1. Rausch, Thomas P. Who Is Jesus? In Introduction to Christology, pp Reflection Question:

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1 1 Who: Prof. Robert Lassalle-Klein What: Who Is Jesus, Chapter 5 When: Jan READINGS: 1. Rausch, Thomas P. Who Is Jesus? In Introduction to Christology, pp Reflection Question: In Chapter 5 Rausch describes three strands of Jesus tradition behind his preaching and ministry described in the Gospels: the sayings of Jesus, his parables, and his message of the kingdom of God. What are the key elements of each strand? Ch.5 pg I. The Preaching and Ministry of Jesus INTRODUCTION A. What has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him (Acts 10:37-38)(77). B. The Gospels offer various portraits of Jesus; he is a healer and exorcist, a prophet, the awaited messiah, the Son of Man(77). i. while John the Baptist stands in the line of the classical prophets, Jesus comes across as a prophetic and eschatological sage(77). ii. Rather than using the prophetic formula, thus says the Lord, Jesus iii. teaches in his own authority(77). He spoke in aphorisms, parables, personifications, and beatitudestypical of Wisdom speech- and called God Father. There is a more universal flavor to his teaching(77). C. If we move from the Gospel texts to the preacher who lies behind them we find three strands of Jesus tradition, 1.) his sayings, 2.) his parables, and 3.) the central image of the kingdom of God (77). I.) The Sayings of Jesus A.) The logia 1. Not all logia or sayings come from Jesus himself, but we can attribute to Jesus preaching 2. fifteen that we can take with some confidence as characteristic of Jesus preaching on page Themes: Thus there was something intrinsically challenging about the preaching of Jesus; his language is disturbing, unsettling, a language which afflicted the comfortable and comforted the afflicted and the disadvantaged(79)

2 2 a. centrality of the kingdom, b. final reversal of status, c. struggle or conflict, d. danger of wealth, e. call for a radical change of heart. (79) 4. Final reversal: consistent theme in his preaching. the first shall be last and the last shall be first (Mk 10:31) Canticle of Mary (Lk 1:52-53) 5. The Beatitudes (80) (Mt 5:1-48, Lk 5:20-49): 6. The Poor a. What we are accustomed to refer to as the Beatitudes vividly illustrates the disturbing character of Jesus preaching as well as the theme of final reversal(80). b. Drawing on the sayings of Jesus collected in the Q source, the beatitudes appear in Matthew s Sermon of the Mount (Matt5:1-48) and Luke s Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49)(80). Luke s version is shorter than Matthew s and is thought to be closer to the original form they(both) contain sayings addressed to the poor, the hungry, and those who mourn and thus reflect the emphasis on God s special concern for the poor and the powerless so evident in the prophetic tradition(81). Similarity leads commentators to suggest both reflect a sermon of Jesus containing the beatitudes and instructions defining love of neighbor. Luke s shorter form thought to be closer to original form in Q c. HebScrip uses ani for poor, also meand afflicted. The anawim are the poor of Yahweh who look to God for their well-being and deliverance, for God remembers their cry (Ps 9-10) i. Economy poverty: Under the monarchy poverty and injustice became a genuine social problem; the prophetic literature is clear witness to this(81). Economic changes and triple tax expanded number of poor during time of Jesus. Whole classes of people categorized as sinner, marginalized, and/or excluded from the community. (82) ii. Marginalization: It also included public sinners, women, orphans, the illiterate, the mentally ill, those with disfiguring diseases or bodily injuries, and those whose religious practice did not measure up to the strict standards of the priestly class and the Pharisees(82). 7. The Our Father a. Thought to probably go back to Jesus, with Aramaic original lying behind the Greed of Q

