Jesus was not interested in religion

Some comments from a collection essays and sermons by Christoph Blumhardt, chapter 6 "The Kingdom is at Hand" from Action in Waiting available in both hard copy and as a free e book from Plough Publishing: Plough books/ActioninWaiting.html

It is the task of Jesus’ disciples to put the nature of Jesus into action. This fact is generally not understood,since Jesus has been called a founder of a new religion.But that is not God’s word to the world. His aim was never to give us a new religion in order that we might live a bit more decently – in that case Moses and his law would have sufficed. 

With Jesus’ simple command to the disciples the Sav­ior is saying, “Don’t make a religion out of me! That which I bring from God is not a religion, for all reli­gions are rigid. They don’t want to move forward, they don’t intend to change. They set up shrines, they insti­tute museums, they set up councils, and because of all this they are a stumbling block to the world.” As a matter of fact – to be quite frank – our religions are a hindrance not only to the world but to the history of humanity.

Nothing is more dangerous to the advancement of God’s kingdom than religion: for it is what makes us
heathens. But this is what Christianity has become. Do you not know that it is possible to kill Christ with such Christianity! After all, what is more important –Christianity or Christ? And I’ll say even more: we can kill Christ with the Bible! Which is greater: the Bible or Christ? Yes, we can even kill Christ with our prayer.