The Wannabe Who Is

The callous mystic could have been conservatively described as a turgid amalgam of various forms of grotesquerie. A malnourished sapling, a misshapen rock, a shriveled root in a desert – these are just a few of the appellations by which this undesirable individual was known. His wretchedness was palpable; his bodily form the antithesis of physical beauty. His demeanor was low; his social practices and associations were completely out of order. His overall vibe was absent any positive aesthetic or cohesive sense of purpose. It would be difficult to imagine any decent place where he would not have been a misfit.

He was a pitiful figure and attracted all the wrong sorts of attention. A look at the people in whom he seemed most interested might help give a clearer image of this man’s character. He seemed to intentionally seek out social and moral refuse; the cheating government official, the hygienically despicable drug addict, the salacious prostitute on the street corner, the crazed, raving lunatic with super-strength, the promiscuous adulterer or adulteress… almost any shady or questionable individual who would deign to give him their attention. He caused riots in sacred spaces and openly condemned the preachers, even going so far as to call them “snakes” and “children of the devil”. He was a known revolutionary, and the throng of outcasts and derelicts that flocked to his side only confirmed this knowledge.

His explanation of this disgraceful behavior only made him seem more desperate. He claimed that the anarchic behavior he displayed and encouraged and the heresies he promoted were simply a new and improved version of the old ways. Many were the ignoramuses who believed him. However, the learned religious scholars and doctors, thoroughly versed in the religious texts and practices and having dedicated their lives to the study and interpretation thereof, said he was off his rocker and that he presented not a fulfillment, but a grave threat to the religious philosophies and practices that had stood the test of time and to which they devotedly adhered.

To anyone who took the time to look at his lifestyle and general mode of operation, it became clear that, whatever his shtick was, it wasn’t sustainable over the long term and would soon be seen as a sham even by its most devoted adherents. Though it was not yet clear why, he was obviously conning people, even going so far as to claim not only divine direction from God, but that he was God. Clearly, the favor of God could never rest upon such an obvious poser.

As is the case with many other superficially spiritual men, he was also supposed to have cured a substantial number of individuals of various maladies, and seemed to have done so quite convincingly. It has not yet been made clear how he pulled off so many “healings”, though it will surely be revealed with time.

Eventually, he was arrested, put on trial for his shenanigans, and sentenced to be tortured and executed. Some people felt sorry for him, but considering what a provocative person he was willing to be and the crazed worldview he promoted, it’s really no wonder that such an end would befall him. Even he had seemed to know the consequences for his abhorrent claims (e.g., announcing himself as deity). He went so far as to tell his followers that he would be accused by the church leaders, and then handed over to the civil authorities for execution. He had claimed equality with God, and the judgment of God was swift and painfully final.

Somehow, he maintained his facade of innocence and sincerity the whole way through the ordeal, though he declined to give much of a defense for himself, and even told his followers to stand down. Some said it was the demeanor of an innocent man possessing great self-control and humility: a man who knew that this was but a painful step in the master plan. However, given the exaggerated grandiosity of his spoken message and the sketchiness of his lifestyle and associations, it’s more probable that he simply realized his time was up. He was tired of fighting and decided to throw in the towel.

There were, however, a few morsels of wisdom in what he said, and even a few religious scholars had started to warm up to him, but there was such a dissonance between his overall message and what the preachers taught that it’s quite clear they were on substantially different paths. You decide which was the path of wisdom; the centuries of carefully studied wisdom to be found at the feet of the preachers or the upstart nobody from Nazareth who thought he was always right and who claimed to have an authority that superseded and even preceded these carefully sifted and established doctrines?

Even so, some thought his teachings in many practical areas to be quite sound when taken in proper perspective. If only his message hadn’t been so meticulously built on a foundation of claims so wildly out of this world, one might have reasonably assumed him to be a legitimate dispenser of true, practical wisdom.