Article 25:
Joshua Versus Jesus
by Wendell Krossa
(From the series "Creating A Horizontal
God", Copyright, W. Krossa)
Emerging research has revealed that Christianity has seriously distorted the life and teaching of the historical Jesus. Christianity, in forming hierarchical institutions and amassing great wealth, utterly subverts and destroys the essential meaning of the one person who more than any other decried the holding of power over others or holding on to material possessions.
The historical Jesus was actually named Joshua Ben Adam (see Robert Brinsmead in Verdict Essay 1B, "The Scandal of Joshua Ben Adam"). Early followers of Joshua found his radical sharing and egalitarianism simply too subversive to all conventional values, and his companionship with social outcasts too scandalous and embarrassing, so over subsequent centuries they recreated a more respectable version, more palatable for public consumption. Their new version was a God-man that we know today as the Christian Jesus. Making him into a god has only made it harder to challenge and change distortions to his person and teaching.
Meet once again the historical Joshua and feel again the intense scandal of his life and teaching.
The main concerns and the central focus of the life and teaching of Joshua Ben Adam are summarized very simply- liberate the poor and oppressed (Albert Nolan in Jesus Before Christianity, p. 45). Joshua was referring to poverty and powerlessness- the two great curses of human existence and society. His response to these social conditions went to the root of the matter and struck at the heart of humanity and inhumanity, good and evil. But his response also opened the way for all of us to discover true human freedom and existence. It was a way to genuine human happiness. If people would respond to what he said, then they would experience life in God's society (kingdom). They would know true humanity with all its liberating, exhilarating festivity.
What did he urge in response to poverty and powerlessness?
Give or share all you have and do not dominate or control anyone. Do not aspire to any position of power or control of resources which allows you to lord over others. Serve instead. Don't amass assets and investments. Give what you have to the needy. This is the essence of being human. This is the society God wants. This is love.
Listen to some of Joshua's blunt statements on giving and serving. Rather than just quote verses, I want to quote Albert Nolan at length for his excellent summary of Joshua's basic teaching. The first section of Nolan quotes deals with Joshua's teaching on possessions.
"The most astounding statement about the kingdom of God is not that it was near but that it would be the kingdom of the poor and that the rich, as long as they remain rich, would have no part in it (Luke 6:20-26). It is as impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God as it is for a camel to be threaded through the eye of a needle... In other words it would take a miracle to get a rich man into the kingdom of God. And the miracle would not be getting him in with all his wealth, the miracle would be getting him to give up all his wealth so that he could enter the kingdom of the poor" (Albert Nolan, Jesus Before Christianity, p.50).
Note: No compromise is possible on this basic issue of giving up wealth in order to live as truly human. And entering God's kingdom is not an issue of future entrance into some heavenly place, it is an issue of living as a truly human person now in this life.
"It follows that setting one's heart on the kingdom of God and subscribing to its values entails selling all one's possessions (Matthew 6:19-21, Luke 12:33-34). Jesus expected his followers to leave everything... He warns them of the need to sit down and count the cost first... Something more than mere almsgiving is being demanded here. Jesus is asking for a total and general sharing of all material possessions. He tried to educate the people to a detachment and carefreeness about money and possessions" (Ibid, p.51).
Nolan says in regard to the early Christian movement, that they sold their goods and possessions and owned everything in common. They shared gladly and generously according to what each needed. However, they probably kept personal things such as their own clothes, bedding, cooking utensils, houses and furniture. What they sold were extra houses that were rented out to others. In other words, says Nolan, they sold their real estate, their capital and investments. These were the surplus, the extras they really did not need. "This then is what selling all one's possessions means- giving up the surplus and treating nothing as your own. The result will always be that 'none of their members was ever in want'" (Ibid, p.52).
"Jesus... fought possessiveness and encouraged people to be unconcerned about wealth and to share their material possessions. But this was only possible in community. Jesus dared hope for a kingdom or world-wide community which would be so structured that there would be no poor and no rich" (Ibid, p.53).
The second section of quotes deals with Joshua's teaching regarding prestige.
