The Nazarene
People wonder why after all my experiences, both good and bad within evangelical Christianity that I don’t ditch the Nazarene for good and just become a deist or theist. Some suggest that I should become a Buddhist, Hindu or New Age guru and have done with it.
I must admit that some days, having just encountered the harshness and judgement of a supposed Jesus fan, I do consider taking such an existential leap. It’s very difficult at times hanging in there with a somewhat dysfunctional gang of folk who’re toxic to one’s psyche-soul. And yet when I’m about to jump, Yeshua usually pops into view, in the hidden caverns of my mind. One also alone and wounded by the religious barbs of believers in the God of Israel, the Nazarene stands and calls me aside.
‘Now you understand my brother, now you understand’.
I can’t leave one who has been so misunderstood and misrepresented by the tribe who go by his name. Thankfully the Galilean isn’t franchised to those dysfunctional expressions of the Christian faith that kill through their words and pseudo-superiority. Yeshua bar Yosef isn’t contained in a belief system, no matter what the guardians of cultural and theological boxes tell us.
No, the Nazarene is free and offers his followers freedom from ego that many haven’t yet taken him up on. The ‘taking up of his cross’ isn’t some macabre act or death wish but a rapturous call to freedom. Only ego suffers. As we let it fall into the ground and die, we shall find a new Self step forward to take its place. The hidden treasure that’s lain buried under the topsoil of ego and its fearful ways.
The Galilean is seen by many as a quality controller, a ‘Lord’ who sits on high and keeps a beady eye on our religious observances. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Spirit Breath of the back to life Jewish rabbi is dancing among the sons and daughters of man. A liberator here to liberate, even from the oppressive power of his supposed religion, and all others to boot.
For many within Christendom, Yeshua is the blood sacrifice that paid for our sinly dysfunction. This in my earlier Evangelical incarnation was my raison d’être. I owed ‘this bleeding saviour’ the haunted one who looked at me suffering and sad, hanging on his Roman gibbet. ‘It should have been me up there,’ I reasoned, following the standard Evangelical line in disciple motivation. Claiming to victoriously deal with guilt my take on the Nazarene’s brutal demise would only increase guilt in the hidden depths of my being, driving me to ever increasing levels of religious ego devotion and zeal.
Today I no longer follow such a path, the one that leads to a debt paid Calvary. Instead I see the Nazarene teaching the masses on the flower filled hills of the Galilee. ‘You’ve heard it said, but I say unto you….’ brings me hope and new life. I guess the Nazarene is still speaking these words to his followers but who is listening, in our modern sermon saturated marketplace of seminars and DVDs. In short, I still identify with this Jewish son of Yosef, son of God, mainly because of his authentic spirituality, one that pierces through the ego defenses of my religious and social self.
Certainly the death of the Nazarene is radically important in its declaration of what God is not. Not a violent Supreme Being, one obsessed by blood and back payments, but One who has experienced mankind’s scapegoat experience as the wounded Lamb of Innocence. The bloody Roman execution of Yeshua shocks us out of our cultural God view and into a new, upside-down awareness that our morality systems are really killers in disguise.
For many of my friends within Mind, Body, Spirit circles may I respectively and humbly suggest that Yeshua is something more than an ascended avatar of the Divine. A manifestation of Divine Love and Wisdom for sure, but one who uniquely revealed the hidden nature of our righteous violence and its religio-politico networks. One roused from the grave in a way that no other spiritual Master appears to have been; a resurrection authentication by Divine Love of his character and message, one that would explode the lie of morality for all time.
So, in following the Nazarene may I suggest that we don’t follow a belief system, but a Living Presence, one that longs to walk with us along the psycho-spiritual lanes of life’s highway. Boxless and free Yeshua bar Yosef can well and truly look after himself without our help. He needs neither security cover nor fervent crusades to spread his touch of psycho-spiritual liberation and wholeness. All that’s required is an honest an open heart and even that’s given. Such hearts are often found in the most unusual of places.
