If you consider Jesus’s politics, this much is clear: he was a communist or an anarchist. He said, “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and give God what is God’s.” Since he taught that everything is God’s, that leaves nothing for Caesar except the coins with Caesar’s face on them.
And this is what Jesus said about money:“You can’t serve both God and Money.” *
Jesus’s way demands democracy—how can you love your neighbor as yourself if you don’t let your neighbor have as much influence as you? If all are brothers and sisters, if no one is to be called father or master, then we must have equal voices in every decision.
His way demands religious freedom, as the story of the Good Samaritan shows. The religious people of Judea hated Samaritans because they rejected the authority of the Jerusalem Temple and the holidays that Persianized Jews brought to Jerusalem under Ezra. Yet Jesus taught that someone who did not follow his way was as good as the best of us.
His way demands liberty. Search his words, and you find few restrictions. His saying, “The sabbath was made for people, not people for the sabbath” says that sacred texts should be interpreted by individuals, not priests. He never said a word about who or how you should love—monogamy came from the Romans, not the Christians. He only said you should not abandon a person you’ve made a commitment to.
His harshest words are aimed at two groups, the hypocrites and the rich, the people who seek to exploit others.
His greatest command is to love God and every person.
He teaches that truth—the realm of heaven, the embrace of God—is in us all. We only need to recognize it.
* Matthew 6:24. Wycliffe, who first translated the gospels, renders it as, “Ye be not able to serve God and riches.” The Geneva Bible kept that translation. King James really hated any suggestion that kings and the rich aren’t wonderful, so his translators obscured the meaning: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” This led many people to think that Mammon was a god of the Canaanites, but the word simply comes from the Aramaic for “wealth” or “money.”