"The dominant value (of society is) prestige... The society (of Jesus' time) was so structured that everyone had a place on the social ladder... Status and prestige were based upon ancestry, wealth, authority, education, and virtue. They were signified and maintained by the way you dressed and were addressed, by whom you entertained socially and who invited you to their table and by where you were placed at a banquet or where you sat in the synagogue... Jesus roundly contradicted all this. He saw it as one of the fundamental structures of evil in the world and he dared hope for a kingdom in which such distinctions would have no meaning" (Ibid, p.54).
"Anyone may enter (the kingdom of God) if he is willing to change and become like (a little child)... he must make himself last of all and servant of all (Matt. 9:35). This means in effect that one must give up all concern about any kind of status and prestige just as one must give up all concern about money and possessions. And just as one must be willing to sell all one's possessions, so one must be willing to take the last place in society- more than that, one must be willing to be everybody's servant... Jesus' love... was an indication that what he valued was humanity not status and prestige. The poor and the oppressed had nothing to recommend them except their humanity..."(Ibid, p.57)."Those who humble themselves will be exalted is not a promise of future prestige... it is the promise that they will no longer be treated as inferior but will receive full recognition as being human beings. Just as the poor are not promised wealth but the full satisfaction of their needs- no one shall be in want: so the little ones are not promised status and prestige but the full recognition of their dignity as human beings. To achieve this a total and radical restructuring of society would be required" (Ibid, p.57-58).
Joshua wanted an entirely new society or social order, one that was human.
"The last difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan concerns power. Society and power are inseparable... The issue of power and the structures of power (who has the power over whom and who can decide what for whom) is what we today call politics" (Ibid, p.68).
"The coming of God's kingdom also means the coming of God's political power. Jesus prophesied that the divine political power would be in the hands of the poor and the little ones... The whole idea is that there is going to be a reversal of fortunes. The rich and mighty are going to be brought down low and the poor are going to be raised up high...This does not mean that in the power structure of the kingdom of God the oppressor and the oppressed are simply going to change places and therefore continue the oppression. Power in the kingdom of God will be totally different from power as it is exercised in the kingdom of Satan"(Ibid, p.69).
"The power of Satan is the power of domination and oppression, the power of God is the power of service and freedom... All the kingdoms and nations of this present world are governed by the power of domination and force. The structure of the kingdom of God will be determined by the power of the spontaneous loving service which people render to one another" (Ibid, p.69).
"This is how Jesus expressed it: 'You know that among the pagans their so-called rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No, anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the son of man did not come to be served but to serve'" (Ibid, p.69).
"There is no mistaking the two quite different ways in which power and authority are understood and exercised. It is the difference between domination and service. The power of this new society is not a power which has to be served, a power before which a man must bow down and cringe. It is the power which has an enormous influence in the lives of men by being of service to them. It is the power which is so unselfish that it will serve men even by dying for them" (Ibid, p.69).
In serving others, we influence by inspiring example. There is no coercion, threat, or force of any kind in living as an example.
Building To Protect Ourselves From Humanity
Christians, and humanity in general, have always watered this radical teaching down. A zealously literalistic tradition, Christianity, suddenly flip flops and turns amazingly interpretive on these basic teachings of Joshua with their clearly literal meaning. They can not mean what they appear to say, Christians claim. If they do, then it is too shocking and too radical. We all make these defensive disclaimers because such radical giving and equality strikes at our deepest fears of possible loss, insecurity, and powerlessness.
We have over the millennia of human civilization built states, ideologies, and organizations that protect privilege, power, and possessions. All our ideologies, institutions, and systems of law have been developed to protect our material security, benefits, and the power and prestige these give us over others. Civilization is a huge edifice we have built which makes us so proud.
But lingering in the background we still have doubts about it. The doubting is our essential humanity telling us there is something inhuman and wrong about it all. Our selfish insistence on clinging to possessions, prestige, and power has led to historically unprecedented levels of depression, unhappiness, community and family breakup, war, poverty, and myriad other social pathologies. Why? Quite simply because the structures and ideologies that we have built, keep us from becoming truly free and human. They keep us from relating to one another in a truly human manner. In these massive systems we have created and built, we have enslaved ourselves to an animal-like existence and not a truly human existence. The values we have enshrined in our structures- success, prosperity, amassing resources, gaining positions of prestige and power- all violate our humanity and in our more honest moments we know it to be true.
