N.T. Wright - Jesus and The Gospels

thanks Michael somebody just mentioned to me something about books and all that and I perhaps should say as a sort of coming shortly that what you're getting today and tomorrow is for short segments from a book which is scheduled to come out in October and the book has the rather surprising title the day the Revolution began rethinking the meaning of the cross of Jesus or something like that that was my American publishers idea when he said we're going to call it the day the revolution began I said oh that sounds so 60s you know like Che Guevara and all that he said you're trying to aim at a demographic that hasn't heard of Che Guevara just get on that's what we're calling for and so that is that is what's what's coming and it both does and doesn't follow the order that I'm following here what you're getting is some some key slices and in the second one where we're looking at the Gospels now that's a massive a huge challenging thing to do because I think as I said before the church has often not really known what the Gospels were there for a composite of Jesus teaching what Jesus did all sorts of fascinating things about him but for many people it doesn't seem particularly theological a load bearing particularly Jesus doesn't seem what once you read Matthew's Kingdom of Heaven language in the way that I've suggested Jesus doesn't seem to be saying really anything very much about what happens to people after they die you have the little flicker of the question with the Sadducees towards the end of Matthew Mark and Luke where they asked the question about resurrection and Jesus gives them the answer 'was which makes it quite clear that Jesus does believe both in the ultimate resurrection and in the fact that God's people who have died are not there yet in other words Abraham Isaac and Jacob are being looked after and one day they will rise but that is not the topic that Jesus is dealing with for so much of his public career and teaching he's talking about the kingdom of God and this sharpens the question what does the kingdom got to do with the cross and for the last 250 years scholarship about Jesus and the Gospels has tended to focus on Jesus Proclamation and Jesus and the kingdom and then the stuff about the cross sort of falls off the back like I said happens in many churches were focusing on following Jesus in doing all these things in this community that were supposed to be doing and then what was his death about and ever since Ramirez in the 18th century who argued that Jesus is basically a Jewish revolutionary who then like all other Jewish revolutionaries of the period was picked up by the authorities and killed then after his death his followers invented this thing that we now think of as Christianity and so it has been ever since and the quest for the historical Jesus through the 19th century was really a struggle with is something like that right or do we say it some other way or how does it all work and again and again and again people within that movement particularly in 19th century Germany though Germany was the field leader in New Testament studies until really the 1970s and 80s when America started in a measure to take over they were looking at things from particular ideological and philosophical context which I'm not going to go into today unless you press me in questions which meant that they did not want to see the Jewish framework of the Gospels at all and they did not want to understand Jesus as Israel's Messiah they wanted to push that off to one side and say well that was then this is now and particularly following Hegel many would say that Judaism was the wrong type of religion anyway and that as we know from Paul Paul Paul rejected were justification by works of the law so we've pushed all that Jewish stuff to one side and we got something totally different namely faith which can go out into the world that was the way that so many scholars and popular readers saw it and because as we felt in questions it's actually difficult even today with all the historical tools available to get our heads around the way people in the first Jewish world actually thought because of that it's easier to bypass the whole thing as we'll see tomorrow often and often and often people have faced the question of Romans 3 1 & 2 and have given the wrong answer that is what's the point of being a Jew what's the value of circumcision and instead of saying much in every way they've said well actually no the Jews got it wrong so God has pushed that option to one side and has done something different the God has replaced election with incarnation instead of seeing incarnation as the fulfillment of election we'll get to that tomorrow but just to to pick up where we were before when Jesus says on the road to Emmaus foolish ones and slow of heart to understand all that the prophets have said was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory and beginning with Moses and all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things it's not a wonderful passage interpreted in all the things Scriptures the things concerning himself wouldn't we love to have been flies on the wall or worms in the ground or whatever if you need at that point to listen to that because it's that whole great narrative as I said Genesis to Malachi Genesis to chronicles particularly the narrative of Adam and Eve exiled from the Garden focused on the narrative of Israel exiled from the promised land and exiled because of their sins but exiled into slavery now just think for a minute if they're exiled because of their sins and if exile means a new sort of slavery as they say and they go on saying it even after they've come back to Jerusalem but the Persians and the Greeks and ultimately the Romans are ruling over says it west late slaves need a new Exodus exile need their sins forgiven Passover the slaves get free day of atonement sins get those are two totally different moments in the Jewish calendar they don't do the same things they don't mean the same things as they stand but in the Second Temple period when they have this extended Exile daniel says the Exile isn't lasting 70 years it's lasting 490 years 70 times 7 Ezra Nehemiah post-exilic writers say we are slaves in our own land one writer after another after another in the Second Temple period wrestles with the fact the New Age has not arrived particularly those great promises of covenant renewal in Jeremiah 31 haven't happened particularly the great promises in Isaiah 42 55 that the Watchmen will lift up their voices and shout for joy because in plain sight they see Yahweh returning to Zion that hasn't