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The Kingdom of Compassion

When Jesus is called the son of God, or especially the only son of God, in the gospels and the New Testament letters, it is not, as I was taught, to set him in opposition or claim his superiority to other faith leaders. Neither the gospel writers nor Paul had likely ever heard of the Buddha. Muhammad wouldn't come on the scene for several hundred years. The gods of the Hindu pantheon don't seem to have shadowed their writings.
Who's divine pedigree was being denied, then, if not the gods and leaders of other faiths? According to several prominent scripture scholars, and, if one reads closely, to the New Testament writers themselves, it was the political and military rulers of the day, those who exercised absolute power, especially over the people on the margins of society.
Caesar Augustus, the most powerful man of his time, actually claimed divinity for himself. He called himself the Son of God. The gospel writers knew this. Paul knew this. Jesus knew this. Caesar's reign was part of the world in which they lived. And it was in direct opposition to Caesar, to both his claim of divinity and his position as world ruler and all that his empire stood for, that the early followers of Jesus founded their movement. They were not interested in establishing the one true religion. Jesus’ mission for them was much more grand than that. He wanted them to announce, and more importantly, to embody, a new world order, to help him establish an empire built on compassion, radical equality, unexpected abundance and unconditional love for all.
I find this view of Jesus’ claim to divinity, that his lordship trumps Caesar’s (rather than the Buddha’s or Muhammad's), both refreshing and challenging. It is refreshing because, after all, how could a man who spent so much of his public life sending shockwaves through the oppressive social and religious institutions of his day turn around and establish a religion that excludes anyone who doesn’t believe in him? It doesn’t add up.

The challenge, though, is that when I set aside the question of whose religion is the most true I am faced with the question of what I am doing each day to announce and embody the kingdom of compassion, equality, abundance and love over which Jesus reigns. But I would rather be troubled by this question than comforted by the false assurance of having correct beliefs.
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