Deepak Chopra: Is Jesus Coming Back?

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Deepak Chopra: Is Jesus Coming Back?

Posted December 2, 2005

 

Taking the Bible literally makes no sense to moderate and liberal

Christians, and one of the most urgent tenets of literalism, that

Jesus will soon return to Earth to render judgment and save the

righteous, seems like a fantasy. Secular society has no need for

Jesus to return. It leaves each citizen to privately choose a

religion, or to not choose one, and all other matters fall outside

the realm of faith.

 

So it came as a shock to secular society when millions of people

couldn't take their minds off the return of Jesus, so much so that

Judgment Day colors everything else they think about--family,

relationships, morals, business, politics. Speaking for myself, I

came to terms with this issue in the following way:

 

We are indeed waiting for the return of Jesus, and in this " we " I

include those non-Christians who want to live in a tolerant,

compassionate relationship with everyone. But if Jesus returns, there

are three choices of who he will be.

 

The first Jesus was historical, a rabbi living in first-century

Palestine whose life profoundly changed religious belief in the West.

The second Jesus is the core of a religion, which has its particular

dogmas, rituals, priests, churches, and scriptures. These two Jesuses

are undeniably real, but the second one--the Jesus of organized

religion--has been subject to human whim and change. Right now, if

you are not a fundamentalist, he seems to have been hijacked in the

service of intolerance, bigotry, and war. A religion that began in

the name of love has reached almost its exact opposite--not for the

first time, of course.

 

The third Jesus is not rigidly sectarian. He falls into the world

tradition of spirituality. This Jesus speaks for peace and love; his

morality includes all peoples; his Father is a universal deity. I was

well acquainted with the third Jesus as a child in India. I could

love and revere him. It never occurred to me that he would ever

become an enemy. This Jesus doesn't speak of non-Christians as

pagans. He raises human nature to its highest ideal, along with the

saints and sages who have guided humanity for centuries.

 

I don't think that well-intentioned fundamentalists mean to pervert

the third Jesus; I suspect they've never heard of him. He has one

great disadvantage, however. You can't own him. You can't say " he's

all mine and nobody else's. " The third Jesus won't work if you need

to justify a war, if you need evil enemies, or you want to

brand " them " as godless.

 

Sadly, many fundamentalists need Jesus for all these purposes. So the

third Jesus might not return to them, but if Christianity is to

survive among moderate and liberal believers, who used to be the

mainstream of the religion, won't it take the return of the third

Jesus? The first one is long deceased, the second has fallen prey to

politics and narrow-mindedness. What alternative is there? Loss of

faith and a slide into deeper and deeper meaninglessness. that would

be a terrible fate for all of us, not just the Christians.

 

Deepak Chopra