happened I get stick from some colleagues for saying this they say of course they believed God had come back to Jerusalem I say well I don't see it anywhere in the Second Temple literature possibly at the end of Ben Sira the book we call ecclesiasticus where the picture of the high priest in the temple is like the sun shining in full strength and it's almost as though they're in 200 BC some writers are saying well we've got the temple we've got the high priest he's doing the stuff he's teaching the Torah this is as good as it's going to get ha no 30 years later the Syrian crisis the Maccabean revolt it all goes horribly wrong so you have to contextualize all these writings but I've often said to people if you go to the Western Wall in Jerusalem today there is still a sense of presence people write prayers on little pieces of papers scrunch them up and shove them into the wall there is still a sense of this is where God used to live but nobody in Jerusalem today is saying that he has come back in person and in power to rescue his people and to fill the earth with justice and mercy of course not because it's blindingly obvious not not happened that's how it was in the Second Temple period and particularly the great promise at the end of Ezekiel that God will do again what he did at the end of the book of Exodus that has not happened that is that the divine glory of the Shekinah the the tabernacling presence of God will return and fill the house with glory hasn't happened they're waiting because until it happens Israel is not redeemed this is the narrative the narrative of Israel in exile the narrative of Israel waiting and groaning in travail the narrative of God promising to come back this is the story to which the New Testament writers the four Gospels are saying this is where we come in lewd vyd look ludwig wittgenstein one of the great philosophers in the middle of the twentieth century said that the Old Testament is like a torso and the Gospels are like the head that belongs on that torso it's a fascinating comment because Matthew Mark Luke and John all tell the story of Jesus as the fulfillment of the story of is obviously Matthew the genealogy which average Joe and Josephine Christian picking up the New Testament thinking I need to read this matthew page one excuse me Abraham begat Isaac begat Jacob etc and on and on and on but actually for a first century Jew that's a stunning opening the seven sevens we've had the six sevens of generations everybody must realize now this is the time axis and how did how is it Marx Abraham David exile Messiah because the Messiah is the one who saves his people from their sins which in second temple Jewish language think of Isaiah 42:55 means gets us out of exile because exile was caused by sin forgiveness of sins an end of exile Babylon Eden it all somehow fits it is as though the entire story of the world as I said at the end of previous lecture is channeled down onto this one point and either the entire story of Israel is just a fiction and a fantasy and a mistake from start to finish or this story is the story around which world history hinges the whole of the Christian faith is based on that belief so we can read Isaiah 4255 one of my favorite all-time passages and we can see how it's focused on this promise of the return of Yahweh desire promise of the overthrow of the great pagan powers that have oppressed the people of God promise above all of forgiveness of sins and therefore of new covenant and therefore of new creation it's all there we can read the Book of Daniel Daniel to Daniel 7 Daniel 9 particularly these promises about the world empires doing their worst and God vindicating his people and the strange promise in Daniel 9 of an extended exile which nevertheless will come to its Telos its goal its conclusion at God's proper time and we can see how Jews in that period this is where the Gospel writers are picking up how Jews in that period were wrestling with the possibility that suffering that suffering was not just something which one had to go through to get to the redemption but something which might perhaps be actually part of the means of redemption very difficult to say we see it in the Maccabean literature after the great persecutions under the Syrians in the second century BC second Maccabees 7 describes the torture and killing of seven brothers and then ultimately their mother and the brothers as they are being tortured to death say various things about the fact that God will vindicate them and that God will by their suffering bring to an end the wrath which seems to be hanging over Israel and in second Maccabees 8 the next chapter judas maccabees starts winning victories it's a very interesting narrative sequence it's as though the bad time has been focused on to these people than they've held on to it and they've suffered and died horribly and somehow that releases a new possibility that's one second temple Jewish Way most writings don't say anything like that but there are flickers of this and that's retrieved in a different way and fourth Maccabees there that other things are going on there as well but the hope of Israel which we can see resonating through Matthew and Mark and Luke and John in a variety of different ways the hope of Israel is that yes Israel will be set free from pagan rule the pagan powers will be overthrown Israel's God will be seen to be the Lord of the whole world it's fascinating actually today in this world of relativism that we live in how few people realize that Psalm after Psalm after Psalm declares that Israel's God is the God of the whole world and that Israel's Messiah Israel's king will be king of the whole world Psalm 2 says it as clearly as any Israel's God will be God of the whole world and God Himself will come to dwell with his people not just to let them off punishment not just so that they can go to heaven but so that they can be realized they can become genuine humans they can become people who will sum up the praises of creation people through whom God's new life and love will flow out into the world and to make that happen of course sin has to be dealt with to make that happen of course the powers have to be overthrown the powers that have enslaved them and all of this hope is focused on that phrase according to the scriptures in accordance with the entire movement of the scriptural narrative and so when we jump into the Gospels and we read the story of Jesus we don't simply see somebody going around being nice to if you like old people stray dogs and small children just for the sake of it and then strangely changing tack and going off and getting himself crucified you that