Okay so I admit I haven't been doing much reading of the Shadow of the Galilean until now, and even now I'm only on Chapter 12. The book, in my opinion, was pretty monotonous until I came across some pretty interesting stuff in the 10th and 11th chapters. In the 10th chapter, one thing that particularly caught my eye was in Theissen's letter to Dr. Kratzinger. Theissen says that "Jesus did not want to found a Christian community--he wanted to renew Israel." I find this particularly interesting becuase Jesus wasn't really trying to start anything, and yet an entire religion is founded on him and his teachings. It truly is amazing for lack of a better word.
Another part of the book that really interested me was on page 102. It says "But Jesus isn't interested in that sort of thing...He healed him." This comment is made about a homosexual man. Clearly Gamaliel, the man who made this statement, is dumb-founded by Jesus' ability to look past a person's flaws, regardless of how big or small the flaws may seem. This part of the book really made me realize how judgmental we as humans truly are, and it made me step back and actually reevaluate some of my thoughts and opinions on certain topics. Overall this book is getting really interesting, and I can't wait to finish it.
I agree that we are too judgmental as humans, but we're flawed so of course we are going to judge others. How we judge others is different though, because some people (according to how they were raised/influenced) see homosexuals as just normal people, but others are repulsed by them (like Gamaliel). Jesus' point was to forgive the sin and therefore truly heal the person by offering them a new start. He did not go around judging people for what their life was; He wanted to show them what it could be. We usually judge those based on what is there because that's all we can see, but Jesus sees more (thank goodness!).
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