The source of all comfort, temporal and spiritual, can be found in the Gospels, the ultimate authority for life and living. When in doubt or confused the "red letter" words of Christ Jesus provide the answers and directions.
Secular man, devoid of religious indications, has a jaundiced view of Jesus based on assumptions related to sacerdotal rites and rituals, often accompanied by strange rules and regulations.
The real Jesus for real man is often very different from our religious experiences in religious institutions and the interpretations of men.
The ministry of Jesus was very short. It took almost two thousand years to write the Old Testament; yet, the ministry of Jesus lasted barely three years. His ministry did not begin as a callow youth; his ministry began at the age of thirty when he was mature and experienced in the world. Undoubtedly, Jesus was a carpenter and understood the work of a craftsman.
The Gospels reveal that very little of Christ's ministry took place within the confines of a religious building. His principal place of worship was in the Synagogue, which was developed as a preaching and teaching institution of the Law in the time of Ezra. The Synagogue service included prayer, singing of Psalms, reading the Old Testament Scriptures, commentary and preaching on the Word of God, and singing Godly hymns of praise and thanksgiving.
This is the model of Morning and Evening Prayer that has been the essence of a layman's service for the last two thousand years. The Synagogue service did not have the ritual, sacerdotal rites, and sacrifices of the Temple in Jerusalem. There was a different emphasis and purpose. What good is sacerdotalism and ritual if there is no understanding of the heart? The Synagogue taught understanding as does our Morning Prayer services.
Only two sacramental services were ordained by Jesus, baptism and holy communion. Holy communion as celebrated by Jesus was far different from our ritual of today. The first holy communion was the feast of the Passover with a full meal of certain prescribed foods, not just the bread and wine.
Contrary to most believers' image of Jesus, the ministry of Jesus was conducted mostly outside the religious institutions of the Synagogue and the Temple in Jerusalem. It is recorded that Jesus preached in the Synagogue and made visits to the Temple in Jerusalem. But most of his ministry was in the fields, on the shores of Galilee, in towns, and even on the highways--such as existed in those days....He recruited his disciples from the working men of the day.
Not one of the Disciples came from the traditional religious establishment. And perhaps for good reason, as the clergy of that day were often tainted with ungodly ambition and devoid of an understanding or even respect for the vast majority of Jews who worked to provide the goods and services for the existing economy. Jesus was very knowledgeable about the working world.
Jesus was for real men. He was a practical man who understood human hunger, thirst, suffering and the deep-seated longing in the soul of mankind for a savior God, a compassionate God, a forgiving God, and ultimately a personal Redeemer. He did not perform elaborate sacerdotal rites and rituals except for the first communion supper instituted at Passover. Jesus did participate in rites and rituals in the Temple in Jerusalem--not as clergy but as a devout Jew following the traditions handed down from Moses. He recognized the role of rites and rituals as an aide to worship, but stressed that the content of the heart was more acceptable to God.
Jesus understood those negative aspects of religion that capitalized on human weakness through fetishes, egotism, fear and magic. He dismissed those things as did the prophets of old, he emphasized the weighter matters of the Law: Mercy, justice, human love, kindness, charity, and compassion. He stressed that these qualities transcended sacerdotalism. Christ's message was to change the human heart so that the Holy Spirit would indwell in us and we in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.