Jesus Wasn’t Starting a Religion. He Was Starting a Fire.
Reclaiming the Living Presence at the Heart of the Gospel
Introduction
We’ve been taught to see Jesus as the founder of a religion—a figure enshrined in doctrines, rituals, and hierarchies. But what if that’s a misreading? What if Jesus came not to start a new system of belief, but to ignite a transformation of being? Drawing from the teachings of Cynthia Bourgeault and the wisdom traditions she reclaims, this article explores Jesus as a catalyst of Presence—a living fire that awakens the divine core in each of us. To see him this way is to recover the original shockwave of the Gospels and to challenge the modern distortions that turn sacred encounter into political weaponry. This isn’t theology. This is fire.
Key Takeaways
Jesus awakened presence in those he encountered—not belief, not ideology, but direct recognition of the divine within.
Presence is the fire: the living awareness that harmonizes our thoughts, emotions, and actions in alignment with our deepest being.
The institutional church drifted from this epicenter of being, replacing living encounter with theology, moralism, and control.
Christian Nationalism is not a revival of Jesus' message—it’s a reversal. It replaces love with fear and Presence with performance.
Reclaiming Jesus as a wisdom teacher and presence activator calls us back to the living fire of transformation, not the cold ashes of religious identity.
“Jesus called people into an encounter with the divinity within them and the divinity staring them in the face... He was the epicenter of Being.”
—Cynthia Bourgeault
We have mistaken the spark for the scaffolding.
We have built doctrines around a man who never asked to be worshiped, only recognized.
We have institutionalized a presence that was never meant to be contained.
Jesus wasn’t starting a religion. He was starting a fire.
Not a fire of destruction—but of awakening.
A fire that draws you out of ego sleep and into the radiant immediacy of Presence.
That fire, Cynthia teaches, is the real legacy of Jesus.
The Shockwave of Presence
In the course on Living Presence, Cynthia opens with this startling image:
“Jesus was the epicenter, out of which the shockwaves of being go out like concentric rings.”
The Gospels are not records of belief. They are records of recognition events.
Moments when people saw Jesus—and in him, saw themselves for the first time.
The thief on the cross. Mary in the garden. Peter weeping on the shore.
These were not conversions. They were unveilings.
As Bruno Barnhart says:
“He awakens that which lies at the core of my own being.”
We Lost the Fire
And then—we domesticated it.
Over centuries, the living fire of Presence was replaced with theological speculation, moralism, and control. The Jesus who said “come and see” became the Jesus of “believe and behave.” The church drifted from the epicenter. The encounter became a doctrine. The immediacy became a liturgy.
As Cynthia puts it:
“Christ became more and more the object of veneration, encrusted in ornate theologies... and we lost the sense that Jesus was a wisdom teacher calling us to a transformation of consciousness.”
That is the central tragedy of the institutional church.
Not that it structured itself—but that it forgot what the structure was for.
To house a fire.
To carry a Presence.
Jesus as Presence Activator
Cynthia reclaims the real function of Jesus—not as a founder of a religion, but as a presence activator. His teaching was not meant to produce belief. It was meant to awaken being.
“Presence is the activation of a human level of awareness that allows all our other functions—thoughts, feelings, actions—to be harmonized.”
—Kabir Helminski, via Cynthia’s course
Jesus invited people into this kind of presence.
He saw through false selves. He called forth true ones.
He didn’t hand out rules. He held up mirrors.
Christian Nationalism: The Inversion of Fire
It is in this context that we must speak directly about Christian Nationalism.
Christian Nationalism is not an extension of Christianity.
It is its reversal.
It replaces presence with ideology, humility with domination, love with fear.
It wraps Jesus in a flag and forgets that he fled from kingship.
It shouts about "God's law" while forgetting the God who sat in silence beside the woman caught in adultery.
Christian Nationalism is the cold ash left behind when fire is used to control rather than awaken.
Learn more about how Virgin Monk Boy can help fight Christian Nationalism here
The Fire Still Burns
But Presence is not extinguished. It is buried.
Cynthia says the path forward is not to start over, but to return inward—to reclaim Jesus as the template of divine being-in-us.
“The image of Jesus functions as an icon of our own destiny... He passed through the entire evolution of spiritual transformation, making that passageway available to those who are drawn to him.”
This is not metaphor.
It is mysticism.
Jesus didn't come to teach you how to behave.
He came to show you how to burn—how to allow presence to take root so deeply in your being that nothing false can survive it.
A Living Gospel of Presence
We are not asked to believe in Jesus.
We are asked to become what he saw.
To shift from exterior conformity to interior resonance.
To know God, not as dogma, but as the very center of awareness.
To meet each other—not as sinners or strangers—but as sparks from the same flame.
“Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?”
Yes. They did.
And they still do.
Jesus didn’t start a religion.
He started a fire.
The question now is:
Will we build more walls around the ember—or return to the flame?
Before you vanish back into the trance of everyday ego maintenance, consider breaking the algorithm like Mary broke that alabaster jar—extravagantly, wastefully, on purpose. Tap “Like” or “Share” as a small act of remembrance.
And if this wisdom lit even a single candle in the catacomb of your heart, you’re invited to support the unfolding. A paid subscription or one-time donation keeps the scrolls unfurling, the presence deepening, and the Magdalene movement steeped in espresso and holy defiance. ☕️🔥
Thanks for revealing the core, the fire, and pointing out the domestication. William Placher called it the domestication of transcendence. Karl Barth said the church kept studying the crater of impact rather than having impact. I'm grateful for your focus here.
This writing is pure ecstasy — best understanding of Jesus I’ve ever heard.