The quesion, "Did Jesus know he was the Messiah?" is not a new one.
In fact, I wrote a paper about it 52 years ago at Wellesley. It only got a B+ with a comment from professor that I had read the scholars thoroughly and he now suggested I read the actual Scriptures.
And so I have done so and now answer out of that reading.
To ask the question of self-awareness means to put oneself into Jesus' consciousness as well as to undertake decisions about one's relationship to the early Church that produced the Gospels.
For according to the Gospels, Jesus certainly understood his mission. "I am he," revealed to the Samaritan woman; and "I am the Way the Truth and the Life," and "I am the Resurrection and the Life" revealed to Martha of Bethany. "Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you," Jesus comments to Peter when he confesses, "Thou art the Christ." Jesus' answer to the question from John the Baptist, "Are you the one we are to expect or are we to look for another" referred to the deeds signifying the coming of the Kingdom. According to the New Testament, Jesus was a prophet and more than a prophet, a Son of David whom David calls Lord. How then, can the New Testament witness think Jesus less self-aware than Jeremiah, Amos, and John the Baptist (who did not deny he was not the Christ)?! And of course the great Revelation at Jesus' baptism resonates on the Mount of the Transfiguration and at the Cross.
We do find conflicting traditions of Jesus' always being aware of his Sonship (such as Luke and the overall high Christology in John) versus growing into his mission--the desert experience after his great revelation at his baptism; and the wonderful argument with the Cyro-Phoenician woman where she calls him into wider awareness.
The current modern attempt (going back to 19th century) to get back to historical Jesus brushes off most of his sayings and doings as not really Jesus. We then find a humble Nazarene teacher speaking humble Nazarene things. Then the church blew him and his mission out of proportion according to this line of reasoning.
I can understand that folks want to do that. Obviously we all like the disciples misunderstand that gentle and lowly of heart one who spoke with authority and cleansed the Temple. But facile introduction of this particular question invites you to assume we can throw out the witnesses. The question of Jesus' self-awareness is thus an overintellecutalizing distraction that doesn't even stand up intellectually. It puts one into a position of non-humility of non-building up. It will confuse the children of all ages.
If we, the Church, are to realize our own identity in this Redeemer, if we are to call him Lord, I think we have to re-pent, i.e., re-think, and believe the Gospel.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Living Water
"Everyone who drinks of this wqater will thirst again." John Chapter 4
Cool, cool water on a hot day. Our human Lord is weary. Resting at Jacob's well, he begins his divine revelation by asking the lone woman drawing to give him a drink. She denies him and misunderstands him but keeps talking to him (Clearly he is harmless and she knows how to take care of herself.) Woman has no social position to keep up and so has left behind the necessary hyposcrisies. Perhaps having broken the social taboo against living in sin with a man she can more easily cross the boundary against conversing with a Jew.
Of course Jesus didn't save his Messiah-ship for outcasts only. His friend Martha whom he loved snd who fulfilled every duty of the home would confess him as the Christ (chapter 11). Today, though, at the well, this Samaritan woman received a spirit so powerful from the one who revealed himself to her ("the one who is standing before you, I am he") that she ignited the spirit of an entire town. "Come and see 'a man who told me all that I ever did; could this be the Christ?"
For yes, the Samaritans expected the Christ. Samaritans broke off from the Jews in--what?--the 7th or 8th century BCE and stayed with the 5 books of Torah. But prophets did arise among them, we have learned, called Ta'ebs, who prepared theirSamaritan hearts for Christ. One day our Bible group studied this passage by role playing, and I got to play her, the woman at the well. As the people came out and the disciples re-gathered, I rested quietly on the wall of the well and felt how my heart had been ploughed and softened to receive the Messiah.
And likewise the town! Their hearts were prepared by their prophets, and so they believed her, this outcast woman, enough to troup out to see for themselves. What what did they encounter?
............................. (we will have to see for ourselves..... until we also say):
"We no longer believe because of your word but have seen for ourselves he is the Savior of the World."
So the beloved community begins--the community that produced this incredible Gospel from the spring of water they received from the Christ, the living water of the Spirit that is welling up to eternal life.
Cool, cool water on a hot day. Our human Lord is weary. Resting at Jacob's well, he begins his divine revelation by asking the lone woman drawing to give him a drink. She denies him and misunderstands him but keeps talking to him (Clearly he is harmless and she knows how to take care of herself.) Woman has no social position to keep up and so has left behind the necessary hyposcrisies. Perhaps having broken the social taboo against living in sin with a man she can more easily cross the boundary against conversing with a Jew.
Of course Jesus didn't save his Messiah-ship for outcasts only. His friend Martha whom he loved snd who fulfilled every duty of the home would confess him as the Christ (chapter 11). Today, though, at the well, this Samaritan woman received a spirit so powerful from the one who revealed himself to her ("the one who is standing before you, I am he") that she ignited the spirit of an entire town. "Come and see 'a man who told me all that I ever did; could this be the Christ?"
For yes, the Samaritans expected the Christ. Samaritans broke off from the Jews in--what?--the 7th or 8th century BCE and stayed with the 5 books of Torah. But prophets did arise among them, we have learned, called Ta'ebs, who prepared theirSamaritan hearts for Christ. One day our Bible group studied this passage by role playing, and I got to play her, the woman at the well. As the people came out and the disciples re-gathered, I rested quietly on the wall of the well and felt how my heart had been ploughed and softened to receive the Messiah.
And likewise the town! Their hearts were prepared by their prophets, and so they believed her, this outcast woman, enough to troup out to see for themselves. What what did they encounter?
............................. (we will have to see for ourselves..... until we also say):
"We no longer believe because of your word but have seen for ourselves he is the Savior of the World."
So the beloved community begins--the community that produced this incredible Gospel from the spring of water they received from the Christ, the living water of the Spirit that is welling up to eternal life.
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