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Jesus in the Gospels

Jesus in the Gospels. Introduction to Christology. Introduction. The different gospels have different answers to the question: Who do men say I am?” Here’s a selection of ideas: The Gospel According to Mark: God’s Son of Man and Wounded Healer 

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Jesus in the Gospels

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  1. Jesus in the Gospels Introduction to Christology

  2. Introduction • The different gospels have different answers to the question: Who do men say I am?” Here’s a selection of ideas: • The Gospel According to Mark:God’s Son of Man and Wounded Healer  • The Gospel According to Matthew: A New Moses, a Higher Wisdom • The Gospel According to Luke - Acts: The Spirit-Filled Saviour • The Gospel According to John : The Word/ I AM Introduction to Christology

  3. Mark: Son of Man and Wounded Healer • Mark's gospel is really about the death of Jesus. It's a passion narrative with an extended introduction. • Mark tells the story by thinking about the death and letting all the events that lead up to that death move toward it and through it. • So, it's the death of Jesus that's the guiding principle to Mark's gospel, not the life.... Introduction to Christology

  4. Mark’s Big Question • When Mark writes his gospel, he is already aware of very different images of Jesus or beliefs about who Jesus was.... • One is the belief that Jesus is the Messiah because of the great miracles • And Mark picks up that tradition in a critical fashion. He does not deny that Jesus did these miracles, but he sums up Jesus' miracle activity in the question at Caesarea Philippi in Chapter 8. • Jesus asks the disciples, "Who do you think I am?" And Peter "You are the Christ. You are the Messiah." Introduction to Christology

  5. More than a miracle-worker • And from then on comes a sharp turning point in the Gospel of Mark that tells the reader that to believe that Jesus was the Messiah because he did miracles is not a real understanding of who Jesus was. • Immediately after the confession of Peter, Jesus says, "the Son of Man has to suffer and to die." And Peter says, "This should not happen to you," and Jesus rebukes him as Satan.... Introduction to Christology

  6. The “Messianic Secret” • The Gospel of Mark has been discussed under the question of "the messianic secret." • The “messianic secret” is that the true messiahship of Jesus cannot be recognized in his miracles. • And that the messianic secret of Jesus is that he is the son of man who has come to suffer and not the Messiah who is going to do great miracles. • And that will become clear only at the very end of the story of Jesus. And it is only the story of the suffering and the death of Jesus reveals that the secret of Jesus, and reveals who Jesus really is. Introduction to Christology

  7. Matthew: A New Moses, a Higher Wisdom • This Gospel is concerned with the position of the early Christian churches in its relationship to Judaism. • Jesus for Matthew is fully a man from Israel. Therefore, Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus back to Abraham. • But Jesus is not merely the son of David, but he is the son of Abraham. And thus Jesus' teaching also is one that is fully in the legitimate tradition of Israel's teaching of the law. • So in Matthew, but not in any other gospel, we have Jesus saying he has not come to dissolve the law but to fulfill it. And that no part of the law will disappear.... Introduction to Christology

  8. A new Moses, new Torah • Some have suggested that Matthew’s Gospel is organized for instructional purposes and note that it contains five sermons of Jesus [5:1-7:29; 9:36-10:42;13:1-52; 17:22-18:35; and 23:1-25:46], possibly recalling the five books of the Torah. • Jesus is depicted as a newMoses, presenting the definitive, eschatological teaching about the Torah. Jesus has come not to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them [Mt 5:17]. • The sermon goes on to present six pericopes in which Jesus employs the recurrent formula, “you have heard it said of old . . . but I say to you . . .” [5:21,27,31,33,38,43]. • The formula indicates the superlative personal authority of the one whom Matthew has consistently portrayed as embodying and climaxing Israel’s historical experience of God. Introduction to Christology

  9. Jesus: Wise teacher or “Wisdom”? • The Matthean Jesus is linked to the figure of the Wisdom of God who is vindicated by her deeds [11:19]. She, like the Matthean Jesus, is the one whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light, and who gives comfort to those who come to her [Cf. Mt. 11:19,28-30; Sirach 6:18-37; 24:19-24; 51:23-27]. • Jesus brings to bear the authority of the Wisdom of God – that same Wisdom who in the books of Proverbs and Sirach was with God at the creation, took up her abode in Israel, dwelt in the Temple, and was enshrined in the Torah. Introduction to Christology

