Jesus Was Way Cool: Difference between revisions
→Western Animation
m (remove unneccessary quote box template) |
|||
(29 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''[[Trope Namer|Jesus was way cool]]
''Everybody liked Jesus
''Everybody wanted to hang out with him''
|'''[[King Missile]]''', "Jesus Was Way Cool"}}
As any religious scholar will tell you, Christ said many things that were profound, inspiring, and uplifting, but He wasn't all too ''entertaining''... or was He?
It's an interesting phenomenon: [[Jesus]] is generally presented as an admirable or at least benign figure, even in non-Christian or even ''anti''-Christian media. Atheists, Buddhists and authors of stories unflattering in their portrayal of [[God Is Evil|the Almighty]] or [[Religion Is Wrong|religion in general]] are nonetheless complimentary to that nice Jewish boy. This is often used as a [[Take That]] ("Jesus was cool even if his followers all suck"), as a number of the examples show.
Line 12 ⟶ 15:
When Jesus surpasses "way cool" and delves into "Freakin' [[Badass]]", that's [[Kung Fu Jesus]]. Compare and contrast [[Jesus Was Crazy]], [[Hippie Jesus]].
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime and Manga ==
* In the manga [[Saint Young Men]], Jesus and Buddha are [[Pals
▲* In the manga [[Saint Young Men]], Jesus and Buddha are [[Pals With Jesus|best buddies]] living in Tokyo and generally enjoying the human world on their vacation, doing such mundane things as going to convenience stores, taking the train and buying souvenirs. Even though Jesus is depicted as a bit of a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]], it's affectionate rather than insulting.
* In the ''Battle Pope'' series, Jesus is the hippie and oblivious sidekick to a [[Badass]] post-apocalyptic God-buffed Pope.
* [[Garth Ennis]], well-known for his [[Rage Against the Heavens]]/[[God Is Evil]] stories, sympathetically portrays Jesus in ''Chronicles of Wormwood''. Jesus, or "Jay", is the African-American best friend of the titular [[Anti
▲== Comics ==
▲* In the ''Battle Pope'' series, Jesus is the hippie and oblivious sidekick to a [[Badass]] post-apocalyptic God-buffed Pope. [[Jesus Was Way Cool]].
▲* [[Garth Ennis]], well-known for his [[Rage Against the Heavens]]/[[God Is Evil]] stories, sympathetically portrays Jesus in ''Chronicles of Wormwood''. Jesus, or "Jay", is the African-American best friend of the titular [[Anti Anti Christ]] (both sons who hate their dads), who suffered brain damage from police brutality while protesting the Iraq War, and who has suffered psychologically for centuries from his overwhelming desire to do good.
* In ''[[Valerian]]'' the Son is the most laid-back member of the Trinity of Hypsis, taking the form of a guitar-playing, weed-smoking hippie with stigmata. He once healed the comic's [[Satan]] [[Expy]] (who [[Satan Is Good|isn't really a bad guy either]])!
* Underground comic artist Frank Stack (aka Foolbert Sturgeon) did a few comic books with Jesus in the present day, quietly (mostly) observing humanity's less than stellar actions.
Line 28 ⟶ 29:
== Film ==
* ''[[Monty
* Although He never speaks and is only seen from behind or at a distance, Jesus appears as a background character in ''[[Ben
▲* ''[[Monty Pythons Life of Brian]]'' is surprisingly non-scathing toward Jesus in a work that parodies His life and works; the Pythons rejected their initial concept of Brian as a forgotten disciple of Jesus because the laughs stopped dead whenever Jesus was around -- none of them felt comfortable directly making jokes about Him. He remains in one scene where people mishear the Sermon on the Mount (which He is delivering straight), which basically epitomizes the real theme of the movie: the conflict between what Jesus said and what certain people thought (and still think) they heard. (The Pythons had hoped to persuade [[The Cameo|George Lazenby to play Jesus]] so they could proclaim "George Lazenby IS Jesus Christ!" on their posters, but Lazenby was busy.)
▲* Although He never speaks and is only seen from behind or at a distance, Jesus appears as a background character in ''[[Ben Hur]]''. One memorable scene has Him giving a drink of water to the title character. A Roman Centurion tries to stop Him, but Jesus just [[Death Glare|stares at him without a word]] and the Centurion backs down.
