From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 18. ONE GOD, ONE MESSENGER, ONE BOOK – ONE BIG LIE
sharp intelligence. Perhaps that is the reason that they go mad. Friedrich Nietzsche says, ”The first
and the last Christian died on the cross two thousand years ago. Since then there has been no
Christian at all.” And he is absolutely right.
Jesus was the only Christain, although he never knew the word Christian. He knew only Aramaic,
the language which he spoke, and a little bit oof Hebrew, the language which the rabbis spoke. But
he had no idea of Greek. The word ”christ” is a Greek word, and the word christain comes out of
Christ. Jesus never in his life heard the words christ or christain. The Hebrew word for Christ is
”messiah”, so Jesus knew ”messiah”.
But once he died.... And it was very strange that when he was alive, overflowingly alive, and was
ready to give, to share, to pour his being into their being, the people were avoiding him. But once
he was dead, the priests were not going to miss the opportunity.
The priests immediately gather around the dead body of a Buddha, of a Jesus, of a Lao Tzu, and
they immediately make the catechism.
They start making a church on the dead body.
If Jesus comes back, the pope will be the first person to ask for his crucifixion again, because Jesus
will disturb the whole business. That’s what he was doing the last time he was here.
Why were the rabbis angry? The business was going so well, everything was settled, everybody
was satisfied and suddenly this man Jesus comes and starts disturbing people’s minds. He starts
people thinking, enquiring, seeking.... The establishment cannot tolerate such a person, because
if you start seeking and searching, soon you will find that the establishment is standing on a dead
body.
I have heard that one day the bishop of New York phoned the pope, a long distance call, and he was
really in avery shaky condition. He said to the pope, ”A hippy-like man has entered the church and
when I asked him,’Who are you?’ he said,’Can’t you recognize me? I am your Lord Jesus Christ,
exactly. What am I supposed to do in such a situation?”
The pope said, ”You idiot! Just call the police. If he is just a hippy, there is no problem. If he is really
Lord Jesus Christ then let him be imprisoned before he creates any disturbance – and get moving.
If he is the lord, just get busy and phone to the police – and be quick to get him imprisoned.”
The same trouble will be there. Jesus has promised in the Bible, ”I will be coming,” but I can tell
you authoritatively that he is not going to come – one experience was enough. Who wants to be
crucified again? And that time at least there was a consoltation: that these were Jews, orthodox,
traditional; they could not understand the revolution that he had brought.
This time, even that consolation will not be there. These will be the Christians, his own people, who
will crucify him.
Last time, Jesus had prayed to God, ”Forgive these people because they don’t know what they are
doing.” What is he going to do this time? He will have to pray, ”Forgive these people – they know
perfectly well what they are doing.” But they will do exactly the same thing.
From Ignorance to Innocence 248 Osho