Rumi and Jesus Walk into a Bar…
A mystic, a prophet, and the Divine walk into your heart. The bartender is you.
Rumi and Jesus walk into a bar.
Jesus says, “The Kingdom is within you.”
Rumi replies, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.”
The bartender—mildly confused but vibing—pours a drink and asks, “So… y’all here to start a religion?”
Jesus and Rumi exchange glances.
Then they erupt into laughter so cosmic it collapses duality.
The wine turns to water.
The water turns to light.
And no one gets charged for their tab because, surprise: you’re already paid for.
☥ The Joke’s on Us
If you listen closely to the mystics of every tradition, you’ll notice something unsettling.
They. All. Say. The. Same. Damn. Thing.
Not in the same accent. Not with the same metaphors. But it’s the same frequency. The same invitation. The same flashlight beaming down the hall of the human condition saying:
“Wake up, beloved. This isn’t all there is. You are not who you think you are.”
And what happens every time someone says that out loud?
Institutions scramble.
Doctrines get thicker.
The mystic gets martyred or merchandised.
And a whole new orthodoxy forms to bury the flame in gold leaf.
🔥 Presence, Baby. That’s the Whole Game.
Cynthia Bourgeault says Jesus wasn’t here to create a new religion—he was here to ignite Being. To jolt people into direct awareness of the divine reality already humming in their bones.
And in the same breath (centuries later), Rumi showed up whispering in Persian poetry:
“Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?”
The mystics don’t tell you to “believe.”
They tell you to burn.
Not with dogma, but with presence—that rare, unguarded state where you aren’t performing, posturing, or projecting… you’re just there, alive in your skin, lit from within.
Jesus called it the Kingdom.
Rumi called it the Beloved.
The Buddhists call it the awakened mind.
The mystics call it home.
🛑 Meanwhile, the Gatekeepers…
Institutional religion:
“Wait, wait, wait… be still and know? Sounds sketchy. Better write a 40-volume commentary and host a conference.”
Mystics:
“You already are what you’re looking for. Stop resisting.”
Institutions:
“That’s… dangerous. People might stop tithing.”
Here’s the pattern, and it repeats every era:
A mystic shows up.
They talk about union, not separation.
They threaten the control structure of religion-as-business.
They get branded heretic, excommunicated, or sold on Etsy.
Two hundred years later, the same institutions canonize them—after editing out all the juicy parts.
It’s not conspiracy—it’s entropy. Systems ossify.
But the fire never dies. It just erupts elsewhere.
🌀 Jesus Wasn’t Teaching Morality
He wasn’t just saying, “be nice.”
He was saying, “be reborn—like, consciousness-level reboot.”
He was dragging people out of egoic sleep and into divine presence with every parable, every touch, every soul-mirroring gaze.
When he said “Love your neighbor as yourself,”
he didn’t mean “be polite.”
He meant: there is no separation.
Your neighbor is yourself. You just haven’t woken up to it yet.
🫀 Rumi Didn’t Fall in Love with Shams. He Remembered Himself.
Rumi met Shams and his entire intellectual edifice crumbled.
Not because he was wrong—but because it wasn’t enough.
He didn’t get new information.
He got incinerated.
He saw the face of his own soul reflected in another being.
And that kind of mirror doesn’t flatter. It burns off illusion.
Same thing Mary Magdalene saw in the garden.
Same thing Paul saw on the Damascus road.
Same thing you see if you dare to be still long enough.
Mystics aren’t theorizing. They’re describing what it’s like when the veil tears.
🎭 Let’s Be Honest: Church Is Easier Than Awakening
It’s easier to outsource God to a system than to let the fire touch your own life.
It’s easier to:
Recite doctrines than descend into the heart.
Debate theology than sit with suffering.
Dress up on Sunday than strip down your ego.
But that’s not transformation. That’s roleplay.
And the mystics… they don’t do roleplay.
They do resurrection.
🕯️ A Few of the “Heretics” You Might’ve Missed
Meister Eckhart: Declared, “The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.”
(The Inquisition was not a fan.)Rabia al-Basri: Sufi saint who said, “I carry a torch in one hand and a bucket of water in the other. With these things I am going to set fire to Heaven and put out the flames of Hell, so that voyagers to God can rip the veils and see the real goal.”
Simone Weil: French mystic who wrote, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”
Thomas Merton: Realized in downtown Louisville that every person he saw was shining like the sun.
Different costumes.
Same invitation:
Presence. Transformation. Union.
💥 Final Punchline
You don’t need to convert.
You don’t need to climb some theological ladder.
You don’t need to “earn” what is already yours.
You just have to stop believing the lie that the sacred lives elsewhere.
“Don’t you know yet? It is your Light that lights the world.” – Rumi
“You are the light of the world.” – Jesus
Same bar.
Same drink.
Same flame.
✨ Remember This:
If someone’s trying to sell you God in exchange for obedience, it’s not God they’re selling.
If your spiritual path doesn’t occasionally ruin your ego’s day, it’s probably not a path.
And if your mystic isn’t getting side-eyed by the institution, double-check if they’re even lit.
If this post shook something loose, poured some wine in your cracked chalice, or made your inner heretic cheer—hit the share button, toss a coin to your scribal witch, or subscribe for more scrolls from the margins.
Because Rumi and Jesus are still laughing in that bar.
And you’re already in the room.
This one is a tsunami.
I love that at the end - God selling. That quite literally sums up evangelist tactics, it’s a sails pitch to gain your obedience😂😂