If Jesus Were Alive Today 2 It is possible, even likely that Jesus, if he were alive in the flesh today would be looked upon, at least by those with limited vision (on both the left and the right), as stone-cold crazy. As just another off his meds wild-eyed mystic in need of therapeutic intervention. An escapee from the psych ward more suited for hospital gown and slippers than desert robe and sandals. After all, in an insane world, sanity is the province of the loon. That as a Middle-Easterner he would end up on the no-fly list, a suspected terrorist bent on employing social media for the purpose of radicalizing his disciples. Most importantly, if Jesus were alive in the flesh today, I expect there is a better than even chance no one would bother to listen to him in the first place. As it is said, “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed…” Matthew 13:9… Can you think of a better description for individuals who are deaf to the sound of children at the border kidnapped from their parents and locked in cages; who believe a plague which has already killed more than a quarter million people in this country alone, is a hoax or a partisan conspiracy; who think the vaccine is a Microsoft plot to enslave the masses; that the election is a fraud; that a free press is the enemy of the people and Donald Trump is the best thing that’s happened to black folk since Abraham Lincoln? Or that a cabal of Satan worshipping liberal Democrats and Hollywood celebrities who aspire to world domination, operate an international child sex ring that includes drinking the blood they harvest from their victims? “Gross” indeed. A people like the people Mathew describes are no more likely to recognize the “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” than the ancient multitudes who gathered on the shore where Jesus preached his parables and sayings. And speaking of dull ears and closed eyes, on the question of whether Jesus would be a liberal or a conservative, a political blogger I know said to me the following “In regards to truth He is a conservative. In regards to Manmade junk He is a liberal.” If you invert the statement quoted above it appears to claim that in so far as Jesus reflected or advocated the “conservative” point of view, he spoke or embodied the “truth,” (the Absolute and Eternal Word of God) while in so far as he supported or advocated ideas or values identified by the man as “liberal,” he was an exponent of “Manmade” and therefore ephemeral “junk.” This is just ignorant, divisive trash talk. “Junk” indeed. I am not an apologist for Jesus. I’m not on a mission to spread his word (some of which I disagree with – the whole “turn the other cheek” thing goes too far in my opinion) … But because of the way, as evidenced for example by the individual quoted above, I believe Jesus (not to mention the faith perspective in general) has been largely hijacked by the conservative movement, I feel compelled to offer an alternative opinion. “… Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Matthew 25:40 This is a powerful statement of sheer empathy if ever there was one, and empathy, while perhaps not intrinsically one “wing” or the other is, at least in the waning days of 2020, in this country and in this political moment, not a trait I associate with the values, proponents or polices of the right. A person who cares about the “least of these,” whomever they may be is not a person who would turn away the refugee, cut taxes for the rich, or as I suggest in my opening declaration, do whatever they can to keep people of color “in their place.”