** In the original stage version, Jesus was played by a spotlight. Part of the contract from the author of the original book was that Jesus would not be portrayed by an actor.
* ''[[Hair (theatre)|Hair]]'' - The title song references wanting "hair like Jesus wore it." Jesus was so cool, he had hippie hair 1,935 years before hippies even existed.
* ''[[Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter]]'' has the titular character [[Exactly What It Says
{{quote|
* Tommy [[
{{quote|
* [[The View
** In a sense, he's right. Early Christians did not use the cross as a symbol as it reminded them of Jesus' torturous death. The more common symbols were the Ichthys or "Jesus fish" and the Chi-Rho. Even today many Protestant churches prefer an empty cross, emphasizing not the moment of Jesus' suffering but his triumph over death.
*** Actually, for many centuries after Jesus' crucifixion, official Church art didn't heavily use the cross but instead tended to depict Him in the styles of artwork that used to be used for pagan Gods; they were going with what they knew. It was particularly common for Jesus to be depicted in the same way that Apollo used to be in Roman art: a triumphant, conquering king. Around the time of the High Middle Ages, Western Europe began emerging from the height of the Dark Ages and rediscovering lost knowledge, with the first cathedral schools and universities starting up. Theological discourse developed, and "Christianity" started getting established as an ordered belief system more. This led the establishment of the idea that Jesus really wasn't very similar to the old Roman gods, and the whole reason He came to Earth was as an act of humility, mercy, etc. The result was a *major* change in artistic depictions of Jesus around the 12th century, a "humanistic turn" that emphasized Christ's suffering *as a man*: the whole point was that unlike Apollo or something, he *became a flesh and blood man* and suffered and died as one. Its from this point onward that the image of Jesus horribly crucified became such a primary symbol of Christianity.
** Jesus was also mentioned several times by Rufus over the course of the movie. While other parts of the movie parody different parts of religion, specific references to Jesus himself pretty much match what's written in the Bible. From the descriptions, Jesus seems to have been fairly laid back (he apparently owes Rufus twelve dollars) and enjoyed listening to people talk more than anything else.
{{quote|
::* Unfortunately, He still owes Rufus twelve bucks.
::* John the Apostle may be entirely different from the author of Revelations, it is a [[Flame War|highly contested issue among some.]]
* While most of ''[[The Last Temptation of Christ]]'' focuses on his internal strife over living as a man or dying painfully to fulfill God's will, the Wedding at Cana scene gives Jesus a sense of fun and humor. (Even better, the whole exchange is [[Canon]]);
{{quote|
'''Jesus:''' What's in those jugs over there?
'''Father:''' Just water.
'''Jesus:''' No, it's wine.
'''Father:''' It's water, I just brought them up from the river myself.
'''Jesus:''' Check again.
'''Father:''' (skeptically has a taste) It's wine!
'''Jesus:''' (smiling) Told you. }}
== Literature ==
* In ''[[The Mists of Avalon]]'' by [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]], the main conflict erupts between the local druid/pagan factions of Britain and early Christians at the time of [[King Arthur]]. Even so, at least one prominent druid (Merlin, no less) remarks that he has never had a problem with Jesus, only with the way most people interpret His words.
* [[Christopher Moore]]'s novel ''[[Lamb:
* [[Robert Heinlein]]'s ''[[
* Despite being irreverent towards religion in general, the beginning of ''[[
* José Saramago's "O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo" (''The Gospel According to Jesus Christ'') makes a notable twist in the portrayal of Jesus; while he is sympathetic, in the end [[God Is Evil|Yahweh]] leaves him to die alone, making his whole life a [[Shaggy Dog Story]]; even for works where God is evil and Jesus good this is unusual, specially considering that it is implied God might be a figured that Jesus envisioned rather than real. Naturally, many people didn't take this well...
** Also, when John the Baptist appears in the book, Jesus is sorry for not being so cool as him.
* Jesus is way cool and a generally nice guy when he comes down to try and sort out the plot of [[Robert Rankin]]'s ''Armageddon: The Musical''. His sister Christine, however, rather resents him getting all the press ''again''.
* In the book ''Deadline'' the main character has frequent dreams in which he talks to a character named "Hey-Soos". Hey-Soos is basically a tanner white robe wearing version of the 18 year old main character, has a calm, laid-back demeanor and is very supportive of main character Ben Wolf. He also likes to make jokes about his reminiscence of Jesus Christ through various means, one of which being when he made his hands bleed during a dream talk he had with Ben to freak him out, then laughing about it.
