Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Brian D. McLaren (MA, University of Maryland) is an author, speaker, activist and public theologian. After teaching college English, Brian pastored Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area. Brain has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and pastors for over 20 years. He is a popular conference speaker and a frequent guest lecturer for denominational and ecumenical leadership gatherings in the US and internationally.

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THE SECRET MESSAGE OF JESUS

W Publishing Group

Contents

Introduction.........................................................................................xiPART 1 Excavation: Digging Beneath the Surface to Uncover Jesus' Message1. Troubling Questions about Jesus...................................................................32. The Political Message of Jesus....................................................................93. The Jewish Message of Jesus.......................................................................194. The Revolutionary Message of Jesus................................................................265. The Hidden Message of Jesus.......................................................................35PART 2 Engagement: Grappling with the Meaning of Jesus' Message6. The Medium of the Message.........................................................................437. The Demonstration of the Message..................................................................508. The Scandal of the Message........................................................................619. You Can't Keep a Secret...........................................................................7210. Secret Agents of the Secret Kingdom..............................................................8111. The Open Secret..................................................................................9012. Hiding the Message in New Places.................................................................9613. Getting It, Getting In...........................................................................104PART 3 Imagination: Exploring How Jesus' Secret Message Could Change Everything14. Kingdom Manifesto................................................................................11715. Kingdom Ethics...................................................................................12916. The Language of the Kingdom......................................................................13817. The Peaceable Kingdom............................................................................14918. The Borders of the Kingdom.......................................................................16219. The Future of the Kingdom........................................................................17120. The Harvest of the Kingdom.......................................................................18321. Seeing the Kingdom...............................................................................196Afterword............................................................................................205Appendix 1: Why Didn't We Get It Sooner?.............................................................209Appendix 2: Plotting Goodness........................................................................219Acknowledgments......................................................................................227Notes................................................................................................229

Chapter One

Are you still so dull? -Matthew 15:16

What if Jesus of Nazareth was right-more right, and right in different ways, than we have ever realized? What if Jesus had a message that truly could change the world, but we're prone to miss the point of it?

What if we have developed a religion that makes reverent and honoring statements about Jesus but doesn't teach what Jesus taught in the manner he taught it? What if the religion generally associated with Jesus neither expects nor trains its adherents to actually live in the way of Jesus?

What if the core message of Jesus has been unintentionally misunderstood or intentionally distorted? What if many have sincerely valued some aspects of Jesus' message while missing or even suppressing other, more important dimensions? What if many have carried on a religion that faithfully celebrates Jesus in ritual and art, teaches about Jesus in sermons and books, sings about Jesus in songs and hymns, and theorizes about Jesus in seminaries and classrooms ... but somewhere along the way missed rich and radical treasures hidden in the essential message of Jesus?

What if too many of today's religious leaders-among whom I must be counted-are among the last to get the message of Jesus and the first to reduce, oppose, distort, or suppress it, just as they did in Jesus' day?

What if Jesus had actually concealed his deepest message, not trying to make it overt and obvious but intentionally hiding it as a treasure one must seek in order to find? If that's the case, why would Jesus ever do such a thing? How would we find his message if he had indeed hidden it?

What if Jesus' secret message reveals a secret plan? What if he didn't come to start a new religion-but rather came to start a political, social, religious, artistic, economic, intellectual, and spiritual revolution that would give birth to a new world?

What if his secret message had practical implications for such issues as how you live your daily life, how you earn and spend money, how you treat people of other races and religions, and how the nations of the world conduct their foreign policy? What if his message directly or indirectly addressed issues like advertising, environmentalism, terrorism, economics, sexuality, marriage, parenting, the quest for happiness and peace, and racial reconciliation?

Would we want to know what that message is? How much? Would we be willing to look hard, think deeply, and search long in order to find it? Would we be willing to rethink our assumptions?

What if the message of Jesus was good news-not just for Christians but also for Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, New Agers, agnostics, and atheists? And what if the message of Jesus also contained warnings-for Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, New Agers, agnostics, atheists-and for Christians too? What difference could it make in the lives of individuals, in their families and neighborhoods and circles of friends, and in the world at large? Those are the questions we're going to explore in these pages.

For me, these aren't just theoretical questions. I grew up in the church and heard wonderful stories about Jesus that captured my imagination throughout my childhood. Then in my teenage years, after a brief but intense period of doubt, I became intrigued by Jesus in a more mature way, and I began wondering what it means to be an authentic follower of Jesus in my daily life. In college and graduate school, although I went through times of questioning, skepticism, and disillusionment, I retained confidence that Jesus himself was somehow right and real and from God-even if the religions bearing his name seemed to be a very mixed bag and adherents like me often set a disappointing example.

After graduate school, I worked as an English instructor at a large secular university, and I tried to relate what I knew of Jesus to the world of higher education. In the mid-1980s, I left higher education and entered pastoral ministry, where I have spent the last twenty years of my life, serving in a church just outside Washington, D.C. As a pastor and as a human being, I have had one lasting obsession: the fascinating, mysterious, uncontainable, uncontrollable, enigmatic, vigorous, surprising, stunning, dazzling, subtle,...