“If Jesus had come today instead of 2,000
years ago, Christian pastors and bishops would
also have killed him.”



A man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho
was attacked by armed-robbers, stripped of
his belongings and left lying on the road half-
dead. God’s providence ensured that first a
priest, and then a Levite, passed by. But
instead of helping the dying man; both of them
quickly moved to the other side and went
away…


Finally, a Samaritan came along. Unlike the
priest and the Levite, he had compassion on
the injured man, bound up his wounds, took him
to the hospital and paid for his medical
expenses.


The Good Samaritan
Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan is very
deliberate. It is incredible how, as Christians,
we still fail to understand its full implications.
The first mistake we make is in the identity of
the Good Samaritan. When we situate the
story in the contemporary setting (as we
should with all scripture), we assume that the
Good Samaritan is a Christian. However, Jesus
deliberately excludes that possibility by
providing two characters clearly
representative of the Christians of today.



The priest is easily identifiable as today’s pastor, while the Levite is easily today’s Christian layman.
Who then is the Good Samaritan? Let me
repeat this for emphasis: the Good Samaritan
cannot be a Christian. The Christian is already
adequately represented. The Good Samaritan
is Jesus himself. Jesus’ story eloquently sets
forth the goodness and kindness of Christ our
Saviour towards sinful, miserable and
defenceless humanity. The thief came to steal,
kill and destroy, but Christ came to give life
and to give it abundantly. (John 10:10).
But there is the rub. If Jesus is the Good
Samaritan then Jesus is not a Jew; for
Samaritans were not accepted as Jews. If
Jesus is the Good Samaritan, then Jesus is a
Samaritan. If Jesus is not a Jew but a
Samaritan, then Jesus cannot be a Christian,
for it is the Jew who represents the Christian
of today.



Jesus killers
By the time some Jews observed Jesus, they
assumed he was not a Jew. In the first place,
he refused to be a disciple of Moses but
claimed instead to have come to fulfil the law.
He did not obey the letter of Jewish laws but
claimed to comply with its spirit. He insisted
pharisaic religious tradition was old wine which
could not be put into the new bottles he
provided for the new wine of the New
Testament. (Matthew9:17). He prefaced a lot
of his sermons with the statement: “You have
heard that it was said to those of old… but I
say.” (Matthew 5:27-28).


Therefore, some Jews insisted Jesus was not
Jewish. As a matter of fact, their position was
that he was a closet Samaritan: “Then the
Jews answered and said to him, “Do we not say
rightly that you are a Samaritan and have a
demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a
demon; but I honour my Father, and you
dishonour me.” (John 8:48-49). Note that
Jesus did not contest the charge that he was a
Samaritan. But he took great exception to the
allegation that he had a demon.
But if Jesus identified with the Samaritans
and not with the Jews, then it becomes clear
he would not identify with most of the
Christians of today. In fact, let me be so bold
as to say that if Jesus were in the flesh today
he would not be a Christian.



If Jesus had come today instead of 2,000 years ago, Christian pastors and bishops would also have killed him. Like he did our forefathers, Jesus would also have exposed our ungodliness to public ridicule. Religious irrelevancies
So if Jesus would not have been a Christian,
what would he have been? He would have simply
been Jesus without any specific religious
affiliation. Today, Jesus has been replaced by
theology, but the real Jesus was not religious.
Jesus established no religious institution when he was on earth.



Indeed, if Jesus were to show up physically on
earth today, most Christians would not recognise him even as the Jews did not. If he came as a woman, we would not recognise him.
If he smoked cigarettes, we would not recognise him. If he drank whisky, we would
not recognise him. If he wore earrings and a
nose ring, we would not recognise him. If he
spoke Pidgin English, we would not recognise
him. Since he did not wear trousers, we would
be contemptuous of him. We would disqualify
him by religious irrelevancies instead of
identifying him by his fruits.

When Jesus asked the lawyer to identify the
neighbour of the man who fell among thieves,
the man wisely did not say it was the
Samaritan. If he had said that, he would have
been wrong. Instead, he correctly defined him
by his fruit. He said: “He who showed mercy on
him.” He who showed mercy on him could be
anybody, Christian or non-Christian, as long as
he believed in Jesus and produced the fruits
of his righteousness.



Merciless Christians
What then does the story of the Good
Samaritan mean if, indeed, the priest and the
Levite represent today’s Christians? It means
that, prophetically, it is the Christians of
today who have no mercy. We despise
unbelievers, certain they are going to hell. We
speak disparagingly of them. We condemn
sinners on grounds they are ungodly. We stone
them because they are caught in adultery. We
fail to appreciate that they are hapless
travellers on the road of life who have been
attacked by spiritual armed-robbers and left
for dead. We conveniently forget that we used
to be in the same position until we were
rescued by the grace of God.
Therefore, “God is not a Christian,” declared
Reverend Desmond Tutu. “We are supposed to
proclaim the God of love, but we have been
guilty as Christians of sowing hatred and
suspicion; we commend the one whom we call
the Prince of Peace, and yet as Christians we
have fought more wars than we care to
remember. We have claimed to be a fellowship
of compassion and caring and sharing, but as
Christians we often sanctify sociopolitical
systems that belie this, where the rich grow
ever richer and the poor grow ever poorer.”
One thing is certain. Both the offending priest
and the Levite must have had “compelling”
reasons for not attending to the man dying on
the roadside. They probably could not stop
because they were in a hurry to attend a bible
study. The priest decided that the best thing
to do was to pray for the man when he got to
church. The Levite was hurrying to get to a
meeting of the Pentecostal Fellowship of



Nigeria and could not afford to be late.
Jesus’ parable “kills” the self-righteous
believer who thinks he is justified by calling
himself a Christian and by going regularly to
church. He alerts us to the danger of assuming
we are heaven-bound because of our
observance of certain religious rites. True
Christianity is not legalistic. The love of our
neighbour is the emblem of our being Christ’s
disciples.



“Dear friends, let us practice loving each
other, for love comes from God and those who
are loving and kind show that they are the
children of God.” (1 John 4:7).



By Femi Aribisala
he is the fellowship coordinator of Healing
Wings.
Healing Wings is a pentecostal Christian
fellowship which meets on Tuesdays and
Thursdays.
(e-mail: faribisala@yahoo.com)

Long epistle, don't have time to read.
But this your title is funny to me o, Jesus is not a christian bah?....who is a christian? Is it not a follower of Christ?, and who is Christ? I believe its Jesus of nazareth[JESUS CHRIST, the messiah]...well you're right He is not a Christian, except he would have to follow himself. I would say He is not a Christian, but he is the CHRIST, the son of the living G0D.

Jsmyth has it right there, Jesus is the Christ. He was in fact a Jew from the time he was born until he died. His death and resurrection is what gave rise to Christianity.

What that story was saying is that wether you are are a jew or not does not justify you before God. But loving your neighbours inrespective of their ethnicity or religiosity. This is the will of God