The books attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are a good read. Jesus actually hung out with lepers, prostitutes, cripples, and the outcasts and riff raff in general. These were people who were not allowed into the temple, and shunned by society. Jesus ticked off a lot of the religio/political bigwigs of that society by basically pointing out their hypocrisy, and the fact that these 'holier-than thou" types were basically full of crap.
He used a cup as an example. What's the use of cleaning the outside of the cup, when the inside is still filthy?
A friend of mine, an ex-alky/druggy/psych ward resident, like me, uses the term "candy apple Christian". All bright and shiny on the outside, but rotten to the core. That's one of the biggest things Jesus railed about, being a phoney, high and mighty, and wagging your finger at everyone else. He was definitely a radical, a dangerous thinker.... |