Humanity or being truly human is to share, love, give, serve, and cooperate as equals in community. Being human is to live as an equal with all others. And it means a radical equality. True humanity is often the very opposite of what we have built and admire in traditional human society.
The ideologies we have created for the most part base their view of humanity on animal existence and reality. These ideologies view people as competitive, dominating, fighting each other for resources, opportunities and advantages. This has led to all sorts of pathologies as it subverts and destroys people's essential humanity.
With these distorted views of humanity as animal-like, we then create institutions to support the brutal forms of relating that emerge with such beliefs. Consequently, most modern organizations function according to competitive efficiency which is the dominant ethic in modern societies. Organizational law and practices all support the brutal competitiveness that encourages people to climb over each other to get ahead, to gain more benefits and advantages, or power. The inevitable result of such inhuman scrabbling is that multiple billions suffer while the relative minority benefit. Note the devastating consequence of competitive efficiency in that hundreds of millions are cast aside (unemployed) as workforces are cut to make the advantaged few more competitive and prosperous.
The historical consequence of the economic systems and institutions we have created has been that few win, most lose. The aggressive few have taken control of most resources, benefits, and opportunities on earth. Consequently, the vast majority of humanity has become disenfranchised in the lower strata of modern hierarchical existence and suffers the devastating effects of that powerless existence.
As evidence that the few win while the majority lose, note that the world's 400 billionaires now own more wealth and resources than the bottom 50% of the world's population. In contrast to this wealthy minority, 1.3 billion people earn less than $1 a day. Another 2 billion live in conditions described as inhuman. Three quarters of the earth's population earn on average $1000 a year. Somewhere between 10 to 14 million children under 5 years of age die every year for want of pennies worth of medicine. 150 million people live on the streets of the world's cities.
It is a wonderful civilization we have created, isn't it.
Joshua Subverting Civilized Economy
Joshua Ben Adam was disgusted with the intense selfishness of human civilization and society and his response cuts to the heart of this mess humanity has created for itself. To amass wealth and thereby dominate others is to live in the society of Satan, he said. It is inhumanity at its worst. That is a strong condemnation. Those are strong and offensive words, but maybe we need the kick in the pants that it gives us. No wonder successful, middle-class and religious people hated Joshua so much. No one, especially respectable religious people, wanted to be made to feel that by amassing wealth and power they were acting inhumanely and living as members of the society of Satan. But Joshua uncompromisingly condemned their established and selfishly secure order of things. He understood the need for a radical and total restructuring of human society.
(Note: we use the term Satan understanding it was part of the mythology of the time and it was a term that expressed the very worst that could be said of someone)
And throwing scraps of our assets and income at the poor does not solve anything. It only humiliates and embitters those powerless receivers of the fickle generosity of others. Being at the mercy of others is degrading and dehumanizing. In being dependent receivers there is no ability for the poor or powerless to responsibly look after themselves and gain the dignity that such independence brings. That is why welfare and aid programs do not solve the problem of poverty and powerlessness. They only continue the humiliating powerlessness of poverty. Personal control over livelihood resources and over one's destiny is essential for human freedom and well-being.
Joshua knew this and that is why his response was so far ahead of his time. He did not just want to give to the poor, he wanted to set them free and to empower them. He did not want anyone to dominate any other person. In the truly human society he envisaged, all people were to share all things and thereby live as truly free equals. All were to have equal access to resources for livelihood and thereby have personal control over their lives and destinies. This means bottomup control over the decision making processes that govern resource use. Nothing less will do for truly human existence and well-being.
This personal control is what Joshua meant when he argued for the liberation of the poor and oppressed. Every human being deserves as a natural birthright the access to resources sufficient for basic livelihood. Every person deserves enough resources to look after themselves. And there are enough resources on earth to do this. It all comes down to the affluent one billion people (mainly in Northern or Western nations) cutting back consumption and sharing resources more equally.
Joshua Subverting Religious Oppression
But liberation must also go further than just physical or economic issues. The poor and oppressed, and everyone else for that matter, must be freed from any idea that oppresses, humiliates or causes fear and stress. People must be set free, utterly free, especially from religious ideas that allow some to dominate others and cause so much misery and suffering. (We stress this issue of religious ideas because religious beliefs have always been at the heart of most other social ideas and ideologies, and religious beliefs have long provided support for other social ideas).
