The Puzzle of Christianity. Peter Vardy

of God to God’s chosen people, it was felt that the suffering of so many young men could best be explained by a life after death. However, many Jews did not take this position; Judaism has always been a religion anchored firmly in this world rather than the next and concentration on post-mortem survival has always been somewhat peripheral. Jesus, however, proclaimed a life after death and, more than this, emphasised the fatherhood of God and God’s love for all human beings. The word ‘all’ here is significant, as it became clear to Jesus during His ministry that life after death and fellowship with God were open to all human beings and not just the Jews. This was a crucial new insight. It is not clear that Jesus always realised this; stories such as Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman (John 4:4–26), or His healing of the servant of a Roman centurion (Luke 7:1–10), seem to indicate that He came to a gradual realisation of the universality of God’s love. This was, however, an insight that was already present in some strands of Judaism. For instance, the prophet Jonah was forced to recognise that God was the God of the whole of creation, not just of the chosen people of Israel. Again, Christians will differ here; some will hold that Jesus had perfect knowledge throughout His ministry, so the idea that He ‘came to recognise’ something would be rejected.

      On one occasion Jesus was approached with a very simple question, but one with profound consequences. Matthew and Luke’s Gospels record different occasions for the question. In the Gospel of Luke, it is asked by a lawyer (Luke 10:25) and in Matthew by a rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16). The question was universal: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The questioners were probably expecting a simple answer. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus turns the question round and asks the questioner what is written in the Jewish law. The lawyer’s reply is succinct:

       ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

      (Luke 10:27)

      Jesus agrees and tells the lawyer to go away and do this. The first part of the quotation is the Jewish Shema which every devout Jew would have recognised, and the second is the Great Commandment or Golden Rule. It seems so simple! The lawyer, being a lawyer, then asks, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ and Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan:

      ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. “Look after him,” he said, “and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.”

       ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’

       The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’

       Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’

      (Luke 10:30–37)

      It is worth noting that the expert on the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ He could not bring himself to utter the name of the Samaritans, so despised were they by devout Jews, and yet the Samaritan is the hero of Jesus’ story. The significance of this is profound. Firstly, Jesus is speaking to a devout Jew who would have regarded Samaritans as pariahs, so making a Samaritan the central figure in the story would be profoundly disturbing. Secondly, the characters who ignored the needs of the injured man were a priest and a Levite. The tribe of Levi was the tribe from whom the priestly class were normally drawn, so, effectively, Jesus is saying that two of the types of people who, in Jewish society, were regarded as most holy and righteous were, in fact, not so. It was the outsider, the Samaritan, who recognised the need of the injured Jewish person. Jesus’ message is clear: one’s neighbour is anyone who is in need, irrespective of race, skin colour or religious belief. This message was to be central as Christianity became the largest religion in the world. Christianity was not just another Jewish sect; it was a universal religion. Its roots lay in Judaism, but its message of the love of God and its demand to love other human beings was universal.

      Jesus emphasised this continually. He frequently taught in stories or parables which are appealing but have multiple meanings and great depth – and can often be uncomfortable. In one of these stories Jesus spoke of the criteria that God would use to decide who would go to heaven and who would go to hell after death. The story challenged his audience but it maintained the same theme that runs through all his teaching:

       When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

      Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 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 ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

       Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison and go to visit you?’

       The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

       Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was ill and in prison and you did not look after me.’

       They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or ill or in prison, and did not help you?’

       He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

       Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

      (Matthew 25:31–46)

      This message was (and is) challenging because Jesus is saying that the people who will be welcomed into God’s kingdom are the people who visit those in prison or those who are sick, the people who feed the hungry or give water to the thirsty; and the people who are destined for hell are those who fail to do this. What is more, when someone does these positive things to any other human being it is as though they are being done to Jesus Himself, and when someone in need is ignored, it is Jesus who is ignored. This again emphasises the Christian claim that God is intimately involved in the world and that love of any other human being is directly related to love of God.

      The message of the universal love of God was not easy for the early Christians to accept and, after Jesus’ death, there were many of his original followers who still wanted to see Christianity as merely the development of orthodox Judaism. They considered, therefore, that following Jesus meant becoming a Jew and taking on all the rigorous food laws and religious laws that the people of Israel considered normal. It also meant that males had to be circumcised. This position would have restricted the growth of early Christianity as it would, effectively, have become a Jewish sect. It took divine intervention and the activity of one of the most significant of the apostles – St Paul – to demonstrate that these laws were not necessary.