A friend of mine forwarded this reference to me recently via email, and I think that it bears looking over and discussing. The 1978 Awake article is entitled Do Others Do Your Thinking? and it makes some very good points. The deep irony is there for many of us of the “Conscious Class” to see.
“The majority judged that [Jesus] was bad because he did not conform to their ideas of how the Sabbath should be kept. But the real reason was that Jesus ignored these ecclesiastics [the Scribes and Pharisees]; and this was a cause of deep anger. They excommunicated both Jesus and the man who was the recipient of his goodness.” (Watchtower 1926, February 15, page 60 paragraphs 11-12)
The logic of this article is sound, and it is well-written despite it being a very old quote. So have you ever thought of this notion before? And what does the fact that he was cast out say to us today as modern-day followers of Christ? That Jesus was “excommunicated” or “disfellowshipped” by the religious leaders of his day is not that shocking- we know that is one of the things the Pharisees did to maintain power and control over their fellow brothers and sisters. For anyone that opposed them, it was their ultimate weapon. But why was he disfellowshipped by these ones?
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