Jesus’ leadership and
authority is a dramatic component of the Gospel message (Jesus is Lord of all),
and as insisted in the writings of the Apostle Paul, the Gospel message
contains power in itself (Romans 1:16). Amazingly enough, when Jesus’ disciples
went forth and preached the Gospel message---first to Jerusalem, and then to
Judea, and Samaria, and ultimately to the farthest parts of the earth (Acts
1:8), in accordance with Jesus’ command to do so (Matthew 28:18)---it was
believed. This, in itself, is quite amazing. Though there were many myths of dying and
rising gods, a story like this was an oddity.
Who would tell the story of their king being crucified? Frankly, no one would tell a story like this,
especially if they hoped to be taken seriously.
On the surface, the
story of Jesus, which is most assuredly not to be told without the stories of
crucifixion and Resurrection, while highlighting His rejection by the vast
majority of His countrymen, lacks any semblance of power. Yes there are stories of miraculous
occurrences and the occasional large crowd, but such stories could be told of a
number of charismatic leaders. In fact,
Israel had such characters and stories in its own historical narrative. The primary elements of the story of Jesus
that was to be noised abroad (Paul would talk of preaching nothing but Christ
crucified and glorified) are defeat and a highly improbable (impossible) event. This would be an altogether unfortunate means
of gaining followers and growing a movement.
It must be understood
that there was an excellent understanding of death by crucifixion in that
day. Not only was it understood that people did not survive a Roman
crucifixion, but it was understood that the one that was crucified was
crucified for rebellion against Rome. Crucifixion was the ultimate act of
shaming, the significance of which cannot be discounted in a culture that lived
and breathed the codes of honor and shame.
Yet in telling the story of Jesus’ Lordship and power, the act of
shaming was front and center.
Along with that, a
generally held sentiment was that Israel’s messiah was to somehow throw off the
Roman yoke, perhaps by military prowess and victory. In Israel and throughout the empire, death by
means of crucifixion flatly implied that Rome had won yet another victory. Not only was it a symbolic victory over a
lone individual that was foolish enough to make himself an enemy of the Caesar,
it was a highly effective method of suppressing any continued actions by the
supporters of the one crucified. The
shame attached to crucifixion would spread beyond the cross to the associates
of the one that had suffered the fate.
In an honor and shame culture, this made crucifixion an even more
effective deterrent.
At the same time, it
was also quite well understood that people did not come back to life in bodily
form. Nevertheless, that is what the disciples preached. There were familiar ways of speaking about
phantoms and gods (or god-like men) that had risen from the underworld, but
such language was never adopted by the disciples and followers of Jesus. They not only preached a physically
resurrected and living Jesus, but against all common sense for those that
wanted to project power and the kingdom of the Creator God now established on
earth, they preached an ignominious and shameful crucifixion that had
precipitated the death from which He was physically resurrected. They
preached that this crucified (cursed) and resurrected Jew was Israel’s Messiah
and also the Lord and Ruler of all people and all things. With full understanding
of what was implied by all that had occurred, they eventually came to preach
that this Jesus was, in fact, the actual embodiment of Israel’s Creator
God. They preached all these things, and because this Gospel (Jesus is
Lord) somehow contained the power of the Creator God and conveyed it when
spoken, people actually believed it in vast numbers.
No comments:
Post a Comment