* Attacked by [[
** Of course, if you picked the 'God' option, then you would think he was cool. The message wasn't 'Jesus wasn't a good guy', it was that Jesus' life and teachings were 100% different to other moral teachers, and shouldn't be lumped in with them.
* [[Philip Pullman]]'s "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" is equal parts this and a [[Take That]] against organised religion (compare the many variations of "your Christians are so unlike your Christ" in [[Real Life]] below). It suggests that the "great humanistic teacher" and the [[Shameless Self Promoter]], who [[
* In James Morrow's ''Only Begotten Daughter'', the second Messiah Julie Katz meets her older brother [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|Jesus in Hell]], where he tries to lessen the suffering of the damned. Although he initially comes across as a [[Jerkass]], she eventually realizes
* In ''[[
* The Vampire Lestat met Jesus in Memnoc The devil. At first Lestat was freaked out meeting the son of god, but then Jesus gave the vampire a drink of his very own blood. Lets just say allot of catholics were pissed about this.
* In ''[[The Jungle]]'' by Upton Sinclair, one of the socialist characters who is openly opposed to Christianity admits that he is perfectly fine with Jesus, claiming that he was a practical man.
Line 79 ⟶ 81:
* French comic actors "Les Inconnus" once did a parody of Hollywood action flicks starring Jesus (or more accurately Stallone playing Jesus). The sketch, called 'Jesus 2 : Le Retour' (The Return) had Jesus introduce himself as "Christ, Jesus Christ", beat people up (a pun on "distribuer des pains" which can mean either 'give out loaves of bread' or 'beat people up'), turn the other cheek... only to knee his opponent in the crotch, stitch up his own wounds after being resurrected. "50 percent man, 50 percent God, 100 percent Saviour." (The sketch is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJDpbtYM3Y0 on Youtube], but non-Francophones will miss most of the jokes.)
* An episode in the second season of ''[[True Blood]]'' has this as well, with Godric interrupting a execution scene by the corrupt church, explaining that even some vampires think Jesus was a nice Guy.
{{quote|
* Subverted in ''[[Yes Minister]]''. Hacker and Humphrey both agree that if Jesus had been around in their time, they would have had to suppress him because of "all those things about the meek inheriting the earth".
* NBC's ''[[
* In ''How I Met Your Mother'' Barney credits Jesus with inventing a few of the cornerstones of Bro-ness such as the three-day rule and, notably, the high five.
Line 88 ⟶ 90:
* The Axis of Awesome has a song dedicated to this trope. Perhaps unsurprisingly, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKmh-0E5BjU it is awesome.]
* Inverted in Beck's song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPqnJ9VdNSY Satan was Way Cool].
* The [[Trope Namer]] by [[
** In an inversion of a typical [[Take That]]: "No wonder there's so many Christians".
* ''I'll Bet He was Cool'' by [[Savage Garden]].
* Look up virtually any [[Black Metal]] band if you want to see this trope averted.
* ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]''
{{quote|
:* And anyway, this is not Caiaphas admiring Jesus, but noting that whatever his plan is, he's playing it subtly and low-key.
* As you might guess from the examples above, this trope is often (though far from always) an exemption from [[Religion Rant Song]] targeting.
* [[Country Music|Miranda Lambert's]] latest single "Heart Like Mine" has a chorus that goes like this: "I heard Jesus, He drank wine and I'd bet we'd get along just fine. He can calm a storm and heal the blind and I'd bet he'd understand a heart like mine."
* "Jesus Is Just Alright", popularized by the Doobie Brothers, and later covered by [[Christian Rock]] act dc Talk.
* [[REM
* Woody Guthrie's song "Jesus Christ" depicts Christ as a socialist rebel killed for speaking truth to power (and notably makes no reference to his resurrection).
* [[
{{quote|
* [[Tim Minchin]]'s song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SFdUJLebzU WoodyAllenJesus] (yes, he spells it as a [[Wiki Word]]) lists some of Jesus's powers and attributes, and consequently [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|accumulates words to put in front of "Jesus"]]. "Dragon" is one of those words, but "[[Crystal Dragon Jesus|crystal]]" isn't.
