Follow Jesus Christ

It was truly an unusual sight for all Jewry to see a man of righteous character mixing freely and perhaps cheerfully with the uneducated common people, with tax collectors who were virtually expelled from the synagogues and Jewish society, and with the so-called “sinners” – the far-religious lovers of entertainment. There are many such lovers of entertainment and far-religious people even today.

“And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, that his disciples also sat at meat with him, and many publicans and sinners: for there were many, and they followed him. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with the publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have need of a physician, but they that are sick: I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Many people, seeing the evil of this world and unable to overcome it, hide behind their joy, behind holidays and feasts. Parties and noisy banquets in restaurants with dancing and alcohol are very often not just places of idle joy, they are “sacred” places where people try to forget about reality and heal their spiritual wounds and smooth out their traumas. Many who left churches, synagogues and mosques are people of principle who could not come to terms with the imperfections of religious institutions. Many people do not go to churches and synagogues, but still continue to believe in God. Jesus did not represent any official religion, He was an independent Teacher. And many lovers of entertainment, who felt that they needed to listen to Jesus more for peace of mind, went to his dinners and parties. Those who had abandoned religion but were seeking God without priests and communities also came to Jesus: they felt the presence of spiritual power and that Jesus strengthened their faith.

Those who did not need spiritual food did not come to Jesus. Those who felt absolutely healthy in a spiritual sense. However, as practice shows, absolutely ideal people have much more serious problems than sinners. The problem of religious thinking is narrow-mindedness and rigidity, when a person does not go beyond the boundaries of his mental constructs and forever remains a slave to the cage that he built for himself. Sometimes this is a social cage, patterns of communal thinking. Not always a community and a rigid religious-spiritual worldview that opposes a chaotic world is bad. The fact is that everything has its time, and there comes a time when you need to rebuild your cage or escape from it in order to avoid stagnation of the mind and heart. However, religious people so often want everything to remain unchanged. But there is nothing permanent in the world.

And sometimes a religious adherent, walled up in his cell, gets infected with the virus of pride and looks haughtily at people passing by. Many rabbis and theologians of that time were exactly like that. Thousands of people today are exactly like that. Not only does such a person lack mental freedom, not only is he wrong in many matters, but he is also proud and puts himself above everyone else. A spiritually healthy person must honestly admit his problems and shortcomings and need a doctor, a cure. If not from one illness, then from another. As it turned out, it was the ossified and hypertrophied religious consciousness that became the main opponent of Jesus on earth. Who knows, maybe the Christian church, like Judaism in its time, will become another opponent of its Lord and Teacher.

Jesus was not bound by religious formalities, do not make a village rabbi out of him. He understood the Torah in his own way, he did not cling to formalities. He spent time with his friends and sinners in conversations and feasts in order to bring them the truth. He came to proclaim joy to those who were unjustly or justly rejected by society. These sinful people were interested in Jesus and his teaching, that is, in the very Word of God, while religious self-righteous people were not.

This behavior reflected the teaching of Jesus: All people are brothers and sisters. God cares for every creature He has created. The Kingdom of Heaven is open to all men and women. No one has the right to close the door of mercy to a thirsty soul striving to enter the Kingdom. For God, all souls are important – no matter what nationality they belong to, what social status they have, what family they were born into, or what religion or philosophy they belong to. Truth is above all religions. Truth was revealed to all people who talked and listened to Jesus.

This is why Jesus accepted invitations and shared meals with all who wanted to hear about the kingdom of God. This is why he and his apostles did not refuse to break bread with Pharisees or sinners, Sadducees or tax collectors, Romans or Jews, rich or poor, free or slave, women or men. According to Jesus, the gates of the kingdom were wide open to all who wanted to know the truth, and he helped everyone who wanted to enter these gates without any exceptions. As long as there was a desire.