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A short excerpt from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, that can cause distinct moments of cognitive dissonance when presented to conservative Christians who oppose health care reform:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.
Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
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Since Jesus wasn’t all that concerned with the Kingdom now, but the Kingdom Beyond, and because he was concerned with the tax collectors raping the land, I doubt he would have approved of Obamacare.
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Conservative Christians don’t follow the teachings of Jesus the Christ. Neither do many non conservative ones. They follow the books of Jewish history that were written by the victors after the fact. They were written by many authors to justify slavery, killing, invading, raping, stealing of the land of others, etc. etc. Not remotely the same thing as what Jesus tried to teach. The love and caring for one another he spoke of is not followed in too many so called Christian churches. Here is an interesting commentary on Jesus’s family.
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“Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us?” (Matthew 13.54-56).
Jesus was part of an extended family. The Bible says he had brothers and sisters. Some churches try to spin that these were only cousins, or Joseph’s from a previous marriage, but Mary, Jesus’ mother, was probably not an only child. At the very least, Jesus had cousins, Aunts, and Uncles.
For the purpose of this discussion, we do not need to go into the question of whether Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had a family.
But the fact is that Jesus had kinfolk; blood relations, at least on his mother’s side.
Those kinfolk had children. Those children had children. Those children had children. And so forth.
Modern genetics testing has demonstrated that modern-day Palestinians have a direct genetic trail back to the biblical Israelites.
So here is the deal. Some of the people walking around Palestine, Gaza, and the West Bank are blood relatives of Jesus. Distant blood relatives, but still blood relatives. Given 2000 years, it is possible that the vast majority of present day Palestinians are remote relatives of Jesus.
Israel is killing them.
And YOU are paying for it, which means you share the guilt. YOU are paying for the weapons used to kill the modern day family of Jesus. The moment you sign that 1040 form, you sign a confession, admitting before all the world that you are an accessory in the murder.
Think you are going to get into heaven after an insult like that? “
http://whatreallyhappened.com/…..FAMILY.php
Yes, because Jesus was into forgiveness. Besides, the Israelites have only done what He did…try to be free from the Roman conquerer.
Actually, if I remember my gospels correctly, Jesus cautioned against fighting physically against the Romans, promising the “Kingdom of Heaven”. IIRC, that’s where the “render unto Ceasar, that which is Ceasars” came from.
Which at least implies that he was reconciled to Roman rule.
Jesus spent a good deal of time talking about both the Kingdom now and the Kingdom beyond. In fact, he insists in this passage that the two are inextricably bound to one another. Those who will taste eternal glory are the ones who are caring for the hungry, the sick, the naked, and the imprisoned in this lifetime.
I have learned how the GOP uses the Bible and God. They use/USE God as a charm in their pockets. They only pull him out when they are backed into a corner and have no bully words left. It will be a very small guage needle eye they try to pass through.