  10. Greater than Solomon • This explains why in the Sermon on the Mount the Matthean Jesus is able on the basis of his personal authority (“I say to you …”) to teach Torah definitively. If the Torah expresses God’s Wisdom in written form, then who better to define its meaning than the perfect son of Abraham? In Jesus something greater than the Temple is present [12:6, where according to Sirach 24:10 wisdom has taken up her abode]. • The Matthean Jesus is greater than the prophet Jonah who caused the pagan superpower of his day to repent [12:41], and he is greater than Solomon, famed for the wisdom received from God [12:42]. Introduction to Christology

  11. Conclusion • To sum up, Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus shows him as both the recapitulation and climax of Israel’s long history of relationship with God • Also as one with divine authority to teach God’s will conclusively. Jesus’ disciples, Matthew’s church, are to carry this teaching everywhere with the assurance that the one who has been given all authority in heaven and on earth will be with them always until the eschaton is established in its fullness [Mt 28:18-20] Introduction to Christology

  12. Luke: The Spirit-Filled Saviour • Luke portrays Jesus in the gospel in essentially as a Saviour who is filled with the Spirit of God, according to the image of the divine man. The person in whom divine powers are visible and are exercised, both in his teaching and in his miracle doing. • The image of the divine man also belongs in Jesus' travel narrative. The gospel of Luke is the only one that has a long travel narrative of Jesus.... The travel motif has been a very important motif in antiquity to describe the life of great divine men, miracle workers, teachers.... Introduction to Christology

  13. Divine man… pious martyr • The divine man motif is important even through Jesus' suffering and death, because Jesus dies the perfect martyr's death, an exemplary death. There is no crying, "my God, my God, why has Thou forsaken me?“ • But Jesus dies commending his spirit into the hands of the father, as a pious martyr really should do in a suffering death. So the image of Jesus is one that is fully developed out of the image of the divine human being.... Introduction to Christology

  14. Teacher, social critic, reformer • Jesus in Luke's gospel comes across like a philosophic teacher, kind of like Socrates: he's reasoned, he's dispassionate, he's a critic sometimes of society but he's certainly concerned about the way his teachings bear on society. • And in the end he dies very much like Socrates. The death of Jesus in Luke's gospel is more like a martyr's death, it's much calmer, he goes inexorably to the cross, knowing that it is what must happen. Pilate isn't at fault at all. Pilate tries to get rid of the case by sending Jesus away to Herod.... Pilate isn't the enemy of Jesus, he isn't the bad guy. • And this may reflect the kind of political concerns of Luke's gospel. Jesus also isn't a source of concern because he's not a kind of rebel figure now, rather he's a teacher, a philosopher, a social critic, a social reformer. He's a good member of the Greco-Roman world. Introduction to Christology

  15. John : TASK • Examine the first chapter of John’s Gospel • Note the various names of Jesus • How many can you find? • Make an assessment of the author’s purpose/s here (in the light of 20:31) • Now write a 300 word account of “John’s Jesus.” Introduction to Christology

  16. Introduction to Christology

  17. Bibliography • Spencer, F. Scott. What Did Jesus Do? Gospel Portrayals of Jesus' Personal Conduct: Trinity  Press International, 2003.Stern, Richard C. Savior on the Silver Screen. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1999.Stewart, Elizabeth-Anne. Jesus the Holy Fool. Franklin, WI: Sheed & Ward, 1999. Swidler, Leonard and Paul Mojzes, eds., The Uniqueness of Jesus: A Dialogue with Paul F. Knitter (Orbis, 1997) Taylor, Vincent. The Names of Jesus. London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1959. Taylor, Vincent. The Person of Christ in New Testament Teaching. London: MacMillan and Co., Ltd., 1959.Tuckett, Christopher. Christology and the New Testament: Jesus and His Earliest Followers. Louisville: Westminster, 2001.Vermes, Geza. The Changing Faces of Jesus. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001.Walsh, Richard. Reading the Gospels in the Dark: Portrayals of Jesus in  Film. Harrisburg, Pa.:  Trinity Press International,, 2003.Wink, Walter. The Human Being: Jesus and The Enigma of the Son of the Man.  Minneapolis:  Fortress, 2001. Wink, Walter The Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium (Doubleday, 1999) Witherington, Ben. The Christology of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1990. Zelensky, Elizabeth, and Lela Gilbert. Windows to Heaven: Introducing Icons to Protestants and Catholics: Brazos Press, 2004. Ziolkowski, Theodore. Fictional Transfigurations of Jesus. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972. Introduction to Christology

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