Jesus for all: The Ego-Agape conflict

Why Jesus?

Jesus is the central figure of the Christian faith and is also a respected prophet for Muslims but how can he be relevant to non-believers today?

His life and death are recorded in four books of the bible, but since these were written decades after his death no one can be absolutely certain what he actually said or did. He was a Jew living in what is now Israel at a time when the worship of gods was part of everyday life. Jews only had one god, Yahweh, who they considered to be the only god. Jesus teaching is focussed on the relationship between the Jewish people and God  (God used instead of Yahweh from now on). But can what he said to 1st Century  God-fearing Jews be important in the secular world of today?

In the first place, most people consider there’s something about human life that goes deeper than the physical, our sense of right and wrong, the way we are moved to tears at deep emotional moments and our willingness to put the needs of others before our own. All these point to something more than the mundane biochemistry of our bodies. We call that something our spiritual side or our soul.

Secondly, meditation and contemplation, if not prayer, are helpful and even necessary for our well-being. We need to keep our bodies healthy, and also our minds and souls/spirits. 

At war with ourselves

Paul, a teacher of Christianity in the 1st century wrote a letter to Christians in Rome, in which he talked about the way the two sides of his nature are at war with each other:

When I want to do good, I don’t; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.

Robert Lous Stevenson made the same point:

“In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose.
What we want most to be, we are.” 

We all experience this internal conflict and it was central to Jesus teaching. To him our selfish, physical side is the Kingdom of The World, whose ruler is Satan, and our unselfish, spiritual side, is the Kingdom of Heaven, where God rules. He didn’t mean “Heaven” as a destination after death, but the place where God dwells, not visible but always present. The words “Heaven”, “God”, "Satan" and "Yahweh" have no meaning  for non-believers so I will borrow two Greek words, EGO and AGAPE for the two sides of our human nature, which gets us away from religious language but need explaining.

EGO means personal pride or self-absorption – putting ourselves first and living selfishly. This represents our physical selves, the product of evolution, the survival of the fittest.

Ayn Rand considers EGO to be a virtue

“The moral purpose of a man’s life is the achievement of his own happiness. This does not mean that he is indifferent to all men, that human life is of no value to him and that he has no reason to help others in an emergency. But it does mean that he does not subordinate his life to the welfare of others, that he does not sacrifice himself to their needs, that the relief of their suffering is not his primary concern, that any help he gives is an exception, not a rule, an act of generosity, not of moral duty, that it is marginal and incidental —as disasters are marginal and incidental in the course of human existence—and that values, not disasters, are the goal, the first concern and the motive power of his life.”  Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness

AGAPE means selfless, unconditional love – putting others first and living unselfishly. The kind of love where a person will sacrifice their life for another. The source of this love is our soul or spiritual nature.

The following lines, also written by Paul and often used at weddings, are the best description of the depth of Agape love:

If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages without learning them and could speak in every language there is in all of heaven and earth, but didn’t love others, I would only be making noise.
If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what is going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do?
Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love.
If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever.
Love is patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude.
Love does not demand its own way.
It is not irritable or touchy.
It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.
It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out.
If you love someone, you will be loyal to them no matter what the cost. You will always believe in them, always expect the best of them, and always stand your ground in defending them.

Jesus and prayer

Jesus said "Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven", the rule of God over your own personal desires instead of the rule of Satan. To seek is to pray and he told told his followers:

• pray in secret not public.
• don't pray to show off how spiritual you are.
• mindless repetition is not prayer
• take your time, don't rush.

For Jesus, God was a loving father so the prayer he taught is like a son or daughter talking to their father.
"Our Father, who is in Heaven, holy is your name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on Earth as in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into a time of trial but deliver us from evil.

The Jesus Prayer as a meditation.

For non-believers we can use the sections of the Jesus prayer to meditate on the EGO-AGAPE conflict in our lives:

• How much is my life is lived selfishly and how much unselfishly
• If I stood in a place of pure love, goodness, truth, forgiveness, mercy, righteousness, peace, joy. generosity and humility, how would I feel? Uncomfortable? Ashamed?
• Do I want my life to be less about me and more about others?
• How can I feed my mind and soul/spirit to bring this about?
• Do I need to ask forgiveness from someone and am I willing to do it?
• Do I need to forgive anyone? Am I able to do it?
  Jesus said, the more we forgive others the more we will know forgiveness for ourselves.
• Am I putting myself in places of risk to my physical, mental and spiritual health and do I have the strength to avoid them?
• Do I need to ask for help?

Loving and living unselfishly and generously, letting go of our own wants and desires, is costly but the reward is greater than the cost.

The Penalty of Love - Sidney Royse Lysaght

If love should count you worthy, and should deign
One day to seek your door and be your guest,
Pause! ere you draw the bolt and bid him rest,
If in your old content you would remain.
For not alone he enters: in his train
Are angels of the mists, the lonely quest,
Dreams of the unfulfilled and unpossessed.
And sorrow, and life's immemorial pain.
He wakes desires you never may forget,
He shows you stars you never saw before,
He makes you share with him for evermore,
The burden of the world's divine regret
How wise were you to open not!--and yet,
How poor if you should turn him from the door.