the story just falls apart if you do it like that it's about the kingdom of God which is the ancient Jewish hope the hope of the Psalms of the prophets the Hope which goes back to Exodus 15 the Exodus song of of Miriam that God will be king forever this is exodus language this is God overthrowing the powers this is as in Isaiah 52 when it says how lovely on the mountains are the one who who preaches salvation who says to Zion your God reigns this is kingdom of God Old Testament holds kingdom of God and the suffering servant closely together Psalm 22 starts with the sufferer saying my God why did you abandon me and ends up saying the kingdom is the Lord's and he is the governor among the peoples these things somehow fit together if we have pulled them apart that's our problem and it's a very deep problem in the whole of the church I think especially the western church so what does Jesus do he goes around announcing that this is the time for God to become king this is what it looks like when God becomes if I by the finger of God cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you has come upon you aren't Caesar and Pilate and Herod still ruling yes they are but if I buy the etc what God what Jesus is doing indicates that a radical breakthrough in the cosmic structure of power is underway and that sooner or later Caesar and Pilate and Herod and so so on will realize that and I've often said to people when you think about it in 25 AD nobody outside a small town in Galilee knew the name of Jesus of Nazareth by a hundred and twenty-five AD the Roman Emperor was getting letters from the provinces saying what are we going to do about these Christians yes that's quite an extraordinary thing in terms of the history of the world but that could just be a flash in the pan of Luca this or that but when we delve down something very powerful is going on the launch of the kingdom movement on earth as in heaven when Jesus is teaching he is teaching about how this happens when Jesus is feasting with the outcasts he isn't just saying we should be nice to people who are beyond the margins he's saying this is a sign of something new that is going on you Luke 15 one of the great chapters that does that the lost sheep the lost coin and the two lost tons are however you're going to characterize it each one is an explanation of why there's a party go on there is a party going on because heaven and earth are celebrating together there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents remember sin exile etc Deuteronomy 30 when you turn back to the Lord with all your heart then he will restore your this is covenant language this isn't just I'm a sinner God forgive me it is that of course it is but that is held within the much larger tougher more supple narrative of what God is doing for Israel in the world where is it all going the Messianic vocation to which Jesus is obedient goes back with its deep roots into the Messianic texts in the Old Testament yes I know lots of first century Jews didn't believe the same thing as one another about a messiah even if they believed in Messiah as a whole at all there are many different views as to whether there would be a messiah if so what he would do but where we do find messianic expectations it is to do with the rebuilding of the temple with the great battle that will overthrow the enemy with God's plan for justice and peace throughout the world and this is kosta the puzzle of early Christianity that they all said Jesus of the Messiah even though the temple was not being restored in the way that you might have thought even though no great military victory had taken place even though it looked as though Caesar and Herod and people were still ruling the earth the resurrection they believed said that the victory had been won even though it was a different sort of victory than what they'd imagined the resurrection said that the temple has been restored but it isn't a temple of bricks and mortar anymore it's a temple consisting of human beings with Jesus himself as the cornerstone and the justice and peace that would flood the world was not by some great roman emperor sending out people to do his bidding or they'd be the worse for it but was by what we see in the book of Acts of people going out to suffer to bear witness to celebrate to pray - laughs to love to bring the good news to the end so that act ends with Paul in Rome in Chains but announcing the kingdom of God and the lordship of Jesus openly and unhindered it's a paradox but when at the beginning of Acts the disciples say to Jesus Lord will you at this time restore the King I have a debate with my friend and colleague Scott - in st. Andrews because we disagree on this and that's fine and maybe people here disagree with 2/3 of what I say and that's obviously fine as well because I've often said it's a dangerous thing to say at least maybe a quarter of what I say is wrong problem is I don't know which quarter it is you know at least a quarter of what I do in my personal life is wrong because I have somebody who is called Maggie who is my wife who will tell me and no uncertain terms when it's wrong and there's no reason suppose that in theology it's any different but I don't take that too seriously because actually what I'm telling you today is right but then as my my friend Kerry Newman who is a Texan says in my humble but accurate opinion where does it all come together it comes together because Jesus chose Passover as the moment to do what had to be done and Jesus gave to this Passover a meaning which drew together the new Exodus event with the new Day of Atonement together event it is a Passover meal of a sort but this is my blood of the Covenant shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Passover is not about remission for sins but Jesus Passover was because the victory over the powers read Pharaoh Egypt Exodus Red Sea is to be accomplished through the forgiveness of sins the to somehow go together Jesus chose Passover it makes sense of this moment in Israel's story the new Exodus the defeat of Pharaoh the rescue of the people the new law the new tabernacle the New Testament Paul as we'll see uses Exodus imagery to talk about the Holy Spirit he talks about instead of the people of Israel being led through the wilderness by the pillar of cloud and fire we are led to the inheritance which is the new creation by the Holy Spirit we're talk you have to have the whole exodus narrative in your head to see what's going on the victory is won through the dealing with sins Jeremiah 31 this will be my covenant with them I will put my law in their hearts and they will no longer teach people