Why Didn't Jesus Write it Down?

A blog post from 2004 asks:

• Can we justify such abstract intellectualism in the face of a world that is obviously very far from the Kingdom of God? If you have a few spare hours a week, wouldn't it be better to volunteer at a soup kitchen than to commit yourself to a "read-the-Bible-in-a-year" plan or a Bible study group? (What would Jesus do?) 

The blogger provides the following answer:

• I think that Jesus not writing anything down suggests that we should be acting more and reading and speculating less. I have long believed that Jesus' message was much simpler than the Church has made it out to be. Exceedingly easy to understand, exceedingly difficult to follow: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
  Help the poor.
  Heal the sick. 

I think Act More....Speculate Less would make a great bumper sticker and it's certainly a great reminder to Progressive Christians about not falling into the trap of argument and debate in face of a world of hurting people, people with needs, people who Jesus cares deeply for.




You might enjoy reading the full blog post from 2004.l

REPOSTED FROM:  http://socialgospel.blogspot.com/2004/10/why-didnt-jesus-write-it-down.html

Like many progressive Christians, I am fond of asking the religious right (who insist on a text-centered Christianity) why Jesus never wrote anything down. How helpful would it be to have for Jesus what we have for Paul: his thoughts precisely preserved, first-hand in text rather than preserved second or third-hand? Why didn't Jesus do this?

Secularists, of course, will say that Jesus never wrote anything down because he was an illiterate carpenter. But, for the faithful, this logic is circular. That is, even if Jesus were an illiterate carpenter, we are still left with the equally perplexing (and functionally identical) question of why Jesus was an illiterate carpenter. If God had wanted Jesus to be well-read and educated, certainly he would have been.

Progressive Christians have explained that Jesus never wrote anything down because God never intended a text-based Christianity. Indeed, we have long pointed to this as a reason that Christians should look at how Jesus lived his life rather than to Paul's letters or to ancient Jewish texts in their search for Christian truth.

But I think that there's more to it than this.

How much time do Christians spend reading and rereading and rereading the Bible? How much time do Christians spend debating the import of obscure passages in the Old Testament? How much time do Christians spend trying to reconcile petty details in the Bible?

Can we justify such abstract intellectualism in the face of a world that is obviously very far from the Kingdom of God? If you have a few spare hours a week, wouldn't it be better to volunteer at a soup kitchen than to commit yourself to a "read-the-Bible-in-a-year" plan or a Bible study group? (What would Jesus do?)

I think that Jesus not writing anything down suggests that we should be acting more and reading and speculating less. I have long believed that Jesus' message was much simpler than the Church has made it out to be. Exceedingly easy to understand, exceedingly difficult to follow:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Help the poor. Heal the sick.

The message, spoken and lived, was simple. Clear. There was no need to write it down. You don't need to read thousands of pages; you don't need a degree in theology to understand Jesus' message