3 3 b. The prayer addresses God as Father, a usage unique in his time to Jesus who prayed to God as Abba (dear Father)(82). Two versions: Mt 6:9-13, Lk 11:2-4). Luke shorter and closer to original Bread means both food or body and our primary needs. Temptation could mean danger of sin and apostasy (Mk 14:38) c. While the Our Father reflects the themes of Jewish prayer, it is different in its brevity and simplicity, its universality, and its order, mentioning the kingdom before human needs(82). II. The Parables of Jesus A. Perhaps nowhere else is the disturbing character of Jesus preaching more evident than in his parables(82). 1. They challenge our customary way of seeing our world, draw us out of our complacency, force us to ask questions, to rethink our values(83). 2. Consider the Good Samaritan, the Rich Man and Lazarus, the Marriage Feast, the Parable of the Talents, the Sheep and the Goats(83). B. From a literary perspective, parables are stories that combine metaphor with narrative(83). 1. John Donahue observes that Jesus parables were unlike the fables of the Greeks or the debates of the rabbis; the raw material of Jesus language was the everyday world of nature and human activity(83). 2. There is an open-ended or polyvalent character to the parables; they invite us into their world and we often find ourselves identifying with different characters in the story(83). 3. They admit to multiple meanings, sometimes even within the New Testament(83). C. But if the parables cause us to reassess our way of seeing things, they also give us access to the imagination of Jesus and are suggestive of his personal experience of God(83). Using poetry and metaphor, the parables link the familiar with the unimaginable. In this way they give concreteness and immediacy to the transcendent; those that hear them are brought to face the mystery of God(83). III. The Kingdom of God A. Introduction: 1. At the heart of the preaching of Jesus is the Good News of the kingdom of God(84). a. Jesus himself may well have been the first to use the phrase kingdom of God, but its roots lie deep in the Old Testament(84). b. In the Psalms, Yahweh appears not just as the God who reigns over Israel, but as king over the other nations, and

4 4 finally, as a cosmic king ruling over all creation in virtue of his work as creator(84). c. In some of the later prophets Yahweh s rule was seen in an eschatological perspective, the final establishment of Yahweh s reign over Israel when God s salvation would appear in its fullness(84). 2. While there is some reference to God s rule or reign in the earlier tradition, the notion of God s kingdom occurs more frequently in the late Old Testament period(84). N.T. Wright argues that within Second Temple Judaism, the theme of God s kingdom evoked a complete story-line which envisioned Israel s final return from exile, a correlative return of Yahweh to Zion, as well as Yahweh s victory over evil in the form of Israel s enemies(84). 3. Thus the theme of God s kingdom, if not the actual expression, was familiar to the Jews of Jesus time. Many interpreted it in terms of freedom from Roman rule(84). 4. The kingdom of God is at the heart of Jesus message; it appears in the Q tradition, in Mark, in the material unique to Matthew and to Luke, and in John, etc(84-85). a. One is called to enter into (Mark 9:47; 10:23-25; Matt 5:20; 18:3; John 3:5) or seek it (Matt 6:33; Luke 12:31). Some are not far from it. b. Others fail to enter it. The kingdom is a secret not revealed to everyone; there are keys to it given to some. Most of all, it has come upon you or is in the midst of you (85). 5. What did the kingdom of God mean in the preaching of Jesus? B. Kingdom an Event not a Place 1. First, the expression kingdom of God (basileia tou theou) should be generally be translated reign or rule of God. The concept is dynamic; it refers, not to a place but to an event, God s saving power breaking into history in a new way(85). Kenan Osborne offers the following phrases as substitutes for the symbol of the kingdom of God: Presence of God, Love of God, Compassion of God, Justice of God, etc.(85) 2. Eschatological Tension: Second, there is an eschatological tension in Jesus preaching of the reign of God. It is both present and future(85). a. The Kingdom of God as Present 1. The Parables i. The parable tradition illustrates that the reign of God is taking place right now(86). ii. It is the seed that falls on the rocky ground, the wheat growing slowly with the weeds, the tiny mustard seed which becomes the

5 5 large bush, the yeast mixed in with the flour, the treasure buried in the field, the pearl of great pricem ir the net thrown into the sea(86). b. Miracles and Exorcisms For Palestinian Jews of the time of Jesus, sickness or infirmity was attributed to demonic power and sin. ii. Jesus exorcisms and his healings show that with the arrival of the reign of God the power of evil over human beings was being broken Jesus himself saw his deeds of power to be signs of the dawning eschaton(86). iii. But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you (Luke 11:20)(86). c. The Forgiveness of Sins The proclamation of the forgiveness of sins is more evidence that the age of salvation is at hand(87). In Jesus preaching it means reconciliation with God and with the community(87). Pharisees who objected, Who but God alone can forgive sins? (Mark 2:7)(87). o For the Judaism of his day and particularly for the Pharisees, those blessings were available through membership in thecommunity by Temple and Torah. Jesus was implying something else(87). o The blessings of salvation were available now for those who trusted him and in the kingdom he proclaimed(87). d. Table Fellowship In what is referred to as the table fellowship tradition, Jesus proclaimed the forgiveness of sins in deeds(87). According to Luke, much of Jesus teaching takes place at meals(87). For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, He is possessed by a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners (Matt 11:18-19)(87). To share a meal with someone in the Middle East, even today, is a sign of communion(87). The distinctions between the clean and the unclean as well as between sinners and the righteous found concrete expression in the rules governing table fellowhip(88). o Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile (Mark 7:15)(88). o vi. Meals with Jesus were joyous occasions they did not fast, even though the Pharisees criticized them for this. But he received much greater criticism for associating with tax