know the Lord because they will all know me from the least to the greatest because I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more forgiveness of sins is the means of overthrowing the powers do not separate these two strands they belong intimately closely vitally together and the portrait of Jesus in the Gospels goes deep and deep and deep into that as I stand back from all of this in the light of Jesus and the kingdom of the Cross I find myself struggling again and again to say what has to be said at this very dense moment it's rather like learning musicologists here anyone who's studied music anyone practice music conducts music one or two hands going up if you've ever studied the score of a symphony I'm not a musician in that sense I'm not a professional but I love looking and thinking about music and trying stumblingly to play bits of it and if you've ever followed a great symphony with the score in your hands and you see all these notes and the different things that are happening and you think how could this possibly work together how could anyone have had all this in their head at the same time and yet when you listen to it this grate crashing chord makes so much sense of the music that we've been hearing for the last 20 minutes whatever it is something similar is going on in the Gospels don't be surprised if you hear many different things they actually harmonize together and we have to try to unpack them all so I was talking before about the human vocation being the image of God the image which is placed in the temple which is creation in order that the people all around that the world around the creation around will know who God is and in order that God's purpose will go into the world and the human problem as we said is not just sin but idolatry look at the prophets look at Deuteronomy and idolatry hands to the principalities and powers to the idols the power which humans themselves ought to be exercising the powers therefore need to be defeated through sins being forgiven because human sin keeps the powers in power so that when sin is forgiven then the whole that the powers of God over the world is broken we see this I think particularly in the foot washing scene in John extraordinary passage as I'm sure you know in John chapter 13 where it isn't just an example of how to love one another and all that though of course it is that of course it is that it means what it means within the larger story of John's Gospel John tells this cosmic story in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the word became flesh and tabernacled in our midst as skinner sin and a min that's 10th language Tabernacle language and we gazed upon his glory this is the Genesis story this is the Exodus story this is the Isaiah story with bits of Psalms and other things woven in and though John doesn't talk about the logos from then on he wants you to hold that entire story and say as we read this whole narrative about Jesus this is what is actually going on and so we get the hints as we go on through John about the good shepherd the good yes we want a good shepherd we want a Shepherd like David to lead us to rescue us etc well the Good Shepherd gives his life for the Sheep how is that going to work what will that mean chapter 11 Caiaphas wily old Caiaphas again says you know nothing it's better that one person died for the people than the whole people perish because if we let him go on doing what he's doing the road are going to come and take away our place in our nation then what will become of us and then there's a moment which seems very strange but which i think is foundational for John's theology of the cross in Chapter 12 remember when the Greeks come to the feast here we are in Jerusalem something all these Greek try being an oxidant having all these Americans turn up you know what sorry so what's this all about the Greeks and the Greeks say we want to see Jesus and a typical moment of johanan irony Jesus doesn't say fine and give me another iron and I'll have a cup of coffee with them you know Jesus doesn't seem to do anything about them at all he goes into this long riff about unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it remains alone but if it dies it bears much fruit what's that got to do with the Greeks coming then he says now is my soul troubled what shall I say father save me from the Tsar no for this purpose I've come to this a father glorify your name and the voice from heaven says I have glorified it and I will glorify it again and then he says let me just find the exact passage Jesus says this voice the voice that says I have glorified it will glorify it again this voice has come for your sake not for mine then this is verse 31 of John 12 now is the judgment of this world now is the ruler of this world cast out and if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself that's the answer to the question of the Greeks we had to go a long way around to get there the point seems to be this the rest of the world is under the rule the power of the evil one for the Greeks to hear and believe the gospel and to be welcomed into God's family will take a mighty act of rescue a new Exodus now the ruler of this world will be and this doesn't stop here it goes on through chapters 13 14 16 where Jesus says the ruler of this world is coming he has nothing on me but I'm doing what the father has told me and then in chapter 16 he said that when the spirit comes he will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment Jesus is talking about a defeat of the ruler of this world who's he talking about the Satan yes seize it yes powers that imprison people yes ultimately the Satan how does this happen typical John when we get to chapters 18 and 19 that theme of the ruler of this world being cast out isn't mentioned again what we get instead is Jesus and Pilate going head to head and arguing about Kingdom and truth and power and then Pilate doing what the kingdoms of this world do best which is to kill and crush all opposition when I said this always happens when I talk about the cross I'm not joking I have preached and taught this stuff 40 years now and if something like that is going to happen that's the precise moment when it happens again and again and again preaches among you will know I'm not making this up anyway um in John 13 John says Jesus having loved his own who were in the world he loved them East tell us to the uttermost and then immediately he says that the Satan had put it into the heart of Judas to betray him we get these two strands side by side the love of God and the schemes of the Satan and it is as though we feel Odin's always say