Jesus Was A Revolutionary

JESUS


Jesus was against religion!
--Rev. J. Alfred Smith,
Allen Temple, Oakland CA


Jesus was a revolutionary, a radical, a mover and shaker. Did he not shake up the world with his divine powers? He was God in man and man in God. He was a magician who did magic things with his hands: healing the sick, lame, blind, even the dead he brought back to life. What manner of man is this?

He was a revolutionary. We cannot make him otherwise. He was no chump, no nerd, no frog sitting on a lily pad: he was an activist who chased the money changers out the temple with a whip. He told the whore to go and whore no more. He asked the woman at the well, “Woman, where is your husband?” She said master, I have none. Jesus could see things coming. He knew his friend would betray him. Some friends ain’t friends. Bob Marley sang, “With my friends, I don’t need enemies.”

Jesus knew Peter was a weak sucker who would say he never knew him--denial. Peter could have walked on water like Jesus, but he lacked faith. He didn’t have the self-confidence of Jesus. Jesus had to get him out the water and throw him into the boat.
But Jesus was a man of supreme confidence. He told Mary and Martha not to moan, don’t worry about a thing, everything going to be all right. “I got it covered--go on home, Martha and Mary, see you in a couple of days. Don’t worry about Lazarus.” And he did what he said he would. Jesus was a revolutionary. You want to make him a boy scout, a sissy, a girlie man. But he was a revolutionary. He shook up the world. Things ain’t been the same since.

He wasn’t a Christian. Where and when did he say he was a Christian? He didn’t have a church. He didn’t have a religion. But he had faith in his God. He said he and his God were one, indivisible.

He knew how to turn the other cheek in a situation with thugs and other evil ones. He had enough sense to give up his coat and his cloak. He knew how to survive to fight another day. He had more sense that a lot of Negroes who refused to give up their gear to the boys in the hood--they lost their lives because of too much pride. They didn’t have enough sense to know they could get another coat and tennis shoes, I-Pod and cell phone.
Jesus knew how to walk through the midst of his enemies--at least until that final moment of truth--when the bullfighter must kill the bull.


Until then he was a revolutionary. He had no fear of death. His life and death were for God. You want to make him a square, but he was hipped to everything. What did he tell the Jews who questioned his authority, “If God were your father you would love me, but you seek to kill me because I t ell you the truth. If you were Abraham’s children you would do the works of Abraham.”

He was a revolutionary. You say you believe in Jesus, but you ain’t no revolutionary. You ain’t trying to change nothing. You ain’t trying to get Jack out of the box, you trying to keep Jack in the box. You ain’t trying to wake up the dead, the deaf, dumb and blind. You say let the dead stay dead, especially if they ain’t in your brotherhood or sisterhood. Jesus wasn’t in a secret society, hiding truth while he knew. He said the truth will set you free. You want tell the truth, you playing silent night. You won’t say nothing, but you know everything. The Negro knows everything. You know every word Jesus said, but you ain’t saying nothing, selfish. Greedy. What party of Jesus was selfish, greedy? He took one fish and fed five thousand. You eat a whole fish and smack your lips, won’t share with nobody. You say you waiting for Jesus. You ain’t waiting for nobody. What you waiting for? You ain’t going to do nothing he says. You ain’t done nothing he said since he been gone. What makes you think you going to do something if and when he returns. If I was Jesus, I wouldn’t think about coming back here to deal with your silly ass.

All you want to do is sit around on Sunday and pray. Monday through Saturday you the devil. But you holy Joe and Josephine on Sunday. Get real. Get a healing. Jesus was a revolutionary. If you ain’t no revolutionary, you ain’t no part of Jesus. If you was with Jesus, you would be against war, killing, violence of any kind, hatred, materialism or things of this world, but you ready to kill at the drop of a hat. You so full of hatred, soon as you see a nigguh, your evil mind tells you to hate that nigguh--don’t even know the nigguh, but you hate him, want to kill him, yet you say you with Jesus. You with the devil. Leave Jesus alone. Close the Bible. Give it way until you ready to do what Jesus did, until you ready to get up and shake up the world. Jesus was a revolutionary. He didn’t look down on the homeless, drunks, dope fiends, prostitutes. You too holy to touch the homeless, unlike the good Samaritan, you walk on the other side of the street. You won’t dare walk through San Francisco’s Tenderloin. When you see the man robbed, half dead, you refuse to aid him. But you a Jesus lover. Get real, get a healing. Jesus was a revolutionary.


His essence was love. If you ain’t about love, you ain’t about Jesus. You don’t love yourself, how can you love Jesus or anybody else? The dope fiend goes to the dope dealer asking for love. He says, “Dope man, show me some love.” Sometimes the dope man might have a big bag of dope, but he won’t show love. He wouldn’t give up love to save his life--and sometimes he lost it because he was greedy, selfish, arrogant, proud, evil, when its all about love. God is love. Ain’t nothing else happening. I’m loving you for God. If God didn’t tell me to love you, I wouldn’t have nothing to do with you.
Yes, I confess, I wanted to kill a white man not long ago, a taxi driver who took me home but he charged me more than the usual fare, plus made me pay in advance. Yes, I though about killing him all the way home. But God told me don’t kill him. God said the next time you need a taxi, you won’t be able to get one, so don’t kill him. I fought the feeling. And I knew the big red neck, long hair, hippy looking peckerwood wanted to kill me. But when I got home, I got out and gave him a five dollar tip. God told me to do that. If it had been up to me, I would have chopped his head off. But it wasn’t ulp to me because I was flowing in the flow of the universe. I was on a mission from God to God. Jesus said love your enemies. Something told me I was bigger than the taxi driver. I just needed to think about it, get into my God consciousness. What would Jesus do, Muhammad, Moses, Buddha? Jesus was a revolutionary!

from Beyond Religion, toward Spirituality, essqys on consciousness, Marvin X, Black Bird Press, Berkeley, 2007.