Letter: Jesus: The example of courage

As Christmas draws near again in these turbulent times, Christians will again be flocking to churches to hear the eternal messages of hope and love and to pray for God’s guidance.

The Christmas celebration actually leads all of us who are willing to think about the fundamentals of our own existence. Despite all the material abundance now available to well-to-do Christians, able to celebrate this holiday with a festively decorated tree and other Christmas paraphernalia, the Christmas celebration reminds us of the sheer simplicity that is its foundation.

This Christmas again reminds us that more than 2,000 years ago, a young mother gave birth to her son in a lowly stable, and was only able to cover him with some old rags after she laid him in a manger for cattle. The baby was named Yeshua — Jesus.

Two thousand years of diligent work on part of the churches, especially the Catholic Church, have made Jesus into a saccharine figure, a miracle worker of the sweetest pinkest sugar, who couldn’t be provoked to anger, and who healed people.

But the truth is that this extraordinary baby grew up to be one of the greatest reformers of human society. He wasn’t always sweet and kind, and He fought deceit, hypocrisy, inhumanity, cruelty, abuse of power, racialism, and religious fundamentalism and religious arrogance in the fiercest way.

He was also furious about the commercialization of religion in his time, and used a whip to chase away the avaricious businessmen from the temple grounds.

Jesus also consistently said what He thought and acted in accordance with what He said. In Matthew 23, in the New Testament, He sharply criticized the society leaders of His time, namely the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes — and what He told them then was, if repeated to a government official even today, enough to get Himself arrested and thrown into jail.

Jesus likened them to the rotting remains of a cadaver and upbraided them for letting the poor carry heavy burdens while not lifting a finger to help them.

What Jesus said and did in defense of the poor and the downtrodden eventually cost Him His life. This is what usually happens to those who honestly try to improve our society.

Jesus Himself was not a conservative person. He criticized the rich, despised those who were in power, and He defied the Roman emperor. He deliberately chose to be with the outsiders, the outcasts, the society failures and the pariahs. He died a death that was, in His time, the chosen punishment for agitators.

No matter what religion we embrace, let us, this Christmas and in the days thereafter, follow Jesus’ courageous and refreshing example of acting in accordance with our true convictions about right and justice.

Tami Koestomo
Bogor, West Java