This means that religious ideas of punishing gods who reject, abandon and threaten people must be cast out (see Brinsmead essay "No Atonement"). Far too long such ideas have been used to dominate and control the minds of others. These brutal ideas of God have been used by religious powerholders to call oppressed people to come and submit to their religious belief systems, perform their rituals, give money to build their little religious kingdoms, in short- sell their souls to the shameful manipulation of these groups in the hope of finding forgiveness and relief. And guilty, lonely, fearful people will join anything and do anything to find relief. Especially if they are promised forgiveness and a part in God's family with God's favor and all the special privileges of an elect group. These brutal beliefs have far too long been used as tools to enslave, control and conform human beings.
The liberating news Joshua brought the poor and oppressed was that God had never left them. We now know there never was a Fall. It was a myth. God has never been angry with anyone. He never rejected anyone nor did he move up and away from anyone (Read Michael Morwood's excellent book on this- "Tommorrow's Catholic"). Also, he has never wanted to punish anyone. He never wanted anyone's blood to appease his supposed anger. There is therefore no need to obey the religious call to repent and be saved (meaning as it most often does- come change and join our group).
God is here, holding all in existence. He has always been present, sustaining all. We just did not realize it. There is no special knowledge or insight required to know this God. There is no particular belief system or system of law to submit to in order to access God's presence or favor. There is no special truth, no special rituals to follow (or any other practices), no special people to submit to or learn from, and no special places or buildings to go to in order to find God.
God is in your life. God is there with you. And it is all of God, always. No one else has more of God or better experience of God. No one can mediate God to you. And this present God focuses on everyone with the same intense love and generosity.
What then is required or demanded? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. God would only inspire you and assist you to be more human. That is all. Simply love, share, and do not dominate anyone else. Try to be more like God- loving and generous. Treat all others as you would want them to treat you, as a free equal. Follow the example of true humanity that we see in the life of Joshua. These values of humanity, according to Joshua, oppose the values of this world completely (Nolan, Jesus Before Christianity, p.48).
Knowing these truths of God's presence and love should give us the courage to live free of all greed, selfishness, and the drive to dominate others. It should give us courage to live as truly human.
Fighting Freedom and Humanity With a Religious Jesus
But these teachings on sharing all and not dominating others have been called the hardest sayings of Joshua. Because of this, for millennia the so-called representatives of Jesus, Christians, have watered down and thereby rendered them meaningless. In place of this radical Joshua, Christianity created a less scandalous version called Jesus; an institutional God-man whom Christians then employ to condone possessiveness, prestige and powerholding. With their new Jesus, Christians created institutions that amassed wealth and power. But those institutions and ideologies now deny the very essence of Joshua's life and teaching. He simply can not be used to support the greed, competition, and domination that are the primary values of contemporary societies.
In using Jesus to validate contemporary consumerism and contemporary cultural values, Christians have made a mockery out of claiming to represent the historical Joshua who more than any other person in human history urged the giving up of wealth and condemned anyone holding power over any other person. They have simply created an inhuman distortion that removes the scandal and radical subversity of Joshua. In doing this, they have completely undermined the humanity of his life and teaching.
The version of Joshua that Christianity fashioned, the Christian Jesus, is now so full of contradictions that it is worthy of no respect at all. This religious institutional version enables people to escape the responsibility to become human and allows them to continue living and acting like animals. The followers of the Christian Jesus have emphasized certain features of Jesus in a manner that nullifies and renders meaningless the more difficult elements in the life and teaching of Joshua. For instance, the author of the book of Revelation speaks of a King Jesus returning to crush his enemies with an iron fist. The emphasis on this harsh justice effectively nullifies love, mercy and forgiveness. This tough punishing Jesus allows his followers to hold similarly tough, harsh attitudes to all who disagree with them and allows them to believe someday they will dominate and mercilessly crush their enemies (all who disagree with them). But this myth of a tough military Jesus completely subverts and renders meaningless Joshua's refusal to dominate or coerce, his scandalous emphasis on forgiveness of all, and also renders meaningless his teaching that we serve each other as free equals.
