I’ve written before about how difficult it is to come up with a single, coherent picture of the historical Jesus. The problem is, as biblical scholar Robert Price says, that the gospels just give us too many Jesuses. How did this happen? Because they were written decades after Jesus, by people who never knew him.

But there’s likely another reason: Jesus was an enigma even to his own followers. The earliest gospel, Mark, is especially blunt about the disciples’ confusion regarding Jesus’ teachings and ministry. Fortunately, at least some of Jesus’ words were remembered, though they didn’t appear in writing for forty years after his death. Unfortunately, however, many of these teachings are obscured by the gospel writers’ attempts to “explain” them. They’re often telling us, in other words, what they think Jesus meant rather than leaving it us to figure that out for ourselves.

Biblical scholars have developed skills for sorting out Jesus’ words from those of the gospel writers. But it’s not an exact science, nor could it be. Jesus was intentionally enigmatic. His parables were not intended to be “decoded.” He wanted his listeners to be puzzled by them, pondering their images and stories as they walked away, hopefully leading to an “aha moment”, not of intellectual understanding but of spiritual awakening. Decades later, that aspect of Jesus was largely forgotten, replaced by the need of the new religion growing around his memory to explain and defend him to the world.

There is one especially valuable example of Jesus’ teaching which is inherently puzzling and challenging but which the early church obscured in its attempt “explain” it to subsequent generations. It’s found in various forms in all four of the canonical gospels. Here is one instance in Matthew 16, first as it appears and then striking out the words I think were added, revealing what is closer to what Jesus likely said.

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

²⁴ Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ²⁵ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ²⁶ For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

Here and in the other instances, Jesus’ teaching that we must “lose” our life is interpreted in light of his crucifixion. In other words, to be a follower of Jesus means in some way to sacrifice one’s old life for the new life of a disciple. Jesus’ death is the example to be followed, yet what that means in practice is never spelled out. But I don’t think Jesus was anticipating his death. Rather, he is telling a fundamental truth about life here and now.

Another challenge Jesus issued in his teaching was that of becoming like children. Here it appears in a well-known story from the Mark 10.

¹³ People were bringing children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”

In another example from Matthew 18, Jesus provides an important nuance to his teaching. When asked who is the greatest in God’s kingdom, Jesus responds:

“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

I believe Jesus used losing one’s life and becoming like children as different metaphors for the same experience: losing our ego (what Paul calls our false self) to discover who we truly are as Spirit. This is also the meaning of Jesus’ summary statement of his ministry in the first chapter of Mark.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; go beyond your thinking, and believe this good news.”

Jesus believed that the time had come to wake people up to the reality that God’s presence was not somewhere distant in time or space but was, in fact, right here and right now.

I recently came across a segment of an interview with a young Zen Buddhist teacher named Shi Heng Yi. He is of Chinese and Vietnamese descent, yet was born and lives in Germany and is fluent in English. Several responders recognized that his thoughts had important parallels in Christianity.

If someone asked you which religion do you follow, what would your answer be?

I would call it the religion of oneness. I do believe that we are connected in some way and it is my journey—I don’t want to just intellectualize it—I do think it is a path to lay out and remove all the friction and all the obstacles to just realize that it is like this.

I myself always grew up in the need to attain something, to add something up on top of my life. This tradition, the whole tradition I’m talking about is actually quite the opposite.

That’s why I often mention that [as a teacher] actually there is nothing I can give to anyone…. [W]hen you even think that I’m giving you something and you are about to receive something, that’s not the right state of mind already. I have nothing to give you. The only thing that I really try to do is take stuff away from you. Take things away from you that are covering that you see that you are complete.

What things tend to cover us, that need to be taken away?

Everything that builds up identity. Everything that builds up a stronger and stronger identity. Everything that you keep from the past in your mind. The more you keep the past in the mind, the stronger your identity is.

I do think this is one correlation that also goes hand in hand. The more you keep past elements inside your mind, the less likely you will be able to break free into the future and open up for the possibilities that this lifetime might still have for you.

What needs to be taken away? Everything that builds up identity. This astonishing statement runs counter to the most fundamental beliefs of modern Western culture. Most of us think our whole purpose in life is to make the most of ourselves that we can. “Be all that you can be.” Yet here we’re told that we are already all that we need to be.

I think this is what Jesus is getting at when he says we must become like children. Young children have little or no identity, except what adults have tried to put upon them. Yet they are already complete in themselves. That is the status, the real identity, which we need to rediscover. It’s why Jesus tells Nicodemus that to enter the kingdom he needs to be born over again and rediscover his essential childlike state.

As adults, such an idea sounds awful and ridiculous. It sounds like being asked to die, which it is. This is why so many spiritual traditions speak of needing to “die before you die.” It is what Jesus meant by losing our life in order to find it. And this is the real meaning behind the shock of the rich young ruler who Jesus tells to sell all he has. It’s not the thought of losing all his possessions that stuns him but of losing what he believes to be his identity.

While it has often been interpreted this way, notice that what Jesus is teaching (like the Zen master) is not morality. Rather, it is a spiritual awakening, a transformation, a profound discovery of our true identity. Such teaching has been at the core of most of the world’s great spiritualities, though only a very few have ever discovered its real meaning or power.

Today, perhaps, will be different as such teaching is appearing in more and more places. It needs to, for our ego dominated culture is spinning dangerously out of control. Discovering our need to die before we die, discovering that we are in fact already full and complete as we are, is likely the only way to quench the unquenchable needs of our rapacious yet illusory egocentric selves.

If you appreciate these posts, remember to “Like”, share, and subscribe, if you haven’t done so already. In the mystical world of search algorithms, this all helps “spread the word.” And add a comment, if you’re so moved, to be part of the conversation. Finally, thank you for your financial support (see the “DONATE” box), which covers blog expenses and helps me to keep doing this.