Writer Dylan Morrison 
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing Dylan. It’s indeed very hard these days to find the REAL JESUS in the midst of an ever increasing and often conflicting religious market. My only hope is that it is indeed the ABBA GOD He proclaimed that draws us all to find HIM speaking to us in the midst of our dark mythologies.
Thanks for dropping by Florian. Yes, if it wasn’t for the gravitational pulling power of Divine Love, we’d all be stuck in our conceptual Jesus maze with a very dizzy head!
Blessings
Dylan
Dylan, As an ex SDA and an extremely angry God hater for nearly 13 years because of what I saw and experienced in that organisation I have to say I love your view of God and Yeshua.
I read your book only last week after having put it off for quite some time.(I hold a good grudge. My loss, I know.)
I now hold a view very similar to yours.Not because you told me to but because after reading your book I simply asked God to “Show me” and I believe” HE IS” a little bit at a time.
Thank you mate for sharing your difficult story with this lost and angry Soul.
Warmest Regards,
Glenn
Hi Glenn.
Thanks for dropping by and sharing a wee bit of your journey. I can sense a little of how you feel having been along the same path myself. Once our anger is acknowledged and thereby authenticated it loses its sting and slowly begins to recede. The lack of such acknowledgement within most Christian circles only tends to fuel our rage even more. That is one of the reasons I believe that I was nudged to write my own story, so that other victims of spiritual abuse could get some relief from their hellish nightmare of religious scapegoating.
Thank you for your encouragement and may many more of the walking wounded discover Yeshua to be totally Other than He has been portrayed in Western religion.
Irish Blessings on your journey
Dylan
This is beautiful, Dylan. I used to wonder why I felt so ill at ease with too many Christians, people who should be my brothers and sisters. I now believe there is a growing number of us impatient to reclaim the real Jesus, hidden for too long by those who wish to set boundaries around the One who offers us Life in all its fullness. Thank you.
Thank you Irene. Yes there is an elephant in the room that many of us are slowly but painfully beginning to wake up to – the co-dependency dynamic within much of Christian thought and practice.
Once we become aware of it our relationships can never be the same again. In time we shall relate out of freedom rather than duty.
Blessings
Dylan
Dylan, your words here remind me of the teachings of the Franciscan friar Richard Rohr. His writing makes my heart sing too. God bless you. Irene. PS I have started to read your book on Kindle.
You are most kind Irene.I’ve never read Richard’s writings but have caught a few minutes of him on YouTube. I’m told that he attempts to knit psychology and spirituality together in a Christian context. I guess I try to do the same with emphasis on the somewhat diverse works of Roberto Assagioli and Rene Girard.
Hope the wee book resonates with you. Do let me know how it went when you’re finished!
🙂 Dylan
Hi Dylan,
While I am also of the generation which went through the shepherding and anti female teaching ( putting us ‘in our place of submission’ etc etc YAWN!) and have come out the other side reveling in the relationship rather than the religion, I do still believe that you initially need to ‘follow the path to the debt paid Calvary’ for that is truly where the sinful ego is challenged and has to die so the New Self can step forward to take its place. I also believe that His death and deliverance has opened the Way for any heart who is truly wanting to find the Father, no matter their upbringing, culture or religious indoctrination. The Door has been opened and all who seek may enter in – they may not fully understand the ‘process’ but the Spirit reads the heart and acts accordingly. I really believe we will have more than a few surprises when we get to the other side! We limit this untamed and ferocious God into a meek and mild, controllable, predictable image of ourselves because its safer that way and gather similar minds around us to justify our theology. He is continuously reconciling the world to himself and we don’t know the half of it! God richly bless you with wisdom and the words of healing and direction to those hungry for a breathtaking relationship with the Nazarene.
Yes, there’s something about Jesus. As someone said, “No man spoke like this man.” At this present moment, I see Jesus as an archetype of our highest self, our authentic identity, the express image of our innate humanity and divinity, and the highest expression of divine love.