{{quote|
== Radio ==
* In ''[[Old
== Theatre ==
* In the ''[[Reefer Madness]]'' musical, Jesus is just about the ''only'' cool person present. Almost all the other characters are pathetic, deranged, and/or sociopathic drug addicts, or they're incredibly square and easily manipulated rubes. Jesus, on the other hand, speaks out against marijuana as the lead singer in a heavenly night club, accompanied by a troupe of sexy, scantily clad angels. Even in a musical that satirizes anti-marijuana [[Aesop
{{quote|
'''Audience Member:''' You rock, Jesus! }}
== Video Games ==
* Let's mention ''[[
** And let's keep in mind that the above is only [[Fanon]]- [[Memetic Mutation]], even. It would be a good deal more accurate to say that {{spoiler|Joshua}} is God. [[Rule of Symbolism]] works better for that, too.
** I dunno... 'He,' {{spoiler|Joshua}} seemed more like the Devil or God's equivalent, but for Purgatory to me.
Line 124 ⟶ 125:
== Web Original ==
* In ''[[The Salvation War]]'', Jesus is definitely cool. He realizes how insane his father is well before anyone else and tries three times to help humanity (Jesus, Mohamed, and someone else, possibly Joan of Arc or Martin Luther), but after these attempts backfire and he sees how rapidly they are progressing, he decides to see what they can do to correct the injustices done to them on their own. Even after Michael the Angelic [[Anti
* Subverted in ''[http://ny.channel101.com/show.php?show=12 Jesus Christ Supercop]'', which portrays Jesus as a stereotypical [[Cowboy Cop]]. Possibly not a benign version of Christ, and certainly not a nice Jewish boy... but you [[Rule of Cool|cannot deny that this Jesus is Cool]].
* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDxgNjMTPIs this] ''[[I'm a Marvel...
{{quote|
* [[Richard Dawkins]]: [
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSLVgP79iaA Santa Christ].
* In the ''[[Mr. Deity]]'' series, Jesus isn't perfect, but he's almost always standing up for the general good of humanity and objecting to particularly unreasonably aspects of the way his father does things. Out of Mr. Deity (God), Larry (archangel), Lucy (devil and Mr. Deity's girlfriend), and Jesus, who are the four main characters, Jesus generally gets portrayed as being more concerned with doing good than the other three and more reasonable than Mr. Deity.
== Webcomics ==
* Jesus is a semi-recurring character in ''[[Penny Arcade]]'', where he hangs out with Gabe and Tycho, playing video games and being a cool guy in general. Though he is apparently a bit of [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/08/04/ a poor winner] at ''[[Street Fighter]]''.
{{quote|
* Quoted nearly word-for-word in [https://web.archive.org/web/20110819004736/http://jjrowland.com/wigu/20020124.html this strip] of ''Wigu''.
* ''[[Sinfest]]''
* ''The Devil's Panties'' has "J.C.", who often hangs out with the comic's version of its creator Jennie Breeden. He's presented as a really cool, pot smoking "long haired hippie" who often waxes philosophical with Jennie and [[Satan|some guy with horns]] and has a [[Friendly Enemy]] relationship with the latter.
* The now-discontinued ''Lowroad 75'' featured Jesus in a few episodes. In one, the main character and her boyfriend were surrounded by ads for Christmas shopping ("Buy crap! Because you're stupid!"), then cut to Jesus sitting alone in his apartment, holding a cupcake with a single birthday candle in it. ("Nobody remembered. Again.")
* A semi-regular character in ''[[Ansem Retort]]''. He first came to train the cast to fight against Larxene (much to Marluxia's disappointment, who wanted a hot Latino). He later shows up to officiate over Axel and Aerith's wedding, for an "Old Testament" drinking party with Axel and Zexion, and most recently has joined Axel, Zexion, Riku, and Marluxia to fix the timestream.
** For comparison, ''[[Ansem Retort]]'' is a comic that [[Crosses the Line Twice]] in ''nearly every single strip'' and takes shots at ''everybody and everything'', usually in as crude a way as possible (and I mean that nicely). Jesus is probably the closest thing the comic has to a "good guy".
* Sandra from ''[[
* In ''[[Evil Diva (
{{quote|
'''Jesus:''' I get that a lot. }}
* Heavily averted in ''[[The Brick Testament]]''.
