Do We Hark to Yeshua's Message or Worship Jesus' Image?

Friends have written to me about my example of Quaker hate mail. Some don't see the harm done by such a note, others send notes of comfort to me.

Sure I'm sad. But I am sad, not for an insult or abuse to me, but for the blindness of some Friends to the message of Yeshua, come to the well and give me to drink.

There are two moments where I am convinced that the message of Yeshua comes through. It is in the event at the well, where he asks water of the Samaritan woman, and the sermon on the mount, in which large portions reflect back to the event at the well.

In Thomas he says, the Kingdom of God is here, it is just that many don't see it. Then at the well, he takes water from the hands of one he is supposed to shun, and he says this is the water of life, by which we enter the Kingdom of God. It is in forgiveness and healing of conflicts that we enter the Kingdom of God. In the sermon on the mount he says to make amends with friends and enemies before anything else. Our advices reflect this when we say come to clearness quickly.

The sermon on the mount says not to be judgmental, or thee will be judged. Those Friends who judge, and who dismiss, who shun and deny a hand of friendship, are not living in the spirit of Yeshua, which is the Christian center of our faith as Quakers. Friends who turn their backs rather than turning the other cheek, are building walls around their own little clique in the world, and as they do, they build a wall around the well of the water of life, but that wall keeps them from the water of life.

So, why am I sad. Not for the petty harms done to me, but the harm done to the Christian center of our faith. It is not enough to worship an image of Christ, and ignore the teaching of Yeshua. The fruit of the tree of that action quite plainly marks the value of that tree.