printHe was quarrelsome, charismatic, domineering, polarizing; judgmental, fueled with messianic zeal, often impatient—in every fiber of his being, Jesus, Yehoshua in Hebrew, was the son of the God of wrath; the God of the Hebrew Testament. As such, says devout Catholic columnist Jack Kerwick, “Jesus spared no occasion to remind both fans and foes alike that He and ‘the God of the Old Testament’ [were] one and the same”:
“So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 13: 49-50).
Nor was Jesus a pacifist, as did he like many a rich and influential person, for Judaism views wealth acquired justly as a sign of God’s blessings.
Jesus probably didn’t even look like the angelic images of him foisted on us by the Jesus industry. Face it, Jesus was Jewish through-and-through. He likely looked Jewish.
“The Real Jesus vs. the Neutered Idol of the Politically Respectable” is a lovely, piquant column by Jack Kerwick:
“Whoever is not with me is against me…but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” (Mt. 12: 30-32; Mk. 3:19-30; Lk. 11:14-23).
For His enemies, the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus reserved a furry of criticism. They were “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “whitewashed tombs” who are “full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth” like “greed and self-indulgence.” His opponents are “descendants of those who murdered the prophets,” “snakes” and “vipers” who can’t “escape being sentenced to hell” (Mt. 23: 16-36; Mk. 12: 38-40; Lk. 20: 45-47) [.]
Yet even those who styled themselves His friends didn’t escape His wrath.
Unfaithful servants will be “cut” into “pieces” and placed “with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 24:51; Lk. 12: 41-48). Jesus informs His disciples of His plans for those nations with which He is displeased: “Then he [the Son of Man] will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…And these will go away into eternal punishment” (Mt. 25: 41-46).
A fine Easter and a happy Pesach to all.