One of the things I notice about the gospels is how well Jesus' message fits within this cultural/religious/political context. At the same time, his message was dissimilar enough to account for the opposition he received and his actions ultimately explain why he was killed. The consistently agreed upon problem across multiple sects was 1) We are in exile and need God to forgive our sin, 2) We need God to return to Zion, 3) We need God to cleanse the temple and priesthood, and 4) We need God to defeat our enemies.
The gospels present the life of Jesus as the unexpected answer to this problem. In the previous post I talked about how the Jews of Jesus' day viewed this problem from a very nationalistic perspective. In the gospels we find Jesus as the answer to these very questions minus the nationalistic emphasis. I believe Jesus, as presented in the gospels, addresses these very problems through the following grid.
Genesis 3:14–15 (ESV)
14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
In the gospels, Jesus IS YHWY returned to Zion. Jesus came to forgive sins. He came to restore the temple and the priesthood. He came to defeat our enemies and end our exile. But the enemy he came to defeat wasn't Rome. It was the serpent. The exile he came to end wasn't national Israel's political struggle, but rather the exile from Eden. He came to fulfill God's promise to Abram, that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
This wasn't at all what the Jews of Jesus' day were expecting. Their nationalistic perspective had made them blind to the ultimate reason God had called Israel.
The second thing I want to say about the gospels is this. There is a historical reality that needs explanation. Second Temple Period Judaism existed. Christianity began (as initially a very Jewish movement), exploded, and changed that part of the world. The gospels actually make the most sense of why and how this could possibly have occurred. Why did a bunch of nice young Jewish boys launch something so obviously connected to their heritage (see above) yet so radically different from that heritage and the popular expectations and practices of their time?
These young Jewish men and women claimed that Jesus was the expected Jewish Messiah, and in claiming this meant something very Jewish by it, but different enough as to completely alienate them from influential Judaism while at the same time doing very little to help them within the broader Roman culture to experience anything but persecution.
When I look at Second Temple Judaism and the emergence of Christianity, the only explanation for this radical transition is that these men and women were eye witnesses to the resurrected Jesus.
In the posts that follow I hope to share why I believe their testimony is valid.