this because we are speaking in fear and trembling about realities that are much bigger than anything we actually know it is as though somehow the Satan is doing his worst at the moment when God in love is doing his uttermost and somehow that is how it has to be because the Satan will do everything he can and when God overthrows that assault then it is clear that the victory is won it is clear in John's Gospel from the resurrection but it is also clear in John's Gospel that what the resurrection does is to reveal the truth of what was accomplished when Jesus said tell Estee it's finished it's done in John chapter 19 and this is why as well the great theme at this point in John is not just about kingdom and power but is about temple the word became flesh and tabernacled in our midst and we gazed upon his glory where is the glory revealed clearly for John in the cross in the cross which is the moment when we see what the love of God really looks like because it is taking the worst that humans can do that kingdoms can do that the Satan can do and dealing with it and exhausting it the cross unveils the returning glory of Israel's God this is what Isaiah 52 6 and following was all about and when I say 6 and following it's the kingdom of God the return of Yahweh and the triumphant suffering ministry of the servant in the whole of chapter 53 and that is why it is also a temple scene that's why in John 17 many commentators have said this is the high priestly prayer this is like Aaron coming into the presence of God with his people on his breastplate this is Jesus standing before the Father and praying for his own who are in the world whom he is loving loving unto the end because John's Gospel is about the construction of the new temple the temple which is Jesus and his followers Rowan Williams has a lovely article from some years ago where he points out that in the resurrection scene in John there are two angels sitting one at the head and one of the foot what does that remind you of in terms of the Jewish the ancient Hebrew Tabernacle scheme it's the mercy seat with the cherubim at either end this is where you may expect to meet Israel's God this is where Israel's God has made himself known in his death and now in his resurrection this is the returning glory and the results of this clearly in John chapter 20 is that now ruler of this world has been defeated so that now the world mission may begin in earnest 2019 following as the father sent me so I send you we may or may not see tomorrow depending on how much time I find I have talking about some Paul something very similar is going on in Paul's theology of mission that because of the death of Jesus for sins the rule of the present evil age and its powers has been broken so that the Gentile mission can happen not simply because something rather special has happened and we better go and tell more people about it though of course that is true as well but because with the death of Jesus a victory has been won which means that the nations of the world whether or not they know anything about it are in fact claimed in love by the God who made them there's much more one could say about John but I hope you see from that that there is an integration in John of the notion of kingdom and of the notion of the meaning of the Cross and of many other things besides in which the way we have pulled the Gospels apart making it either about the kingdom on earth as in heaven or about the meaning of the Cross saving ourselves from sin that's a false either or a false antithesis for John they come together you know work back through the Gospels and do a few words on Luke and then back through Matthew and Mark before we sum this up and that there's much much more that could be said and I hope you will see this as an agenda which you will go home with and and think about and pray about and and study some more about and maybe even get the book when it comes out in October I shall go on hinting about that oh and by the way yeah I'm always told I have to mention this I'm doing some online courses right now WWNT you write online org various online courses which are available and we did one I and the people who organized it did one on these themes some weeks ago which will appear online sometime in the autumn around the same time as the book I guess so becoming back through some of what I'm doing here anyway so Luke and Luke start at the beginning in the end the end we already looked at the two disciples on the road to emmaus saying we had hoped that he would redeem Israel and that question I think I skipped in over discussing it in Acts chapter 1 when the disciples say Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel is Jesus answer yes but or no but I think it's clearly yes but it is not for you to know times or seasons but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon me upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth that is basically saying yes the kingdom of God is launched like Matthew 28 Jesus says all authority has been given to me on earth and in heaven and on earth therefore go and make disciples the mission of the church is the implementation of Jesus kingdom bringing victory am I being offered a new microphone yes thank you that's very kind I mean I think my voice probably can carry it but kinda to you and maybe to anyone who is hard of hearing if we have well thank you very much fresh microphone feels good yep there we are thank you very much but um and so in Luke 24 we had hoped that he would redeem Israel and now obviously he hasn't because he died on a cross so he can't have done and Jesus says you're foolish you didn't understand what the whole prophetic narrative was about and then when Jesus meets the disciples in the upper room shortly after that he says this is how Moses and the prophets and everything else had to be fulfilled and now repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be announced in my name in all the world beginning from Jerusalem and forgiveness of sins is one of those things that goes from point one on the scale to point 100 on the scale it means me it means you it means forgiveness every just as you've always heard it preached and as we've all lived on it and been grateful to God for it but it's as though Jesus is saying a whole new world is opening up and it has the word forgiveness written above it wonderful if even some little bits of the world would actually you know that's what Desmond Tutu did in South Africa with his commission for truth and reconciliation was a way of saying we want a new country with the word forgiveness written above it and it's tough and it's costly and it's