I am a spiritual archeologist, a philosopher per se, who has spent countless hours digging for truth, thinking, searching, asking, pondering, and thinking some more. I recently wrote a book entitled, Let’s Talk About Jesus…The Real Jesus by Denise A. Wood.
In the book, I show who Jesus really is. He was a spiritual teacher who was murdered by the religious leaders of first century Jewish Palestine. The life and death of Jesus exemplifies the stark contrast between the spiritual and the religious.
In our modern world, the terms spirituality and religion are often used interchangeably, and it is a popular belief that religion is the pathway to God.
What I’ve discovered, actually, is the opposite.
The mission of Jesus was to teach us the difference between spirituality and religion. Isaiah 42:1 says it beautifully as to who Jesus truly was.
This is my servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one, in whom I delight. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall teach the true way to the nations. (Hebrew Bible/JPS version)
Jesus was a spiritual teacher much like Buddha. They both spoke about a path to a higher spiritual place. They both used metaphors in their teachings. I don’t consider Buddhism to be a religion. Rather, it a personal commitment by an individual to follow the spiritual teachings of Buddha.
The teachings of Jesus were similar, yet very different from Buddha. The emphasis of Jesus was that he knew God and that he could teach others how to connect like he did. That was the message that he so desperately tried to get through to the religious leaders. Jesus knew the way, and it was NOT through religion. The mission of Jesus was to redeem us from religion, and he used the story of Abraham to make his point. Jesus said that Abraham is seated in the kingdom of God. Why?
In order to understand why Jesus would say that Abraham had achieved entry into the spiritual state of which Jesus was teaching, we need to go back to where it all began.
In a previous post entitled, Defining God, I talk about how our concept of God was formed six thousand years ago in Mesopotamia. During that era, humans began building massive temples to honor a pantheon of deities with the oldest being Anu, the sky god.
Mesopotamian deities are often depicted as old men with long beards seated on thrones, and it was believed that these deities required blood sacrifice. We know this because archeologists have unearthed images of their gods carved on plaques as well as their stories, written in cuneiform on clay tablets.
Mesopotamia was a religiously saturated civilization full of temples, priests, and blood sacrifice. Religion was the dominant feature of their culture, and Abraham walked away from it.
Abraham heard the spiritual voice of God and followed instructions to leave that culture behind. Abraham walked away from religion, and during the remainder of his life, as chronicled in the book of Genesis, he never did practice a religion. Abraham simply talked with God and believed what he heard when God spoke to him. The life of Abraham exemplifies the contrast between religious and spiritual.
The notion of the old man in the sky doling out punishment to all who step out of line was brought forward by the Judeo-Christian religions, and this idea is forever seared into the psyche of most humans on our planet. I call this the Meso-Judeo-Christian effect.
People see God the way they’ve been taught, and this teaching comes from Mesopotamia, the place, ironically, that Abraham was supposed to leave behind.
So, because of the Meso-Judeo-Christian influence, not only was the concept of a sky god brought forward, but other features of their religion as well. The most striking commonality of Mesopotamian religion and the Judeo-Christian religions is the fundamental belief that a deity requires a blood sacrifice to atone for the imperfections of man.
Fundamental Christianity has blanketed the world with “their gospel” which claims that Jesus was used as a human sacrifice by God for the sins of mankind. Furthermore, people of the world have been threatened with a horrible day of painful punishment for all who reject the Christian message.
This type of religiousness is the very same spirit that Jesus opposed two thousand years ago. The Evangelical Christian crusade is a perfect example of people who embrace religion and are void of spirituality. They embrace hatred and a sadistic mindset, which are pillars of their religion, the very principles that Jesus opposed.
Spirituality, on the other hand, is manifested by the fruits that Jesus displayed: seeking a higher spiritual existence, loyalty, dedication, kindness, peace, and a refreshing compassion for humanity.
These are the differences between spirituality and religion, and the life and death of Jesus shows us that the connection to God is not found through the Meso-Judeo-Christian pathway.
Bravo!!!
Thank you!!