186. Jesus Christ in the eyes of a non-Christian. Part two

For those persons who wanted to follow him, physically, from place to place, Jesus Christ set an extremely high standard, which was impossible to adopt by ordinary people. The message was that it is not enough to lead a sinless life, but one has to give up everything. Here is what he said to a man who asked him that what he should do to have an eternal life (Mark, 10:17-19). Jesus replied that he should follow the commandments: 'You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.'" The man said that he has obeyed all the commandments. Jesus said:

²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Mark, 10:21)

 A lot has been made about his message of non violence, but it is not found in gospel of Mark. Here is the famous passage from Mathews (5:38-41):³⁸ Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:³⁹ But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.⁴⁰ And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.⁴¹ And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain”.

I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe, Jesus never said it, and that is why it is not in Gospel of Mark; or Jesus said it in an idealistic way for an ideal world. It sure is impractical. If Hitler had not been resisted in Second World War, the world today would be different and evil. Hitler could not have been stopped by passive resistance.

Miracles. A miracle is a manifestation of Divine power and glory. People who perform it do so only by the permission of God, which He has delegated to His deputies or Forces of evil (for some mysterious reason). No man in human history has performed so many, so powerful, and such varieties of miracles as Jesus Christ. He is unique in this respect. Most often some power is given to a person, like speaking in foreign tongues or the ability to prophecy, or healing the sick of some minor disease, or curing mental illnesses, and so on. But it never happens (except in the case of Jesus) that so many powers are given to one person. Imagine how much power of God he had. Let me give you examples from the Gospel of Mark:

1. He cured many persons who were suffering from mental diseases like hysteria, madness and epilepsy.
2. He cured other diseases such as fever ( mother of Simon and Andrew ), leprosy ( an incurable disease at that time ), paralysis ( an incurable disease ), deformity of hand ( an irreversible problem ), near death ( Mark 5:39), bleeding problem for twelve years,  and blindness ( incurable disease ). He healed a deaf and mute person. He cured some other diseases/deformities according to other Gospels. A woman who touched the fringe of his robe got cured. He cured the daughter of a Gentile woman from a distance, just by saying “your daughter is healed”, without seeing or touching her. A man cured mental disease just by using Jesus’ name, although he was not even his follower.
3. He could see things from a distance, like he saw a colt in a distant house ( Mark 11:2)
4. He predicted events which were going to happen in future. He repeatedly predicted his death and resurrection after three days. He predicted that Peter will deny him:                                                          ³⁰ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice^[a] you yourself will disown me three times. (14:30)”.                                                                                                                                 He foretold the destruction of the Temple: (13:1-2) “As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”  “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down.” It happened just as he had told.
5. Jesus walked on water
6. Jesus calmed the storm, just by rebuking the wind
7. Jesus fed five thousand people with meager amount of food:                                                    ⁴¹ And taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. ⁴² And they all ate and were satisfied. ⁴³ And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. ⁴⁴ And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. (6; 41-44).  At another time he fed four thousand people with small amount of food.

To be continued.