it's dangerous and it's difficult but what Desmond Tutu did in South Africa sure as anything beats what they do in the Middle East or what we did in Northern Ireland etc etc etc forgiveness is the new reality and we are invited to inhabit it to drink it in to make it our own personally of course people sometimes hear me playing off a corporate meaning of this with an individual me absolutely not our danger in the modern Western world has been that we over individualize but when you get the larger picture that doesn't rule out the individual meaning it contextualizes it it stops it just being about me and my salvation which then plays back into what Martin Luther called home Owen Cove artisan say humans turned in on themselves as though the whole message is about me it really isn't it's about God in God's world and I am just delighted to be one little bit part player in that so how does Luke tell the story Luke tells the story about the kingdom of God rooted in Scripture Luke one and two is obviously rooted in Israel scriptures think of the Benedictus think of the Magnificat think of the nunc dimittis those great poems think of the way Luke tells the story echoing 1 and 2 Samuel echoing the call of David particularly in order to say this is where that story was going all along but he tells the story I think all the Gospels do this but in Luke I think it's most obvious so that there are two things going on simultaneously on the one hand Jesus is announcing judgment on rebel Israel he's saying think of Luke 13 1 following when they tell him about some people who've been pilgrims in the temple and Pontius Pilate has sent in the troops and has killed these Galileans as they were offering their sacrifice and Jesus says where they were sinners than all the others in Jerusalem know unless you repent you will all likewise Parrish and then he says what about those eighteen on whom the Tower of Siloam fell and crushed them were they were sinners than everyone else in Jerusalem no but unless you repent you will all likewise perish and generations have taken that as a warning that unless you say sorry to God for your sins you will fry in hell after you die it's not what Jesus is talking about he's talking about Roman swords in the temple and falling masonry in the precincts because he's warning again and again in Luke's Gospel particularly that Israel is heading the wrong way that his people to whom he is announcing a message of peace are hell-bent upon revolution against Rome which is the rejection of their god-given vocation to be the light of the world they think they can be the light of the world by military revolution can't be done he comes into Jerusalem in Luke 19 riding on a donkey in tears saying if only you'd known the things that make for peace but now they are hidden from your eyes I've been telling this all along and the days will come when your enemies will come and cast a bank about you and leave not one stone upon another because you didn't know the time of your visitation the hemorrhoids Epis kept 0su the time when God was visiting you in person so Jesus is warning that the whole national mood of Israel which was leading to confrontation with Rome would lead to a devastating war from which there could be only one result the Romans would come and do what the Romans always did which is to kill those armies of brigands who were eager for a revoltin revolution the holy warriors who would say their prayers study that hora sharpen their swords and believe that God would give it had happened two centuries before the time of the Maccabees and they believed it would happen again only this time for real and for keeps and she said that's not the sort of God that Israel scriptures are talking about but then the second thing that Jesus does having as he is announcing these warnings of terrible judgment of actual physical horrible Roman judgment against rebel Israel Jesus again and again and again through Luke's Gospel identifies with his people Israel from the moment of his baptism onwards and Matthew of course brings us out even more he is identifying with people feasting with him celebrating with them putting his arms around children saying I'm with you visa these are these are my people these lovely folk I'm rescuing them he's identified and when he when he touches that dead body in Luke 7 the widow's son at name it's happening again no it's not when he touches the dead body and name it is something is rotten in the state of their mark hello try one more time when he touches that you know it's okay we'll give it up not worried um Jesus Jesus is becoming unclean he is becoming unclean by touching it he's becoming unclean when that woman if the issue of blood touches him he constantly is identifying with his people at apparent cost to himself and the way the story works is of course that these two strands run together think about what happens when Jesus goes and has a lunch with so kiyose in Luke 19 and they take he's gone in to eat with a man who's a sinner or Luke 15 this man receives sinners and eats with them and Luke is drawing the eye up to the point where they say he's gone out to die with the brigands he is identified with the rebels with the very people he denounced God's judgment on and the way Luke tells the story invites us to conclude in a quotation from my own teacher George Caird from here 40 years ago that in literal historic truth as well as in theological interpretation the one bore the sins of the many Jesus died creet Lee actually the very death he had predicted for the people as a whole having by the whole structure and shape of his kingdom ministry made it clear that this was the way the kingdom would come think of what he says when they come to arrest him in Luke 22 53 he says this is your hour and the power of darkness this is the moment when darkness is doing its worst so it's not just an individual transaction jesus knows that what he's doing is about a victory over the principalities and powers they have come to do their worst and the way the victory will be one is by him allowing them to do their worst to him but how does that happen you know it's extraordinary 30 40 years ago it was popular for people to say that Luke has no atonement theology there were books which actually said that and that they were the the mainstream partly because Luke doesn't have a version of mark 10:45 the Son of Man came to give his life a ransom so Luke has woven it into his whole narrative he isn't just imposing it by one verse here and there and the narrative goes like this at the beginning of Luke 23 we found this man perverting the people forbidding to give tribute to Caesar