My Jesus

I continue to think of Jesus as an enlightened Sage, fully and only human (or divine in the sense that we are all one with our divine Source and myths about Jesus' divinity show us our own) but a wise and worthy teacher.

In Buddhist traditions, Sidhartha is the Buddha prototype, the example of Buddhahood who teaches the spiritual practice that can lead anyone to his or her own discovery of the Buddha-Nature within. Buddhahood is a universal Reality and "the Buddha" was not the only one but the primary example of how enlightenment is universally possible.

This view informs my Christology...for my Jesus is the Christ prototype, the example of Christhood who shows the way that can lead anyone to his or her own discovery of the Christ-Nature within. "Christ" is a universal Reality and Jesus "the Christ" (or Anointed One or Messiah or Lord) was not the only one but the primary example of how enlightenment is universally possible. What is a Christ-ian if not a Christ in the making, a member of a larger group trying collectively to be Christ in the world (or "the body of Christ")?

Christianity in the West became centered in Rome, and later a protest/Protestant movement developed against that centralized power structure (but much of the theology was retained). But initially, the Jesus movements were Jewish movements, and within a 100 years of Jesus' life, Christianities were being paganized/hellenized/gentilized and many centers of various schools of thought popped up (in Egypt, Syria, Ethiopia, what is today Turkey, perhaps India, etc.). By the early 4th century those schools lost their voice in the centralization process facilitated by Constantine and have been forgotten or branded heretical since.

I think its important to remember that faithful, thoughtful people were committed to the Christ of their understanding for hundreds of years before "orthodoxy" was established. Some of their views have been recovered and some of them thought of Jesus as an enlightened Sage. My Christian faith and experience is the Resurrection of those ideas that later "orthodoxy" tried to wipe out and destroy.

As Christianity moved into Southeast Asia, it was sometimes influenced by Eastern thought, and Buddhist-Christian and Taoist-Christian hybrid theology developed and remains alive in some places. In those experiences of Christianity, Jesus the Enlightened Sage also survives.

I'm not suggesting this is the only way to understand Jesus or that one must share my view to be a good Christian or to be acceptable to God (one could no more be unacceptable to Ultimate Reality than one could be unacceptable to the Ocean or to Air or to the Ground). I'm only sharing my experience, the reality of my faith, and realizing that my faith-experience is not only shared by people like me now, but it has been shared by people like me for a couple of millennia. Christianity is more diverse and complex than it may seem on the surface sometimes.