Seeing ‘Jesus’ From Below #8

[8/1996 journal entry] The ‘non-religious’ understanding of ‘Jesus’ I am seeking develops (i.e., unfurls) around a Matt. 25:31-46 type interpretation of integrity. In this way, being ‘non-religious’ might be thought of as ‘unconscious Christianity’ (Bonhoeffer’s phrase in his prison correspondence). Approaches to ethics and spirituality that are detached from ‘the least of these’ are not ‘of Jesus’ (at least as he would be interpreted ‘non-religiously’).

[2005 Note: One of the serendipities of our December 2004 move to Memphis is my opportunity again to spend time with Dr. Korones. Shelly is now 81 years old. I round with him during the months when he is the attending physician for the Newborn Center (neonatal intensive care unit) he founded in 1968 (before there was a neonatology specialty) and still directed until this past July. We also meet once or twice a week to continue working together on his autobiography. We are presently revising/expanding the manuscript we completed shortly before my family and I moved in 1992 from Memphis to Vermont. We were recently discussing the following paragraphs from the manuscript’s first chapter --

What would my grandfather think of his grandson’s life? I have often pondered this question. I know I would have to give account for my neglect of the ritual Papa regarded as mandatory for a religious Jew. Perhaps, if I had been shown a closer link between ceremony and principle, I would have remained lashed to the all-encompassing ritual. Instead, I rebelled against the imposed rigidities when I left home. I concluded then and still think that religion has done far more harm than good to human beings.

Twenty years passed before I, with more circumspection, questioned myself – “What drives me to do what I do? Why do I walk the floor over a sick patient? Why have I stocked a private closet with vaporizers for parents facing emergencies with their children?” With this self-examination, I had begun the journey back into the religious and cultural milieu out of which the way I live life was born via Reformed Judaism.

In spite of the virtual absence of my grandfather’s ritual, I still consider myself to be a very Jewish man. I like to think that Papa, after carefully surveying the results of my decision to wager my medical career on caring for sick babies ignored or discriminated against by society, would say to me – “Gut getton, Kindele” (Yiddish for “Well done, Child”).

When Shelly commented that no religious tenet accounts for how he lives life, I told him what is for me the most revolutionary/riveting story attributed to ‘Jesus’. He listened attentively as I told him about

. . . the king who said to those on his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and your gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you gave me clothing; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry . . . or thirsty . . . or a stranger . . . or naked . . . or sick . . . or in prison . . . ? And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

At that point, Shelly beamed with delight and said, “That’s it. That’s exactly where I am. Their actions had nothing to do with being religious, with obeying the king, with trying to be righteous. They simply/truly cared.” I responded, “That’s exactly where I am too.” We shook hands firmly in friendship, in fellowship.