So, I said that I was going to become a Follower of Jesus, rather than a Christian. So what was so different about Jesus, and Christians today? Well I suppose one of the big 'things' is that Jesus was a Jew. And, if I may digress, he was also brown skinned and not white skinned like the pictures on my Sunday school (Circa 1950's) wall, and in my bible, depicted him, when he was knocking on the door asking to be let in. (Revelations 3:20)
Actually, it was not all that many years ago when the skin colour actually occurred to me. I had never taken any notice until I read the autobiography of Malcolm X. Of course, Jesus was going to be brown skinned living where he lived. I'm not sure whether it was a positive or negative thing that it hadn't mattered to me. Positive as far as my racial point of view was concerned perhaps, but I hadn't considered that others would see it as negative for people who had coloured skin. Not only negative, but completely false as well!
So, not only was Jesus a Jew, he was brown skinned as well.
We'll put the skin colour to one side; not because its not important, it is, but because I am concentrating on the Jewish matter in this article.
I presume that most people who call themselves Christians reluctantly acknowledge that Jesus was a Jew but put it to one side. Being Jewish meant that his Sabbath was Friday evening to Saturday evening yet Christians celebrate Sunday as the Sabbath.
Is this a problem?
Well there have been many, many articles, discussions, books, pontifications etc. concerning this matter. I would suggest that if you want to see the matter discussed in layman terms you read: When, Where, and Why Did the Change from Sabbath to Sunday Worship Take Place in the Early Church by Robert K McIver, Avondale College of Higher Education, Cooranbong, Australia. Copyrighted 2015 Andrews University Seminary Studies, Vol. 53, No. 1, 15-35. Read it. It is on-line as a PDF.
Okay. Let me quote a piece from a Police Procedural Novel I am reading. It is written by J R Ellis and called The Body in the Dales. The Inspector is having a cuppa with his older sister who is a Priest in the Anglican Church. She says, "Don't make the mistake of equating Christianity with the Anglican church or any other denomination. They're all very largely human constructs which may have had their day, but if they disappear, God's purposes will continue."
Sounds a bit like Matthew 5:17 in some ways: Jesus says "Do not think that I have come to abolish Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."
Humans changed the early church from its Jewish origin and turned it into a Sunday Sabbath, it's not God's law and it's not following Jesus as far as I'm concerned. To me a Sunday Sabbath is, as the Police Inspector's Priest sister says, 'a human construct.' We can all see that the current 'Christian Way' has had it's day.
I pray that becoming a Follower of Jesus does not mean I become a human construct.
