Following Jesus is not about studying or memorizing Bible passages or arguing verses with other believers. As Frank Viola argues, the Kingdom of God is the reigning presence of Jesus. Jesus’ person and way of living is the "good news." Jesus’ life is the salvation plan. So what does it mean to embody the life-giving presence of Jesus? It means to embody the mind of Christ and enact his Way and to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth.
Jesus was an Exorcist and a Healer:
Jesus went around doing good according to Paul. At a time when disease and mental illness was understood as "demon possession" by the devil and his minions, Jesus acted as a first century psychologist, if you will, relieving the mentally ill:
Acts 10: 38 (ERV) has Peter saying, "You know about Jesus from Nazareth. God made him the Messiah by giving him the Holy Spirit and power. Jesus went everywhere doing good for people. He healed those who were ruled by the devil, showing that God was with him."
In his book, Spirit Possession and the Origins of Christianity, Steven Davies argues that Jesus was believed to be possessed by God's Spirit, and in anthropological terms, it was through this altered state of consciousnesses, that he acted with authority (that is he gained respect as a holy man); and those who believed they were demon possessed believed they could be healed by Jesus because he was God's Spirit-possessed mediator in the world; this led his followers to believe that he acted out the Reign of God by possessing God's Spirit and creating goodness and healing in a world of harm, disease, and decay.
The Reign of the devil was understood as death, disease, mental illness, religious fakery and government corruption along the vice-driven path. What was really "satanic" was the religious fakers using legalistic religion to get gain, as well as Rome's oppression of the Jews. Jesus' reigning presence was the healing of disease and other ailments, and the virtue-driven path of authentic spirituality, and a way or path to be delivered from Roman oppression through non-violent resistance.
Paul also says, according to Acts 20:35 (AMP): "In everything I showed you [by example] that by working hard in this way you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He Himself said, ‘It is more blessed [and brings greater joy] to give than to receive.’”
So Jesus went about doing good and proclaiming that one gets greater joy by giving rather than always seeking one's own gain. This alone, to me, is something worth liking and respecting about Jesus.
Jesus was a Barrier Breaker
In his article, Jesus–the Barrier Breaker (2015), Brian Chilton gives three examples of how Jesus broke down barriers: first he broke down ethnic barriers, then religious barriers, and gender barriers, all in the Gospel of John chapter 4!
In the article, What Jesus Did! 'A Barrier Breaker' — John 4:7-9
(2018), we read:
Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Please give me a drink." He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food. The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans.
— John 4:7-9 NLT
Asking for a drink doesn't seem like a big deal. In this case, however, it is a huge deal! Jesus is a Jew. Jews considered Samaritans unworthy and unclean cousins. Jews felt that even simple interactions with a Samaritan would defile them. Jesus is a Rabbi, a male teacher of Israel. A "real" Rabbi didn't talk publicly with any women in Jesus' day. But this woman was seeking. This woman was alone. This woman was thirsty for living water. This woman needed Jesus. Jesus let nothing stand in his way of reaching her. Jesus is always a barrier breaker. Are we?
End Quote
Many biblical scholars have pointed out that a key feature of Jesus' gospel, his "good new," was the Reign of God is here and now; and God's reign was like unto an open table fellowship where all are welcome to dine as one; and in fact some people you wouldn't think would be invited to God's Divine Dinner Party will be. Jesus told parables about the pious not entering God's Holy Banquet but the impious who have a repentant heart are. Jesus mirrored his teachings by acting in ways contrary to how a religious person is supposed to act. He did not huddle into a corner with other righteous persons, but mingled with the unrighteous, the "sinners," etc. He came to heal and persuade and encourage repentance, meaning to turn back to God's path.
As we will see below, Jesus was into hanging out and partying with those considered low on the social totem pole.
For more information see the links below:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/uncommongodcommongood/2014/04/jesus-open-posture-and-the-open-table/
https://concept.journals.villanova.edu/article/viewFile/297/260
http://nagasawafamily.org/luke-theme-table-fellowship-guide.pdf
Jesus Enjoyed Life, liked to Party, and Role-Modeled the Abundant Life
One person writes:
"Whenever Jesus wasn't preaching or teaching you'd find Him at a party. It might be at a tax collector's or at a Pharisee's home (religious leader). The guests might include power men in the community or the riffraff. What seemed to bother the stuffy, "religious" types wasn't that Jesus went to parties, but that He seemed to enjoy Himself too much. That, I believe, is why they called Him a glutton and winebibber.
It was at just such a party that Jesus performed His first miracle. The occasion was a wedding banquet. Tradition tells us it was the disciple John's wedding and that makes sense since Mary (who was the cousin of John's mother) seems to feel some sort of responsibility to the guests and since John has inside knowledge of events that took place at the party, which no one else seems to be aware of. The miracle was the turning of water into wine, some four hundred gallons of it!
I've heard many theological explanations about that first miracle. "Jesus simply speeded up a natural process because, of course, in nature grapevines take water and turn them into wine," some say. "All miracles are really just nature speeded up." Such explanations miss the point, I think. The point is that running out of wine is the surest way of bringing a party to a grinding halt, and Jesus' provision allowed the party to go on.
From Michael Card's, "Immanuel, Reflections of the Life of Christ." Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN. Copyright 1990. [Source:http://www.jesuscentral.com/ji/life-of-jesus-modern/jesus-party-goer.php]
For more on this see the links below:
http://davidwarkentin.blogspot.com/2012/03/jesus-loved-to-party.html
https://www.christianforums.com/threads/did-jesus-like-to-party.7402017/
https://www.christianitytoday.com/behemoth/2015/issue-13/jesus-on-greatest-party-ever.html
https://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/partying-with-jesus
Jesus’ sexual ethics are not what you think
According to the Bible Project the reason why Jesus was so strict about marriage and divorce was actually to protect women.
Jesus Talked about "Hell" as National Judgement on Israel in 70 AD:
When the Bible Jesus talks about hell (literally Gehenna) that word hell is a bad translation (used by most Bible translations). According to many scholars he was talking about gehenna, an actual physical place in Jerusalem, inferring a future event on earth: the horrible death of millions of his Jewish Countryman in 70 AD during the Roman Jewish War.
So just as Dr. Paul Dobransky MD has an Anxiety and Anger Map, and shows how destructive decisions will lead you down the destructive path. In the Gospels, the Jesus figure is warning his fellow Jewish countrymen that if thy don't repent (meaning to turn away and turn back from the wrong path), they will end up suffering for their own unwise decisions.
Jesus directed all his anger and criticism at religious fakers (pious pretenders) and religious charlatans (what some Bible translations describe with the term "hypocrites"):
All of Jesus's anger and criticism and threats of hell (literally: Gehenna) are directed at some (not all) of his fellow Jewish countryman. He was essentially saying “Your vice-ridden destructive behavior is going to result in the tragedy of 70 AD.” He criticized them for acting "holier than thou" and pretending to be pious, that is for being religious fakes and charlatans. This criticism of some of his fellow Jews is rendered "hypocrites" by most Bible translations which I consider a bad translation; a better translation is that of David Hart who renders the more popular use of "hypocrite" into instead charlatans. The Unvarnished New Testament translates the term hypocrites in most translations as “fakes.”
For more information see the folliwng article from which I derived the above quote from scirpture, 4 Teachings of Jesus That His Followers (Almost) Never Take Seriously by Brandan Robertson https://www.huffingtonpost.com/brandan-robertson/4-teachings-of-jesus-that_b_6343320.html
To see a simplified list of Jesus’ teachings from the AENT (Aramaic English New Testament), see: http://www.onediscipletoanother.org/id4.html
