In this season when people around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, when songs, videos and movies extolling peace and love are widely seen and heard, it would be a truly wonderful thing if the deeper truth about who this man became was more widely understood.
I remember once commenting in a Bible discussion group I was in decades ago that one of the things I noticed as we read and discussed the New Testament book of Mark was Jesus’ organizational leadership. He was more than a great prophet, teacher and healer. He was also all about developing the leadership skills of his band of followers, helping them grow in their understanding of and commitment to the need for truly revolutionary change of the kind that he called for in the Sermon on the Mount. He prepared and then sent them out to emulate what he had been doing as far as traveling and speaking and healing, to reach more people and build a stronger movement for change.
Karl Kautsky, a leading European socialist in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, put it this way:
“Jesus was not merely a rebel, he was the founder of an organization which survived him and continued to increase in numbers and strength. It was the organization of the congregation that served as a bond to hold together Jesus’ adherents after his death, and as a means of keeping alive the memory of their crucified champion. It was not the faith in the resurrection which created the Christian congregation and gave it its strength but, on the contrary, it was the vigor and strength of the congregation that created the belief in the continued life of the Messiah.” (1)
What was it about these early Christian congregations 2,000 years ago which attracted growing numbers of people to them? Kautsky put it this way: Christianity “aimed to achieve a [small c] communistic organization. We read in the Acts of the Apostles: ‘And all that believed were together and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need. Grace was among them, because none suffered lack, for the reason that they gave so generously that none remained poor.” (2)
For much of organized religion, this fact about how early Christianity was organized, right there in the book of Acts, is like hidden history. I don’t remember this aspect of Christian history ever being spoken about by Sunday School teachers or ministers up there in the pulpit. It’s not that there weren’t valuable life lessons that I absorbed from my Christian upbringing; for me there were. But as is still true today for much of organized Christianity, it’s like a cap has been put on how much of what Jesus was truly about is taught.
The world today desperately needs Jesus of Nazareth’s revolutionary spirit, example and teachings. Jesus interacted with women as equals and broke societal norms by including them in his team of apostles. His Good Samaritan story challenged the discriminatory hostility of his own people toward Samaritans, similar to today’s hostility by some toward immigrants, Black, Brown and Indigenous people, Muslims and “others.” He put into practice the revolutionary idea of “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” He opposed violence, militarism and war, calling upon us to “do unto others as we would have done unto us.” He was willing to die for these beliefs.
It is for all of these reasons that, 2000 years after his death, Jesus’ spirit continues to live on in the hearts and minds of people worldwide.
Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution. More info can be found at https://tedglick.com.
1 — Karl Kautsky, Foundations of Christianity: A Study in Christian Origins. Monthly Review Press, pps. 376–378
2 — Kautsky, pps. 331–332