Line 155 ⟶ 156:
** He also has a rather fitting knack for [[Heroic Sacrifice]]. Of course he recovers.
** They got it out of their system early on; the genesis of the show was in a short called ''The Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa'', in which the [[Lamb of God]] opens a can of whoopass on Kris Kringle.
* ''[[Family Guy]]'' portrays Jesus as playing golf with guys on weekdays, and going to bars with God on weekends (Seth
** But, according to ''Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story'', was a very bad magician.
*** And he's really short. Because people were much shorter then.
** Brian is skeptical whether the guy is Jesus, so asks if he can perform miracles; He responds by changing everyone's meal into a hot fudge sundae. Then, at Peter's request, he makes Lois' bust about five cup sizes larger.
** One cutaway portrayed Jesus as [[Soul Brotha|black]].
** He also entertains his friends by turning water [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3c-kz8-bIY into funk].
{{quote|
{{quote|
:* In a [[Christmas Episode]], he's in Heaven, teasing Vishnu, who is bummed out because nobody celebrates ''his'' birthday. And in yet another, He pranks Mort with a joy buzzer that He has implanted in the nail wound in his hand; nobody ever said Jesus can't be Way Cool ''and'' [[Jesus Was Crazy| Crazy]] at the same time.
* In the New Zealand animated comedy series, Bro'town, Jesus stars in every episode as every episode starts in heaven with god telling a story using the main characters. Jesus is depicted as a hip but naive teenager who learns from gods stories.
* [[Futurama|The robot Jews believe that He was built, and that He was a well-programmed robot, but they don't believe He was the robot Messiah]].
** That's the Robot Jesus, who may or may not be related to Zombie Jesus or the Jesus involved in the Second Coming of 2443.
* ''[[Clone High]]'' had Jesús, a Latino clone of the Nazarene, who would attempt to give sage advice to other characters but often ended up accidentally injuring himself.
{{quote|
'''Caesar:''' Careful with that nailgun, Jesús! }}
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' has referenced this trope a few times:
{{quote|
** They showed Jesus in another episode where Homer and Bart were being drawn to Catholicism. Marge had a nightmare where she went to the WASPy Protestant Heaven while Homer and Bart went to the loud, boisterous, Catholic Heaven. Jesus ended up in the Catholic Heaven, "going native".
** Subverted in an episode about religion where Homer begins reminding the family of [[And You Know Who That Was|a certain cool guy with long hair and big ideas]]... but he's talking about a guy "who used to drive that blue car", whose name escapes him.
** On another occasion, the bullies confront Bart after Lisa converts to Buddhism, responding to his "Who cares?" by telling him there's a man who cares, who has long hair, works as a carpenter, and has some crazy ideas about peace and love. {{spoiler|His name's Gunther, and he's dating Jimbo's mom. Sometimes he buys them beer.}}
* ''[[Lucy, the Daughter of
* In an ''[[
== Real Life ==
* [[
** [[Crazy Awesome|The two views don't exactly have to be mutually exclusive though.]]
** [[The Quran|That's assuming he said that part though.]]
Line 186 ⟶ 189:
* [[Thomas Jefferson]], a Deist, wrote a version of the New Testament that chronicled Jesus' good deeds and sayings without any references to the supernatural.
* Neil Diamond didn't want to do a Christmas show until his mother told him, "Jesus was a nice Jewish boy."
* Jesus is on the [[Deadpan Snarker]] article on this very wiki. [[Deadpan Snarker
▲* Jesus is on the [[Deadpan Snarker]] article on this very wiki. [[Deadpan Snarker|Deadpan Snarkers]] are awesome.
* "If Christ himself were alive, one thing he would not be would be is a Christian." - [[Mark Twain]]
* As shown in ''Religulous'', [[Bill Maher]] was severely outnumbered in a trucker chapel, and thanked his interviewees for their kind hospitality and their not-kicking-his-ass by saying, "Thanks for being Christ-like and not just Christians."
* John Lennon's infamous [[Bigger Than Jesus]] quote (which was [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|misquoted]]; see below) came from an interview in which he spoke about, amongst other things, the good Christ/bad Christian dichotomy that other famous dead people have commented on.
