The Big Question

© MMIX v 1.1.2

The gospel according to MARK

9:33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?"
9:34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
9:35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

In answer to the Disciples argument about which of them was the greatest, Jesus teaches them that Man's structures of position, power and authority are not important. Serving others is what is important. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The Disciples must be like Him.

The Big Question:

That seems perfectly clear. Jesus is always consistent about this in all of His teachings. This is totally opposed to Man's society which is hierarchical and is organized on money and power: the most vicious are best suited to rise to the top. Every state-level civilization (they are the societies with a "ruler" and his helpers) has always been organized like a criminal gang. No wonder the Jews wanted to kill him. Jesus was a threat to the people who were running the show. Like Moses and the Prophets before him, Jesus was teaching sedition.

This is the main theme of the Bible. The First Commandment is "Thou shall have no other Gods before me." Yet Man has thousands of Gods before Him: fame, celebrity, sex, money, technology, power, and worse than everything else combined, we have kings, pharaohs, emperors, popes, generals secretary to the politburo, and Man's most grandiose creation yet, the commander in chief, the POTUS, the President of the United States. These creations of Man we worship — they are the Golden Calf.

We say we love peace, yet violence is how we really do things. As only one example: The Anglican Church (the Church of England) was organized during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. It was forged during the English Civil War and was finally established with The Act of Settlement in 1701. Settled was the issue of succession to the throne. Roman Catholics were excluded forever because the monarch, as had been established by Elizabeth I, is the head of the Church of England. This Act ended almost two hundred years of wanton slaughter to decide which Christian church — Roman or Anglican — truly represented Christ Jesus and his message of Peace and Hope for Mankind.

Christians have been spreading the message of Jesus as they have understood it ever since long before the Crusades. Our very own Anglo-American empire, which has dominated the world for over four hundred years, began with Elizabeth I. If Jesus were alive today, we would certainly kill Him. Jesus taught the most dangerous kind of ideas, if you are a ruler. Herod understood this perfectly. We understand it too.

What does this have to do with the gospel? What do we Christians think we're doing?