The Practice of Jesus and Current Times

Reverend Luiz Fernando Pereira Garupe
EMAÚS MCC, São Paulo, BRAZIL
translated from the Portuguese by Geraldine Wright

Jesus announced his news in a specific nation and in a specific context. In the historical period in which he delivered it, the notion of Kingdom was tied to fertility, to truth and to power. It was assumed that these were inherent attributes of a person who was king. The belief in apocalypse, fruit of a situation of widespread misery, centered the hope of the future in God, without the participation of human beings. It was an a-historical vision, vertical, alienated. John the Baptist, an apocalyptic preacher, supposed that the judgment of God was at hand. In his understanding, there wasn't time for changes or social reforms.

For Jesus, the nearness of the Kingdom rested on a different notion of time: the time of God, whose fulfillment only God knows.

Today we live in a different reality. The vision of the world is different. The world context differs profoundly from that in which Jesus acted. In light of this, faithfulness to Jesus presupposes a reading of the times. Jesus Himself pointed out the importance of the recommendation to read "the signs of the times". To be faithful to Jesus, to stick to His plan, is to imitate his innovative dynamism, however, without repeating his actions like a "Xerox" or exact copy. To be faithful to Jesus, it's necessary to be different...from Jesus. It's important to adapt His teachings to the current reality. This includes semantic revisions of certain expressions whose meanings have changed, like the very word "Kingdom". Today, the meaning translates into a symbolic power, a factor in national unity, with deep roots in tradition. It represents a shared sentiment, with its teachings, its faults and its slogans.

The despised of today are different. No longer are they the Samaritans, nor those who work in professions considered despicable, nor the pagans. Instead, they are women and children, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities. Today those discriminated against are the landless agricultural workers, certain minorities, blacks, gays, lesbians, transvestites, those on the margins of technology. And the poor continue to be discriminated against, as individuals, as a group, as the Third World.

To be faithful to Jesus today is to be different from Jesus in his practices of yesterday. It is urgent that the Biblical language be adapted to our time, without, however, harming the storehouse of faith. Therefore have creativity and courage to innovate, being careful not to damage the integrity of the message, avoiding distortions or omissions. For, if the Good News had not been brought to the "uncultured" world of the Greek, the Roman and the German, today we would either be considered "uncircumcised" and pagans, or Christian Jews. (e.g. Acts 6:1)

Some attitudes of Jesus are valid for every historical context, because they reflect perennial and immutable values. Citing only one example, the liberation of emotional victims FROM their feelings of personal guilt TO His unshakable faith in the victory of good over evil.

In place of faith IN Jesus, stand out by experiencing the faith OF Jesus!

It's a question of consistency. The adversaries and critics have never accused Christians of following Jesus: to the contrary, they accused Christians of not following Him, of having betrayed His cause, of having adopted everything that Jesus denounced as Pharisaical. (Matt. 23:1-16) "This people reveres me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." (Mark 7:6)

God never replaced human beings in the implementation of history, but, to the contrary, engages them and sends them into action, thus evoking in them an enduring predisposition toward resistance and struggle in the face of their oppressors. This is the root of the prophets and martyrs...

The author of this material is Reverend Luiz Fernando Pereira Garupe, pastor of Emaús Metropolitan Community Church in São Paulo, Brazil.