{{quote|
* Comedian [[George Carlin]], a well known atheist, in his stand-up routine included Jesus in his list of good people who were killed who wanted peace on Earth. His portrayal of Jesus in one of his audio books was very positive as well. In this portrayal he indicated that Jesus would probably be very disappointed in modern Christianity.
* Although he dismissed Christianity in general as conducive to "slave morality", [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] viewed Jesus as his [[Worthy Opponent]] and as an [[Ubermensch]] who radically changed the views of society. He says (in a book entitled ''The Anti-Christ'') that "the last Christian died on the Cross."
* A Christian comedian, Mark Lowry, once discussed Jesus turning water into wine in his act. He said something like, "What I like about Jesus is that his first miracle wasn't healing the blind or raising the dead... his first miracle was to just ''keep the party going''."
* [[Eddie Izzard]] frequently comments on religion in his stand-up routines, and thus mentions Jesus on occasion. In "Dressed to Kill", he stated that he believed that Jesus existed and had "interesting ideas in the Gandhi-type area, in the Nelson Mandela-type area, you know, relaxed and groovy." Just don't take his name in vain. Or call him "Jeezy Creezy".
{{quote|
* Prominent anarchist speaker and writer Emma Goldman had nothing good to say about religion, but stated in at least one essay ("Minorities Versus Majorities") that she respected Jesus for going against the dominant powers of his day and didn't entirely disagree with his
* Averted by [[
** It should be noted that Chesterton's point is ''not'' that Jesus was not kind and merciful, but that to anyone reading the Bible for the first time with no preconceptions about Jesus would see someone who was certainly not afraid to show [[You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry|wrath]].
* Stand-up comedian Richard Herring has an entire comedy show, 'Christ on a Bike', devoted to how much of the Bible is utter nonsense if you try analyzing it sensibly, but admits that he quite likes Jesus, he just hates the evils that he sees as having been justified by Christianity and the Bible. As he puts it, "Jesus was a cool guy, a lot of the people who follow him are idiots. Jesus is a lot like [[Happy Days|The Fonz]] in that respect.
* Philip Bowman, an Irish stand-up comedian, has an act called "Jesus: the Guantanamo Years." In addition to talking about Jesus' stay in Guantanamo (he was an Arab guy trying to take a plane into the United States and ready to die as a martyr, what did you ''think'' was going to happen?) Jesus talks about Himself in his stand-up comedy career. Come on, he goes around telling long stories about himself that go nowhere, yet slyly prove a point about life?
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN-8G0HCD5U A rather famous 1980s skit] by [[Rowan Atkinson]] was based around presenting this trope as a sermon.
== The Bible ==
Line 209 ⟶ 210:
** Not just good wine, ''the best wine''. One guy even comes up to the host and says, "Dude! You are this humongous freaking breath of fresh air! Everyone else, they start out with the good stuff and then give you cheap crap when you're too smashed to notice. But ''you''-you saved the best until the party was in full swing! Could you ''be'' more awesome?"
* Here are some verifiable (Biblically-sourced, that is) facts about Human Body v2: Post-Resurrection; the ability of either teleportation or phasing through solid matter (Jesus appearing in locked rooms), some degree of mental obfuscation (disciples at Emmaus), indestructible (1 Cor 15:42), immunity to psy-ops (Rev 21:4 - no pain, no sorrow, no sadness). And a guarantee that all genuine Christians get these upgrades. Yeah, I'm thinking that this kinda body isn't that of a zombie, unless you're talking about Necrons. Specifically, Necron Flayers. With built-in warp-portal generators. [[Badass]] enough yet?
* Dude was nice to ''the IRS guys''. He came up with food for ''five thousand'' people (so okay, He yakked at them for hours before that first, but the only reason that they were there in the first place was to listen to him). He did the whole [[
** And the only reason he bothered with ''this'' plane of existence - to get his ass kicked, no less - was to give ''us'' the chance to ascend to the higher one.
* Not to mention the fact that he can expel demons in a way that would put a Arch Cleric to shame (6,000 in one shot), and self resurrect without any help, Take that Grand Mages.
Line 219 ⟶ 220:
** He even [[The Nicknamer|gave his gang members awesome nicknames]]. Most famously, he gave Simon the name Petra (or Peter) which means "The Rock" in Greek. Oddly, no one translates it as "Simon called Rocky".
*** That's nothing. He renamed the sons of Zebedee the ''Sons of Thunder.'' How filthy a temper do you need to have for ''Jesus'' to be impressed by it?
