Jews and Muslims do not commemorate the resurrection of Christ, of course. What about Seventh-day Adventists then?

I’m remembering a friend who didn’t even want us to go horse riding on Sunday because it would be sinful to make the horse “work” on the day of rest – truly believing it. What kind of only-one-truth-and-thats-ours preachings do people follow so much so that they can’t even think of acknowledging the fact that when Jesus of Nazareth lived, and at the time the bible was written, the Sabbath was on a Saturday and not Sunday…

Yeah. I think it would be a re-interpretation of work. An interesting story relevant here: The time I helped some Jews.

So, I guess we agree to disagree until a better example gets unearthed.

But yes, these, like so many other things, depends on your frame of reference, your perspectives, I’m sharing my perspective or interpretation. Finding examples that work for all frames of reference of course need to be more rigorous.

I am not sure I have the motivation to go looking for better, more rigorous examples, so no promises of giving them in some future blog post…

Yeah, the common basis is the verse in Isaiah, although many just say the original language refers to a young woman.

You still haven’t given me an example of Jesus breaking the Jewish law (the Good Samaritan was “just” a story, of course),

My views are more “radical” (heretical? hehe). I do consider him to have “broken” their laws. The Good Samaritan is also an example of a violation of purity laws? A challenge to the purity code at least, pointing out there are much more important things. That which comes from outside doesn’t make you impure (it’s about what’s inside, etc etc). This is an easy perspective for me to take though, as I recognise contradictions in the Bible.

The importance of “sinlessness” of Jesus for the Christian framework, is something of Jewish origins (as most of Christianity, I suppose). Sacrifices were supposed to be “unblemished” (?). I see on wikipedia theologians have come up with a number of different “theories” on how the atonement “works”. The general idea is that the sacrifice is only good enough for all humanity because he lived a “sinless life”? Hmm… Oh, and then there’s the requirement for him to be sinless to match up with some of the “prophecies” in the Old Testament…

Now what happens when you throw out the doctrine of “original sin”? (Which a number of theologians do, of course… and I think becomes rather necessary when you realise there wasn’t a literal Adam and a literal Eve? Or is “original sin” compatible with evolution in some metaphorical sense?) Without “original sin”, the Catholic doctrine that Mary was immaculately conceived becomes unnecessary. Similarly the virgin birth? (Virgin births are common theme in that time and culture, and is also encouraged by certain interpretations of what, a verse in Isaiah, right?)

Here’s another question (but I think you’ll have a pretty good answer to this): why is the sinlessness of Jesus important in the whole Christian framework?

I believe to be fully human, you don’t have a perfect memory. You don’t have perfect knowledge of the future. You don’t have perfect knowledge of the past. Brian McLaren pointed out in the foreword of “The Secret Message of Jesus” that throughout history, people oscillate between over-emphasising Jesus’ divinity, and over-emphasising his humanity. I’m really just emphasising his humanity, and not saying any more than that.

Where’s the challenge in living a “sinless” life, if you have perfect knowledge, are omnipotent and omniscient? Humans are not omnipotent and omniscient. If he was omniscient and omnipotent, I can’t identify, because then he wasn’t human…

Besides, what does “sinless” mean? He definitely violated their purity code, even broke at least one of the ten commandments (not working on a Sunday). (Some would even say he ordered his disciples to steal a donkey, but that seems rather gratuitous. <grin>)