Who is Jesus To Me?
The meaning of 'Jesus follower' means so many things to so many
different people, it's hard to know what people are talking about
when they say it unless they define themselves very carefully.
That's because for many centuries the religion that was created
after Jesus was the one associated with the people in power.
There's a move afoot to get back to Jesus and his message, which
if you read it doesn't really side with the power elite: it's
good news for all of us. Some of these newer followers call themselves
'red letter Christian' (the Bible sometimes highlights Jesus'
actual words in red) but perhaps someone—maybe even you—will
come up with a more catchy, creative term. 
The gospel proclaims that the God revealed by Jesus is a God of peace, that Jesus renounced violence, and that he embodied creative nonviolence even to the point of suffering execution at the hands of the Roman empire. As he died, he forgave those who killed him, and surrendered his soul to the God of peace. He told us to love one another, to love our enemies, to practice the all-encompassing compassion of God, and to seek God's reign of justice. He consistently taught that love is stronger than violence, that life is stronger than death. After his death the God of peace raised him up and invited us to receive his gift of peace. the risen Jesus sends us forth today to undertake the same journey." —John Dear SJ, Mary of Nazareth, Prophet of Peace, p18.
Controversy
Bet you've heard some say Jesus was the only Son of God who Had to die for an original sin when Adam and Eve were kicked out of Eden after eating a piece of fruit from a forbidden tree that a snake had talked them into trying. Here's the thing: did you ever consider that people of good hearts can have different interpretations about every single point in that whole bit? Books have been written about every word... What is Jesus' nature? Man? Divine? Both? Dual? Fused? Enough to kill each other over? And people have even argued over what we mean when we say that loaded word sin... Some say maybe it's just a turning away from what helps us grow towards God, because after all we have free will, and we are using it for some pretty crazy ends these days.. turning our planet into toast pretty fast, starving each other when there could be plenty for all. Some people argue that the dharma teachings that Jesus left us with are enough of a legacy, if we'd only follow. And others question whether God, after giving us free will, always gets what God wants. If God doesn't, what might that mean, in our own story? Wouldn't that open up some radical ideas? We can never know, for certain, because after all we're human and fallible, but it's fun-and not wrong-to wonder about the big questions. By sending a beloved and wonderful Son to walk with us, did God know what sort of a mess He was getting into? Would that be a really radical act of loving-kindness towards us? The thing is don't have to kill each other about these questions and, at least on this website, we're not going to work our panties up into a bunch over it either. We can all agree to look for the beauty and wisdom in Jesus' dharma.