going about saying that he is the Messiah a king and Luke's readin knows that these are charges of which Jesus is innocent but which they're pinning on to him and this goes on again and again throughout Luke 23 the way the victory over the powers is one is by the innocent dying the death of the guilty Christus Victor with substitution at its heart with representative substitution because it isn't just anyone who stands in the way it's the one who represents Israel so that he can properly stand in their place the different themes belong together so when Jesus gives those odd sayings about the hen and the chickens you know how often would I have gathered you like a hen gathering her chicks under her wing and you would not the images of an attack on a farmyard either by a marauding fox or by afar or something and the hen gathers the chickens under its wing so that the chickens may be preserved because the Fox will make off with the mother hen and think it's got a good dinner or because the firon I've heard stories of this happening the fire will do its worst and the hen will die in the fire but under the wings of the charred and blackened dead hen there will be live chicks this is Jesus violent image if you like of himself taking the force of Rome upon himself to create the breathing space that's a historical ambition but it's full of theology full of Old Testament theology and the same with that odd saying in Luke only about the green tree and the dry if they do this when the wood is green what will they do when it's dry if you know about green tree and green trees and dry trees I once believed it or not worked on a lumber camp in Western Canada when I was quite young and I knew the difference between green trees and dries because if you get some green tree green timber it's very heavy it's full of moisture and when it's only when it's been dried out is it easy to be cut Jesus is saying if they're doing this when the wood is green in other words if they're doing this to me when I was not a rebel when I was preaching peace when I was announcing good news and God's welcome to the outcasts what are they going to do when these young lads around in the city streets of Jerusalem grow up to be young far brands and brigands in their own day he is looking ahead to what we call ad 66 to 70 and then as the crucifixion scene unfolds Luke makes it abundantly clear here is Barabbas who's under a death sentence for committing murder in an insurrection in the city he goes free and Jesus dies literally in his place or then the little exchange it happens with the two brigands and one says to the other don't you realize you shouldn't be being rude to him he's suffering the same fate as us but he's never done anything wrong again we are told very graphically and starkly and obviously that the innocent is dying the death of the guilty this is substitution but it occurs within that larger framework of the victory of the kingdom of God and as a result the battle with evil is won and now in acts God is ruling the world in the new way he always intended he has rescued his people from the grip of the powers that doesn't mean they won't get stoned and and beaten up and killed doesn't mean that no bad things are ever going to happen to them it does mean that God's purpose will go ahead precisely through these things and that God's presence will be there with his people in a whole new way acts 1 & 2 Jesus joins heaven earth together in his own body in the ascension acts - the spirit joins heaven and earth together in this breath from heaven which fills the house like the scene in Isaiah chapter 6 and as a result we can see Luke's atonement theology coming through in Acts chapter 4 where the disciples having been threatened and tortured and all the rest of it they come together and they pray Psalm 2 what a great psalm to pray and they say that in this city Herod and Pilate came together against Jesus what are they doing the psalm is saying why do the nation's rage and the people's imagine a vain thing the kings of the earth rise up and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and is anointed and then they say now Lord look upon their threats and grant to your servant to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal they are celebrating the messianic victory and the way they are seeing it happen is that the Gospel story is not just a story about Jesus breaking in with the good news of the kingdom the gospel story in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John is also about evil coming together and doing its worst this is your hour and the power of darkness the minute Jesus comes on the scene we get Pharisees and Herodians plotting against him we get demon-possessed people shrieking at him in the synagogue we get no doubt Roman spies keeping note of him - tell the governor later on this is though when the kingdom of God comes evil says we've got to stop this we've got to do something about this and that seems to be as it were a deliberate ploy again we'll see this I think in Romans that evil is to be drawn onto one point this is your hour and the power of darkness and somehow again the theologians beloved words somehow what happens on the cross defeats the power of darkness so that now grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal I see that use of Psalm 2 in acts 4 as a definite bit of lucan attainment theology more briefly Matthew he will save his people from their sins that's not just an individualistic message though again of course it is meant for every single man woman and child it is the climax of history the climax of Israel's history which is the climax of world history that's that's the Jewish faith right the way through the Old Testament often it gets so misty DUP that you can't really see it clearly but it then breaks out again in passages like Isaiah in the Psalms that when the world was in chaos through Genesis 3 through 11 God calls Abraham and says in you it's the world is going to be blessed God called Abraham to reverse and undo the sin of Adam Abraham and Sarah Truong reverse and undo the sin of Adam and Eve and thereby to make this new world this new people starting with the promised land but intended for all peoples again as in Psalm 2 I will give you the nation's as your inheritance the uttermost parts of the world for your possession that's the heritage in in Matthew 1 Abraham David exile Messiah and the way this works out of course in many different ways in Matthew the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden you've got to love your enemies you've got to do good to those who persecute you've got to pray for them and he