BOOKS, LOOKS AND KOOKS

I was surfing the radio dial the other night at work and ending up first listening to a preacher who was rambling about how you weren’t really a Christian unless you tithed. He was basically implying you were saved unless you gave. That isn’t what my scripture says is the basis of salvation. My bible says that accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior was necessary to being saved. God did include that I had to show him my pocket book first before he would decide if I could go to heaven.

Anyway, for me it was yet another example of how often someone who is in a position of authority in a church has the occasion to dispense their own prejudices and claim it is gospel. Is it any wonder when this happens constantly that non-believers raise an eyebrow in terms of questioning whether everything else the church claims is truth?

Later I had the occasion to listen to a group of what I assumed where men with a long list of degrees behind their name discussing the latest fantasy to hit the movie screen, The DaVinci Code. It was obvious from their comments that they definitely weren’t Christians.

They ended up moving from that discussion to talking about the life of Jesus. Naturally, even though their ideas were for me something out of the Twilight Zone, they never admitting what they said was pure speculation.

Among their gems of thought was the assertion that Jesus was married. They made reference to the time Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus feet. In the scriptures Jesus makes it very clear that her act was one of preparing him for his funeral. It was a reference to his awareness of his impending death.

Now this “scholar” tried to claim that this act follow a custom for a Hebrew wedding. Naturally he didn’t bother to mention what Jesus said because it would have negated his interpretation. It was his need to try and prove that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.

I find that point of view utterly ridiculous myself. Of course to me I see Jesus as my Lord and Savior and also as God. From that point, even though he was also fully human I have no reason to even wonder why God from heaven would come to earth and take a human form and then marry a mortal. Even if he did marry, couldn’t he have done a little better than to have married a prostitute? I kind of think Jesus would have been that hard pressed for a date he had to settle for a woman the scriptures clearly indicate was a woman of less that a pious lifestyle. To me the very idea is just utterly stupid.

However I do appreciate that once you regret Jesus as Lord and Savior you can pretty much believe whatever you want of him. And if somehow in your mind he would have need to get lucky with a wild woman then I guess you are entitled to your opinion. Personally, I don’t think I would want to stand in front of my Lord in eternity where I shall see him clearly as the creator of all life and the all powerful Lord of everything and try to defend why I said he married a prostitute. I don’t think that will be the kind of comment that will earn one the remark from the Lord, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”