Jesus of Nazareth has to be the greatest radical in history.
He openly and harshly rebuked religious leaders who used religion to be exclusionary and strangle the heart out of faith with excessive rules. And MAN was he serious about it.
Naturally religious leaders ended his life. They were the ones he was constantly yelling at about hypocrisy, conceit, greed and love of wealth and power over God and their fellow man. He was called a radical, a heretic, constantly accused of spreading sacrilege and leading people astray. He hung out with all the "wrong" types. He didn't show the Pharisees all the praise and adoration they'd grown accustomed to. He spoke progressive and revolutionary ideas that scared them to death, but brought hope and healing to everyone else--everyone the most conservative religious leaders loathed and wanted excluded.
All of this has really never changed. And every time wealthy cults that call themselves Christians start spreading the opposite message of their namesake, they become the Pharisees Jesus and his cousin, John, couldn't stop rebuking.
Considering how many self-proclaimed Christians live in such conceit, arrogance and condemnation, I think it's time to closely reexamine the life of Christ. Because a great many have lost the plot entirely.
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