Starting back at square one

One of the realities I've been reminded of lately, while laying in hammocks and reflecting upon both the Big and Little Pictures, is just how often “They” have lied to me, “They” being (1) the powers that be, (2) the government, (3) the media, (4) multi-national corporations, and (5) all the sinister old fat cats who yank the strings of the first four from their ivory towers, island strongholds and black helicopters. Just for starters, “They” lied to me about Vietnam, Iraq, the safety of above ground nuclear bomb tests, marijuana, LSD, Christopher Columbus, How the West Was Won, and how using a certain deodorant would guarantee the procurement of highly desirable sex partners. They have been lying to me, in other words, since about first grade.

So sooner or later, it's inevitable I ask—did “They” also lie to me about this dude Jesus?

In June, a book came out called Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. Initially, it made more news for a silly encounter that took place on Fox News than for the book itself. That was unfortunate, because the silly encounter, where the news anchor tried to discredit Zealot because its author is Muslim (a charge that was easily dispelled by author Reza Aslan, whose scholastic credentials in religious studies are impeccable) wrongly put the spotlight on Aslan. The real attention should be on his book, which is a bit of a blockbuster (and recently numero uno on the NYT best seller list).

Zealot is important because, honestly, it's one of those rare works that's capable of upending a readers's entire cosmology, specifically if that cosmology is based on the belief that Jesus was the Son of God and the supernatural Cosmic Christ who will some day return to reign over a Golden Millenium. In Aslan's eye-opening and thoroughly researched book, the Jesus you meet is not the familiar long-haired, be-haloed messenger of Peace and Love, but a political rabble-rouser and temple basher who was far more interested in getting the Romans out of Jerusalem and bringing political freedom to the Jews than he was in returning to this nutty planet . This last point is especially important to Aslan. Jesus, he asserts, was first and foremost a Jew who wanted the Kingdom of God to be established in Palestine for THE JEWS. The fate of Gentiles? Meh. Not that big of a deal.

Aslan is also not afraid to pull down the pants of the Big Four—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, that Gospel Gang who weren't historians but rather acolytes. Uninterested in historical accuracy, their main mission was to spread the word and to sell the Cosmic Christ, a mystical superstar created by Paul and his folks decades after Jesus had been crucified. Anyone who wants a fresh take on this extraordinary saga, a take that clashes a bit with that guy we learned about in Sunday School, read Zealot. My gut feeling after reading: Aslan could well be a more reliable source than any writer in the New Testament.