According to Osho, Jesus feels like a stranger because he actually is one: he lives in another dimension—God—while we live in the world. Catechism gives second‑hand words that breed complacency and block direct knowing. Only meditation, silence, and dropping beliefs make you inwardly naked enough to meet him. Without awakened intelligence and awareness, teachings become pillows for sleep, and Jesus remains outside.
He seems strange because you learned about him instead of meeting him; become quiet inside and drop borrowed beliefs to truly know him.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Well, I was brought up as a catholic, so how come jesus is a stranger to me?
Jesus is always a stranger. It does not matter whether you were brought up as a Catholic or a Protestant or a Hindu or a Mohammedan. The very being of Jesus is that of a stranger, because he is an outsider. He lives on a different plane, he lives in a different dimension: he lives in God, you live in the world. He talks a different language; he talks about things you have not even dreamt about. You cannot trust him. You cannot even understand him; he is incomprehensible. You may have been brought up as a Catholic; that means you have been taught from your childhood things about Jesus. Those are simply words; you have not been introduced to Jesus, because that introduction is possible only through meditation -- not through any kind of teaching, not through the Catholic catechism. It is all rubbish. In fact, rather than helping…
Dear Osho, did the real master jesus, the one beyond all the christian distortions, to whom I once opened my heart, did he send me to you?
ALL THE WAY BACK THIS TIME, TENTATIVE AND UNSURE, I COME TO YOU. I WOULD HOLD THIS MALA AND LOOK AT YOUR PICTURE AND YOU WOULD SAY TO ME, USING JESUS' WORDS, " COME UNTO ME YE WHO LABOR AND ARE HEAVY LADEN AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST, FOR MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN LIGHT." I WAS SURPRISED BY SUCH HAPPINESS TO BE BEFORE YOU IN DARSHAN AND WAS TRANSPORTED BY THE ETERNAL NOW OF YOUR PRESENCE. YET UNDERNEATH SOMEWHERE I HAVE HELD BACK. I HAVE A BITTER HATRED TOWARDS FALSE TEACHERS AND HAVE BEEN AFRAID TO BE DUPED AGAIN. I COME CLUTTERED WITH MY FEAR, DOUBT, PRIDE, REBELLION, GUILT, AND WRATH WHICH ERUPTS EVEN AT YOU. I COME WITH THE HARD GROWTH YOU HAVE FOSTERED IN ME. BHAGWAN OF GOD, I LONG TO TRUST AND SURRENDER, SOMEHOW KNOWING IT IS THE BEST WAY FOR COMING HOME…
What am I to do with the jesus I thought I knew and loved for so long?
God is not the painter, because when the painter does a painting, the painting becomes separate from the painter. When the painter has finished with the painting, the painting has its own existence. The painter may die, the painting can live. And when the painter has finished the painting, it may be a beautiful painting, but it is dead because the painter cannot put his breath into it. That is not possible. He cannot pour his vitality into it, his life into it. The painting may be beautiful but a painting is a painting -- it is dead. God is not a painter, God is not a potter; God is a dancer. What is the meaning of it? In dance, the dancer and the dance are one, they can never be separated. That is the beauty of the dancer. The poet is separate from the poetry, the potter is separate…
Beloved Osho, as a christian I was taught, "jesus loves you and lives within you." I could never find him -- not within me, not within others, not in churches -- not to mention god, whose house a church is supposed to be. Now I've met you. I feel your love; and seeing others, I feel something in them. Yesterday I saw you in the house. I didn't even have to look for you; you were just there. When I trust, everything goes wonderfully. Is it you who enters me, who comes in?
You may not understand that existence loves you, because existence seems to be so vast and you seem to be so small, and you cannot conceive how existence will love you. Jesus or Buddha or Mahavira are small windows: you can accept those small windows from where the rays of the sun enter and a pure breeze comes in, and you can see the sky. But when the whole sky can be available to you, why get attached to any window? And at each window there is such a crowd that there is not much chance that you will be able to see from the window. At the Christian window, half of humanity is hanging around; just the Catholics are seven hundred million. Don't torture poor Jesus. I had to stop to go to Punjab for a small reason. You know Punjabis, and particularly the Sikhs... they are loving people,…
Question: SINCE I HAVE BEEN WITH YOU I HAVE COME TO KNOW JESUS IN A NEW LIGHT. AS A JEW I COULD NEVER ACCEPT HIS TEACHINGS. NEVER BEFORE DID I THINK OF HIM AS AN ENLIGHTENED BEING, AS I THINK ABOUT THE BUDDHA. WHEN I FIRST CAME IN CONTACT WITH BUDDHIST TEACHING IN NEPAL. I FELT AN IMMEDIATE AFFINITY TOWARDS IT. HERE NOW IN POONA, JESUS' SAYINGS ARE BECOMING COMPREHENSIBLE AND ACCEPTABLE. YET STILL DOUBTS PERSIST. WHY DID HE SAY IT ALL IN SUCH A ROUNDABOUT WAY, ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THAT HE WAS TALKING TO THE COMMON PEOPLE? AND LOOK AT ALL THE CONFUSION THAT HAS NOW BEEN CAUSED BY THE MANNER IN WHICH HE SPOKE. IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE TO ME, AND I WON'T FEEL COMPLETELY AT EASE WITH JESUS AS I DO WITH THE BUDDHA UNTIL THIS QUESTION IS RESOLVED.