So much has been made about Jesus in the religious sense -- being a prophet, the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ -- that we're apt to forget a more grounded sense that Jesus of Nazareth was also, essentially, a poet. The use of metaphor and symbolism in his parables, those short stories that convey a deeper truth, testify to this. Following his crucifixion, his own life would become a moving story and a powerful symbol that captures our imagination to this day.
Throughout the modern era we've been exhorted to "rise above" our human nature for the sake of reason or a moral ideal; and consequently, we often set ourselves up to fail, disdaining others as we disdain ourselves. Instead, I argue, we need to work with our nature and in so doing, begin to restore faith in our nature, loving others as we love ourselves.
The modern era has exalted reason, but as the poet Dante dramatized in the symbolic form of the poet Virgil, reason only leads us so far. And as the modern poet Walt Whitman exhorted, we can better discover a sense of our divinity through embracing the primal; for the truth is, we are animals, but we're social animals capable of reflecting that dynamic of our collective nature called love.
Culture, including religion, is not static but evolves over time. Through the crucifixion of Jesus, we have a powerful symbol that extends beyond the religious-cultural context of personal salvation; we have both the representation and the inspiration for the best of our nature, the human capacity for love, faith, and sacrifice that can lead us to human salvation. My assertion is that we can better draw on this power in the mythos, as we continue to make our way on the path of the poetic genius:
Through our poets with their heads in the clouds
we can welcome Christ Jesus riding down:
the Kingdom of God lies within you.
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