says you got to go the Second Mile you've got to turn the other cheek and so on and we think my goodness that's a tough agenda if this is Jesus ethic I wonder if anyone's ever really had the courage to do it and the answers well some people some of the time all of us struggle but we are we are kind of faint but pursuing but that's not the only point of the Sermon on the Mount part of the point of the on the Mount in Matthew five six and seven is when we get to the end of Matthew's Gospel we see Jesus doing it this is the kingdom agenda and it is Jesus who turns the other cheek and it is Jesus who carries the Roman cross the extra mile up the hill it is Jesus who is set on that hill to be the light of the world that will never be hidden read Matthew as a whole at a run and see the Sermon on the Mount as the kingdom agenda it isn't here's another moral bar that we've got a leap over it's this is what it looks like when God brings God's kingdom here are the means by which the kingdom is formed and focused because you know the Beatitudes themselves this is an aside lengths important one their Beatitudes themselves blessed are the meek and the brokenhearted the mourners and the hungry for justice people and so on this is not a way of saying if you want to be really blessed you've got to try and be one of these people most of the blessings in the Beatitudes are not blessings that comes so much to you as through you when God wants to transform the world with his powerful kingdom bringing love he doesn't do what we want him to do and send in the tanks he sends in the meek and the mourners and the brokenhearted and the hungry for justice people and by the time the bullies and the braggers have realized what's going on the meek and the mourners and the justice hungry people have built hospitals and schools and are teaching people and healing people and bringing God's love to people and that's Jesus agenda that's what's going on in acts that's what the church has been best at doing for the last 2,000 years it isn't about how can I be this sort of person so I can get to heaven it's how can I be this sort of person so that the kingdom of God may come not just to me but through me and ultimately all this can only happen because Jesus himself embodied his own agenda when he died on the cross and that's why to come back to it Matthew 28 all authority in heaven and on earth is given to him and hence with Mark just briefly a lot of what I said applies to mark as well the convergence of evil I think is there very strikingly in mark mark chapters 1 & 2 soon as Jesus is on the scene he's tempted in the desert but then when he comes and announces the kingdom of God literally all hell seems to break loose around him and it isn't just Oh will you always get some opposition like this it's as though he's acting as a lightning rod to draw it onto one place so that it can then be defeated because that is the real defeat that's really how it works think back to Luke nine where James and John say shall we call down far from heaven upon them and Jesus says you have no idea what you're talking about and then in mark 10 back to mark James and John again they're always at it they come and they say we want to sit at your right and your left when you come in they're thinking of a typical earthly Kingdom James is going to be the I know Home Secretary and and John the foreign secretary or something secretary of state or whatever it is and again Jesus says you don't know what you're talking about to sit at my right and my left is not mine to grant it's for those for whom it's been prepared and in mark 15 we know who those are the ones who are as his right and his left when he is coming in his kingdom can you drink the cup can you be baptized with the baptism I'm baptized with the point is Jesus is redefining power you see we in the church we've all too easily slid to the end of that passage verse 45 the Son of man came I've quoted it for son a man came to give his life as a ransom for many yes that's important but that comes at the end of this redefinition of power Jesus says listen the rulers of this world get their way by bullying people by harrying people we're going to do it the other way if anyone wants to be great let him be your servant if anyone wants to be first let him be the slave of all because the son of man didn't come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many you get the atonement theology inside the redefinition of power do you see the point and likewise the redefinition of power is focused in the atonement theology the two go together victory of the cross is won by the Son of man giving his life as a ransom for many what then are we just say about the Gospels there's a thousand more things we could say of course the Gospels are not giving us an illustration of a non historical reality they are not simply examples at the sort of graphic historical level of a truth which is then about how we escaped history and go to heaven it's a major debate in theology at the moment as to how much history we allow on the scene seem to me once you've said the word became flesh and dwelt among us and that's where we saw the glory then you're going to have history whether you like it or not and you better like exist God's history and God is redeeming it and that's wonderful it isn't a theology superimposed on a narrative it isn't just about believing a theory it's a vocation to live within a story the story of the Creator God and his world with Jesus as its climactic turning point and with us in fear and trembling and praying daily for the spirit as those who are called to take this story forward one footnote which will point forward to tomorrow one of the hardest passages in the whole Bible theologically is when Jesus on the cross in Matthew and Mark cries my God why did you abandon me how do you deal with that in terms of Trinity incarnation and indeed atonement how do you deal with the echo of Psalm 22 do you say he have the whole Psalm in mind etc etc I'm not going to deal with that now I just going to point out that you have the same problem in Romans 8 when Paul says that the Spirit is groaning within us with inarticulate groanings and the one who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit there's something to ponder on as you go on your happy trip this afternoon okay take two minutes again and then we'll have quarter an hour for Q&A before we have to go for lunch two minutes to buzz

Channel: Wycliffe Hall

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Keywords: theology

Id: SHIVYjXIQ1A

Length: 59min 29sec (3569 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 24 2016