There can be no mixing of such contradictory things. To be human and to live in God's society, you must become human- giving, sharing, owning nothing and holding power over no one. Any society where some suffer powerlessness and others dominate with more than they need, is not human; it is inhuman and satanic, according to Joshua. The historical Joshua would condemn the Christian Jesus as inhuman and a satanic distortion of God.
The radical sharing Joshua taught eliminates all need, status, and power relationships. With such radical sharing there is enough for all. Even moreso, with such radical sharing the few no longer have power over others. More wealth for some has always resulted in their having power over others, as they control the resources others need for livelihood. It has always been true that owners have power and workers are at the mercy of the owners of resources. Powerless workers can be laid off or fired any time they are considered as making a company noncompetitive. It is a degrading and dehumanizing powerlessness over the most critical things in life.
Owners and other holders of wealth, privilege and power not only dehumanize those who suffer under their domination, but they dehumanize themselves also. Owning more resources than you need for survival has only led to a perversion and destruction of the humanity of the people who do so (David Kipnis, The Powerholders). It has led to numerous social pathologies- unhappiness, conflict, domination of the weak, alienation from essential humanity, fear and worry of loss, and depression, among other things.
In giving up ownership of resources and wealth, not only are the poor liberated, but so are the owners of wealth. Sharing humanizes everyone who practices it. It leads to incredible release and freedom. In giving all, people discover true humanity and the freedom of spirit that comes with being truly human. It is a freedom from debasing animal drives of competition, fear, domination, and worry. People who share all and refuse to dominate others find themselves as truly human and truly free. It is true, as Joshua said, that in losing your life you really find it. In giving up the dehumanizing lifestyle based on competition, amassing goods, dominating others, seeking prestige, people will find true life as being human. Greed, selfishness, and possessiveness only keep us from being truly human and they keep God's society from being experienced among us.
Unfortunately, for most people, the fear of loss is too overwhelming and they retreat fearfully back to the slavery of a possessive, dominating lifestyle. The fear of becoming truly human is too much for most people. It is simply a freedom that is too frightening. It is easier to retreat back to an animal-like existence- competing, possessing, and dominating others.
Does the vision of God's truly human society sound hopelessly utopian? If that is your response, then it is easy to dismiss Joshua's teaching as airy fairy or lunatic fringe. But no, it is not. It is a social order that is simply human. And as such, it stands in stark opposition to the current inhuman mess we have created to enslave ourselves with. There is simply no other option to God's vision for a human society if you want to be truly and fully human.
Fortunately, there have always been those brave few who, irregardless of the personal cost, want to live as truly human. They want to know freedom and humanity. In doing so, they find the human life they are looking for. They find the society of God. And they inspire others to move toward the same truly human existence.
This teaching of Joshua goes to the heart of the problems undermining human existence on earth today. The greed and selfishness expressed in modern competitive consumerism, and the pursuit of power and prestige expressed in climbing social ladders and organizational power positions- these are the predominant goals and values in modern societies. But these values and practices have destroyed the possibility for true human existence and relating.
The pursuit of such inhuman goals exposes us as living in the society of Satan, according to Joshua. In embracing such values we express little if anything of true human love. We sometimes carefully tinker around the edges of giving and power sharing, but for the most part we support the structures of greed and oppression that keep the fortunate few of us (mainly in Western societies) comfortable. We don't want any radical types to upset the systems that maintain our prosperity, even though such systems contribute to the misery of billions elsewhere in the world.
We are even hearing less often today of the former commitment to free and equal societies once considered primary social values. Competition, possessiveness, position, prestige, and power have now moved unchallenged to the fore as our primary social values embodied in the ideology of free market capitalism. There is some ongoing, but halfhearted, effort to try to mix these values of aggressive self-interest with freedom and equality, but it can not be done. They are mutually exclusive realities.
If we are ever going to find freedom and humanity then we need to once again meet the historical Joshua and heed his teaching on possessions, prestige, and power. Joshua did not encourage anyone to focus on personal salvation or personal spirituality. Neither was he interested in the least in institutional religion or religion of any kind for that matter. His entire life and teaching focused on a movement for the total liberation of the poor and oppressed. Joshua is no Christian Jesus.
From the series "Taking the Vertical Out of God" by W.
Krossa.
Copyrighted material.
