Jesus, demanding teacher of soul
Jesus is for Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) one of the great
philosophers of human history. These reflections are an extraordinary
commentary of St. Paul’s letters, where he states the end of religion as a
system of rules and prescriptions and a new dimension, called kingdom of
heaven, where love of God and neighbour are the substance of every action of
the believer and the essence of the true life.
Obedience
to God was the ethos of the Jew Jesus as it had always been the ethos of the
Jews. But external, calculable obedience to definite law is not enough. The
essential is the obedience of man’s whole heart and being. For, as Jeremias
said, God has written his law in the heart of man.
But, what
is God’s will? Our thinking, accustomed as it is to the finite rules of
understanding, would like to have instructions, regulations to go by. But they
are not imperatives of outward action, but imperatives that penetrate the
innermost soul prior to action. The soul must be pure. What Jesus demands is a
way of being, not an outward action. He demands what cannot be willed but is
the source of all willing. Where it is present, no power in the world can
darken it.
Jesus’
ethos should not be taken as a system of prescriptions for action in this
world. This perfect love that is a sign of the Kingdom is not satisfied by
obedience to laws. The freedom of
Jesus’ actions is an essential part of this ethos of the Kingdom, a
freedom which is grounded not in law but in love.
Mere
legality fosters hypocrisy. One who lives by the law alone masks the evil that
is in him.
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