book, The Jesus Principle, where Jesus begins his description in Matthew by explaining the parable of the sheep and goats:
Excerpt from the soon-to-be-released book, The Jesus Principle:
(The parable of the sheep and goats is) where (Jesus) divides all people into two camps, one going to heaven, the other going to hell. What is the dividing line that determines a person’s eternal fate? Jesus sets the scene by describing the actions of the sheep, those going to heaven:
…for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in.I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me1.
Apparently, the idea that helping the poor and strangers is equivalent to helping Jesus himself was confusing to his followers, as evidenced by their reply:
…Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you2?
Here is the pivotal read that, for some, will change everything you thought you knew about what it takes to get into heaven, and avoid hell:
…because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me3.
As if to avoid any doubt as to the importance of helping “the least of these,” Jesus concludes with what happens to those who don’t help those in need:
…Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me. These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life4.
Helping the hungry, the sick, the poor, the stranger, and those in prison are examples Jesus used to describe “the least of these.” Not helping them is like turning your back on God and according to Jesus’ own words, will send you straight to hell. Holy Shit! If that doesn’t scare you into helping “the least of these,” nothing will.
End of The Jesus Principle excerpt
Arnold Abbott and the two ministers were back feeding the homeless soon after being cited by the city. Abbott continued his mission of feeding the homeless until he died five years later.
Arnold Abbott is an example of The Jesus Principle in action. Abbott’s life was a living tribute to our resilience as human beings to follow our hearts and that inner moral compass that drives us to align with the love and compassion inherent in us all as we move away from hate and towards love.
Abbott’s example of defying local laws to help “the least of these” is an example of moving towards the teachings of Jesus, and how we believe Jesus would live his life if her were here in person today.
Even if we have to be anarchists, like Jesus.
1 Jim Palmer, Inner Anarchy: Dethroning God and Jesus to Save Ourselves and the World, Divine Nobody Press, 2014, P.26-27.
2 Jim Palmer, Inner Anarchy: Dethroning God and Jesus to Save Ourselves and the World, Divine Nobody Press, 2014, P.26.
3 Matthew 23:27 World English Bible
Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash
