Musings

In a previous post I noted that Jesus did not come to start a religion – namely, Christianity (that was the doing of those who sought to align religion with the power of the state, such as in the 4^th century with Constantine), but rather, Jesus mission was to restore humanity, for humanity to be more humane, which he exemplified through his example and actions in interaction with others.  Though the cross is central to this in unmasking the principalities and powers – that’ll be for another post. 

The question in this post is this: If Jesus did not come to start a religion, were his actions deemed religious or can we state that through his incarnation he sought to be thoroughly secular?  It all depends what we mean by secular.

Secular defines things or ideas that are not associated with religion or spirituality.  In that sense Jesus might not be considered strictly secular, yet, he was not definitely not religious – though he did engage in discussion with religious leaders.  For sure, Jesus had a vision of all things that was more than materialistic or secular, but also it was a vision that was not merely spiritual.  Jesus’ spirituality was rooted in Spirit, the Spirit of God which empowered his humanity.  For Jesus, the real world and the spiritual reality of God were not incompatible, in fact, in God these realities are integrated.

To understand Jesus, we need to understand that he did not divide sacred from secular.  To him all human beings had worth, all things have value far beyond their material value.  Paul in Col. 1:17 expressed, “in him all things hold together.”  Jesus is the “Integrating One” integrating sacred and secular.  Jesus’ perspective of reality did not separate material from that of Spirit – though often religious perspectives do exactly that. The witness of Jesus’ incarnation is that the created world, that humanity is not in one sphere and God and Spirit in another – No, there is no segregation between sacred and secular. 

Therefore, sacred and religious are not to be regarded as synonyms.  Sacred refers to a perspective that is open to wonder, open to more than the senses can perceive (science limits itself to what can be observed).  Sacred opens us up to what is boundless (which science also seeks to discover and explore).

Where Jesus’ boundless (and spiritual) perspective runs afoul of religion is that religion, by its nature, seeks to create boundaries, seeks to control, place limits on faith and fosters certain rites and practices, which are designed to do so.  Jesus’ perspective is more focused on what is central to the blending of sacred and secular and focused on recreating the way we view and live in the world and the way we view, live and love one another. 

Jesus gave expression to this in Luke 4:18ff (NIV). 

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Jesus’ mission was not to make all things religious, but to restore all things, to restore our humanity so that we all might live humanely with one another on earth.  We see Jesus in his day to day ministry through the way he lived and encountered people, through his parables, that he lived out his life in the midst of the marketplace.  His concern was for those who were oppressed and marginalized, what they were going through, so that they might be set free through the Spirit of God to be set free, to be strengthened and for them to experience being loved, offered kindness, shown compassion.  Jesus talked of God and talked to people, not in religious ways, but in ways that were integrated with the ordinariness of daily living, because that is the expression of God’s passion and love for all humanity.    In this sense, Jesus was and is secular.