WAS JESUS GOD?

According to the respected New Testament scholar Raymond Brown:

When asked whether the NT calls Jesus God:

1. Three NT texts unmistakably do (Hebrews 1:8-9, John 1:1, 20:28)

2. Five others probably do (John 1:18, Titus 2:13, 1 John 5:20, Romans 9:5, 2 Peter 1:1)

3. And most, if not all, of these seem to spring from a context of worship. (Expository Times, June 1968, p. 258)

THE 'WORD OF GOD'

The great 20th century theologian Karl Barth has taught us that when we think of the phrase 'the Word of God' we must think three ways:

The Eternal Logos (Christ)

The Written Word (Scripture)

The Preached Word.


(more to come)...

PRAYERS TO JESUS

An online friend wrote: 'There are no prayers to Jesus in the Gospels.' I think he was wrong, and will post some material on that some time.

Meanwhile: at the close of the theatre production of Gospell the young players silently carried the corpse of Jesus from the stage. At that moment there's a pervasive feeling of despair - will this joyous production end with the triumph of the forces of evil?

Then all is transformed: the production ends with the caste back on stage joyously singing:

Day by day, for three things I pray -
to see Him more clearly, to love Him
more dearly, to follow Him more nearly,
Day by Day.

JESUS AND PAUL

I heard a good sermon yesterday which suggested that part of the reason the Orthodox/conservative Western wing of the Church likes Paul (and often preaches from Paul more than from Jesus) is that Paul is discursive whereas the Jesus of the Gospels mostly uses narrative.

Figure this out, for example: why does Jesus never (never? can someone enlighten me?) use the term 'God' but descriptive terms like 'Father' in his prayers?

Another clue: why doesn't Paul cite any of Jesus' core narrative-based teachings/quotes in his letters (except perhaps for the Last Supper)?

We must remember that the apostles are to Jesus as Jupiter's moons are to the sun: multiple/different reflections of the Light of Christ. (I'm not an astronomer: but I presume Jupiter's moons give more light in total to that planet than our moon does to ours: does it?)

See my (developing) article: 'Did Paul Mess Up Jesus' Religion?'

Rowland Croucher

MEETING THE SAVIOUR

Review: Meeting the Saviour: the Glory of Jesus in the Gospel of John by Derek Tidball (Bible Reading Fellowship 2007).

Here's a delightful, warm, devotional book which takes us on a journey through the Fourth Gospel. The theme is 'glory' - a strange idea for moderns, but common in the Old and New Testaments to describe God's being 'worthy of honour, esteem, worship'.

In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) Jesus' 'glory' is only associated with the Transfiguration, but in John his glory is 'manifested' time and time again.

Derek Tidball is a British Evangelical, currently principal of the London School of Theology. Here he offers us 26 devotional chapters on various stories in John. His scholarship is unquestioned, and he writes too as a pastor. Being Evangelical he has a 'high christology': 'Jesus was God's agent in bringing into being all that there is in our universe... There is no corner in the universe that does not have its origin in Jesus... The highest, widest and deepest are his creation... the DNA helix, the quasars and quarks were designed and produced by him...' That's in chapter one: so we know what we're in for in the rest of the series...

Jesus was truly human: he 'did not shoot down to earth as if he were some celestial politician arriving at the scene of a tragedy for a brief photo opportunity.'

A good way to get a feel for a writer's approach is to go first to the back and study the bibliography: it's probably a naughty habit, but I find it enlightening. Just about all of Tidball's quotes are from 'evangelical' authors: the broadest, theologically, being William Barclay and William Temple (both brilliant scholars and writers, in my view). How about this from Archbishop Temple (in the story of Jesus turning water into wine): 'The modest water saw its God and blushed.'

I loved the chapter on Jesus and the woman at the well. 'Here was a woman who was longing to be loved... she was probably a stigmatized woman in her village... but we shouldn't assume it was her fault.'
When an evangelical scholar writes pastorally like that (many don't) I want to read more.

Get someone to buy it for you, and spend a slow month walking prayerfully through it: these homilies will feed both your soul and your mind.

Finally a well-known quote, again from Temple: 'It is no good giving me a play like Hamlet or King Lear, and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can't. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus and telling me to live like that. Jesus could do it; I can't. But if the genius of Shakespeare could come and live in me, then I could write plays like that. And if the Spirit of Jesus could come and live in me, then I could live a life like that.'

Review copy from Ridley Melbourne Bookshop - http://bookshop.ridley.unimelb.edu.au/bookweb/

Rowland Croucher
December 2007

More articles like this here.

THE CASE FOR THE REAL JESUS [1]

In the next few blogs I want to sumarize the gist of Lee Strobel's new book, The Case for the Real Jesus (Zondervan 2007).

Like his other best-selling books, Strobel offers a readable, racy account of the pros and cons of current theological opinion about Jesus - his identity, resurrection, the literary sources, etc. He brings his investigative/journalistic skills to the various discussions with 'experts' (note the 'quotes': I'll explain later).

In my review of his well-known book The Case for Christ, I wrote: 'Strobel's methodology is a little contrived. Strobel acts as a skeptical devil's advocate with the experts he interviews. But he is then convinced at every point on every issue - so there's an 'a prioristic' flavour about the whole exercise. (It's cute how he sometimes comments on a scholar's opinion as being 'theologically sound'!).'

Here again he betrays his conservative evangelical bias, getting all upbeat when a 'top-rate scholar' affirms a belief in biblical inerrancy, or substitutionary atonement, for example. Strobel, in my opinion, is a better raconteur than theologian.

But he's done his research, and generally the various theological/textual experts respond to his hard questions with balance and fairness. A few issues are in the too-hard basket (which distinguishes this book's 'evangelical' approach from many written by fundamentalists).

So here's an all-too-simplified Q & A summary of the main issues in this interesting book, covering each of the six challenges:

[1] 'Scholars are uncovering a radically different Jesus in ancient documents just as credible as the Four Gospels'

[2] 'The Bible's portrait of Jesus can't be trusted because the Church tampered with the text'

[3] 'New explanations have refuted Jesus' resurrection'

[4] 'Christianity's beliefs were copied from pagan religions'

[5] 'Jesus was an imposter who failed to fulfill messianic prophecies'

[6] 'People should be free to pick and choose what to believe about Jesus'

Here's another review of this book.

More articles like this here.

THE UNIQUENESS OF JESUS

Ernst Kasemann wrote a powerful book about Jesus - Jesus Means Freedom - in which he attacks our efforts to 'domesticate' Jesus, or turn him into an icon or 'make him bourgeois after our own image'. He recalls the apocryphal saying of Jesus 'He who is near me is near the fire' - the fire of judgment, an uncomfortable experience. The Sermon on the Mount does not consist of 'beautiful ideas' but is a terrifying examination of conscience...

So what's unique about Jesus? All of these, according to Kasemann: his complete refusal to acknowledge barriers raised by race or skin-colour; his demand for the most scrupulous honesty in word and intent; his rejection of every form of retaliation; his refusal to approve of our worship of God unless we try to be reconciled to anyone we've wronged; his requirement of unconditional love of our neighbours and of forgiveness that outstrips every limit; his insistence that inhumanity to a fellow-human is a deep offence against God...

To which we can add Jesus' searching words about wealth and its power to undermine integrity and harden gentleness of spirit. How often do moderns and their sermons on money try to explain away what Jesus said on this touchy subject! (I've been reading and listening to Thomas Friedman recently: because the whole world wants goodies, we're wrecking the planet).