* Jesus was [[Shaped Like Itself|so cool]], He gets a
* Let's not forget that Jesus worked as a carpenter -- ''millennia'' before power tools. He would have
** Keep in mind, he was upending tables -- which is even more impressive when you consider that some historians have suggested that those tables, given the era, would have been ''marble''.
* He later (1300 years, give or take) appears to Julian of Norwich (who 'wrote' "Revelations of Divine Love") and told her, after showing her multiple fairly horrific visions, that "It has been behooved that Sin should exist; but, All will be well, and All will be well and All Manner of Thing will be well..." which is the basic belief of Universalists (Julian was described as a Proto-Universalist) that, even the Traitor (Satan) can be given the chance, even in Hell to be redeemed and Return to Paradise with the Father. It's
* Jesus' got his first fan (John the Baptist) just minutes after being magically introduced in Mary's womb.
* '''[[Averted Trope|Averted]]''' for many, many people, right around [https://web.archive.org/web/20120604135930/http://www.veritasbible.com/drb/read/John_8:58 John 8:58], or, y'know, when he makes his own [[A God Am I|claim to fame]]. Basically put, he claimed to be one with the [[God]] of the Hebrews, the transcendent God of all existence, as a manner of begetting, which means either he was was telling the truth, or was one of the world's greatest psychopaths.
** If what Jesus said was the truth it changes from Jesus '''was''' (past tense, implying that Jesus is still dead) way cool to he '''is''' (Jesus is still with us) way cool. Being God is
== Other Religions' Interpretations ==
* [[The Quran
* Jews vary a little more in how they see him. Relatively few Jews have any qualms with him. Most of their issues come from the [[
** Well, and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2027:24-27:25&version=NIV Matthew 27:24-25].
*** Still didn't keep [[You Bastard|Pilate]] from getting a [[Can't Get Away
*** It is also worth noting that the Jews didn't exactly get along very well with their Roman overlords in any ''other'' areas of society besides, what with the destruction of the second temple being only forty years after. Jesus' disaster with Pilate wasn't exactly an isolated incident of Roman-to-Jew Jerkassery, just the most famous one.
** Mehhhh, if so, this is because most Jews are secularized and live in Christian environments where they don't want to stir the pot. And Jews in the past would have been killed for doing so. Theologically speaking, if Jesus really unravelled commandments that God endlessly repeated were not to be undone, then he poses a pretty big problem for observant Jews.
*** Not just
** There's a difference between not believing that Jesus was *right* and not *liking* him. Obviously, most Jewish people don't believe that Jesus was actually a divine figure, but very few of us think that he was anything but a very good person.
* In [[
** Averted with the Mandaeans, who believe that Jesus was a false prophet, and that John the Baptist was the true messiah.
* Some think he's actually a pretty cool Trickster God.
** The [[Discordia|Discordians]] would happily agree.
* There is an organization called [https://web.archive.org/web/20200220001331/http://www.atheists-for-jesus.com/ Atheists for Jesus]. Professor [[Richard Dawkins]] wrote [https://web.archive.org/web/20120422151521/http://richarddawkins.net/articles/20 an article] with a similar title and theme, though he was not aware of the Atheists for Jesus website at the time.
* Many Buddhists, including the current Dalai Lama, view Jesus as a Bodhisattva, an enlightened being who abstains from nirvana to help other humans attain it, and sometimes study portions of the Christian New Testament.
* Many Hindus, who tend to be [http://www.city-data.com/forum/attachments/religion-philosophy/52163-krishna-jesus-many-similarities-krishna-christ.jpg/ extremely accepting] of other religions, believe that Jesus was an avatar of Vishnu, and that in healing people and allowing himself to be crucified, he was actually accepting the karmic load of the people around him.
** That last bit is actually how Christians basically see it, just replacing "the people around him" with "every last human being ever born, ever". ([[Heroic Sacrifice
*** Well, the entire planet is "around" him, isn't it? From the perspective of someone on Mars, the entire human population might as well be standing three inches from his face.
* Porphyry, a Neoplatonist philosopher of the third century and the author of the mostly lost, fifteen
{{quote|
{{reflist}}
Line 254 ⟶ 255:
[[Category:Religion Tropes]]
[[Category:Jesus Was Way Cool]]
|