6 6 collectors and sinners, those considered outside the Law by the religious authorities (88). e. The Kingdom of God as Future But if the reign of God is a present reality in Jesus ministry, there is also clearly a future dimension to it. o i. In the Our Father, the disciples are to pray, thy kingdom come The sayings about the Son of Man coming in judgment also underline the future dimension of God s reign(88). Across all these strands and forms of the Jesus tradition one point was constantly confirmed: Jesus did understand the central symbol of the kingdom of God in terms of the definitive coming of God in the near future to bring the present state of things to an end and to establish his full and unimpeded rule over the world in general and Israel in particular.(89) 3. Call for an Immediate Response A third point to notice about Jesus preaching of the reign of god is that he calls for an immediate response(89). o The English word repent, used in the NAB, has the connotation of being sorry for one s sins. But the Greek metanoeite suggests much more. It means to think again, to change one s heart, one s mind, one s way of life, to assume a new standpoint (89). o Jesus says to Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above (John3:3) Evangelical Christianity sees here a positive requirement that a person must be born again(89). o The conversion Jesus calls for means more than a sorrow for sins. His sayings and parables bring out the magnitude of the decision and the radical nature of the conversion itself (89). 4. Relation between the Kingdom and Jesus The Synoptic Gospels do not represent Jesus as saying much about himself, unlike John where Jesus is the center of his preaching (90). James Dunn argues that the Jesus tradition consistently affirms the eschatological finality of Jesus mission (90). The sayings about the role of the Son of Man as judge are particularly significant (90). Thus Jesus preaching of the reign of God cannot be reduced to some universal message of the unconditional love of God, to a modern egalitarianism, or to any other interpretation which separates the messenger from the message (90).

7 7 5. Reinterpreting the Kingdom The death and resurrection of Jesus transformed the disciples understanding of the reign of God that Jesus preached (91). o Paul sometimes describes it as present: the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit (Rom 14:17) (91). o But most often his emphasis falls on the eschatological future John refers twice to the kingdom he uses eternal life to express salvation in Jesus (91). The Christian community needs to express the Good News of God s reign in every age (91). o i. At times the kingdom of God has been improperly identified with the Church. At the same time, overemphasis on the kingdom as realized or present risks turning it into an ideology, identifying it with an ideal political or social order (91). Contemporary expressions of the kingdom stress God s presence and action becoming manifested in Christ-like compassion and service for others (91). IV. A Note on the Miracle Tradition A. Most mainstream scholars do not dispute that Jesus was known as a healer and exorcist (91). B. However, the so-called nature miracles, for example, his changing water into wine at Cana, are more complicated (92). Some argue that it was a creation of the early Church, or a legend. C. How the miracles are to be interpreted is another question. There are two extremes to avoid (92). One would be the supernaturalist or precritical approach (92). a. In defining miracles as divine interventions from outside, it assumes a God who does not honor the causality of the created order. Such a God would be arbitrary and could equally be held accountable for natural disasters and historical horrors such as the Holocaust (92). b. Secondly, a divine intervention that overpowered the causality of the created order would compel belief. This would violate the principle that God never violates our human freedom, for in such cases, belief would not be a free response to grace (92). D. At the other extreme, many critical theologians approach Jesus miracles from the perspective of their original biblical meaning (92). i. Kasper notes that the biblical authors do not use the ancient term, terata, which implies the miraculous or extraordinary. Instead the Synoptics speak of Jesus miracles as acts of power (dunameis); John calls them signs (semeia) (92).

8 8 E. Kasper s solution to the dilemma of interpreting the Gospel miracles is to move beyond an understanding of science on the basis of particular events, observable facts, and physical causality (93). i. Instead he proposes the biblical view, a living God in history who in constantly original ways offers his love to human beings in and through the events of the world (93). Such a view denies neither the autonomy of creation nor the initiative of the creator (93). Conclusion 1. Jesus preaching, with his stress on struggle, conflict, and a final reversal of status that made the last first and the first last, was often unsettling to his hearers (93). His parables forced them to look at their world and their values in a new way (93). There is clearly a warning of eschatological judgment for those who disregard his teaching. 2. But there was also a joyful element in the Kingdom of God that he proclaimed (93). The God of Jesus was a God of compassion who forgave sinners and declared the poor blessed (93). His parables proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was already active in the world. His exorcisms and healings, proclamation of the forgiveness of sins and his table fellowship showed God s saving power for transforming lives. 3. The core of the miracle tradition cannot be denied (93). If the miracles of Jesus do not compel faith, they presuppose it (93).