Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?
Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one at the passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber. ~John 18:33-40
Just sayin' if I was Jesus I'd be seriously considering revamping the hiring process right about now.
Look here, I had no damned intentions of writing anything today. I had to work last night, it's New Years, I was sick all weekend. I wanted to do nothing more than come home, play with ferrets for awhile and go to bed.
Then I see this garbage? I haven't been a Christian in over a decade and I can't not say something about it.
"A poor person never gave anyone a job."
Well unless I somehow have been reading my Bible wrong all these years, a poor person gave you a job, Jerry.
Whether Jesus actually had any say in the hiring process or not, he hired your dumb ass, didn't he, Jerry?
And Jesus was poor. Carpentry was not a well-off profession back in the day, not in Galilee or Judea.
That's right, and Jesus Christ was not born in a palace, he was born in a stable.
He was not born surrounded by expensive doctors, medical equipment, nurses, no.
He was born surrounded by Oxen and Sheep and according to the story some wise men following a vision quest showed up and gave Him and His family gifts because the family had no money, and some shepherds and (according to all the songs and stories and legends) possible various others may have shown up.
You know what they were seeking, those Shepherds and wise men and legendary assorted others?
Spiritual truth.
Not money, not power, not their favored judges on the courts, not audiences with national leaders (at least not in this life or this world) or anything like that.
In fact, the Wise Men dealt with the national leader, according to the story.
And that got Jesus hunted and the Wise Men having to take a different way home.
At the end of His life, when the crowd was given a choice between the King of Kings and a robber, they chose the robber, and King Herod was a murderer.
And that's what Man's approval gets you every single time, robbers and murderers.
But that's what Jesus was there for in the first place, wasn't it?
For good or ill, right or wrong, no matter how much of His story was mythology or how much of it wasn't there have been very few...all of them semi-mythological figures besides, Buddha, Moses, Muhammad..that could claim the level of influence...or even close to it...of that one solitary life, that poor carpenter turned itinerant Rabbi from Judea who the scriptures say had no place to lay His head.
And along the way, Jesus...or powers and principalities and courts and kings and various and assorted social systems from the tail end of ancient Rome on down to our modern day that claim to act on His behalf...gave one hell of a lot of people jobs.
From Roman Emperors like Constantine the Great on down through various Popes on down to the pastors, priests and various preachers in your local churches all the way down to that poor African American kid who just got his first job as a Dishwasher and walked out of the job interview saying "Thank you Jesus!"
Yes, Jesus could probably claim to have been the most successful employment agent ever in the Universe if He wanted to...along with many other professions, probably.
And Jesus was, per your own holy book, a poor person.
If I was you, I'd be looking to go and sell shoes right about now, Jerry.
Ya'll in the wrong damn business.
I'm here to tell you, Jerry, you and all those like you, if you think all the courts and money and Republican politicians and mush-brained cult followers and all the bullshit and Man's approval and politics in the world are gonna sway even one thought of that final Judge for even one instant when you die and go into the Afterlife and end up where your beliefs proclaim you will go so that you will stand before Him, you're wrong.
And it's your view of the poor that tells me that.
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