The urgency of a new look at Jesus

Our knowledge of the Jesus of history has been and is growing rapidly. We have had a large expansion of good scholars looking at the context in which Jesus grew up, lived and taught. Context is the key word.

In preparation for ordained ministry, I studied a lot of Greek, Greek being the original language of what we now call The New Testament. I look at current New Testament scholarship and conclude that reading Greek was not as important as I thought.

The key to understanding the Jesus of my faith is not found in the Greek of the New Testament but in Jesus himself, a native of the town of Nazareth. It was there that he grew up, and it was the Galilean area where he carried out his career as a popular teacher and storyteller.

His native language was Aramaic, not Greek. To understand the teachings of Jesus, the material must be placed in the context in which he lived and taught.

The teachings of Jesus have survived in two primary forms, his parables (stories) and his aphorisms (short sayings). Most scholars now agree that these two literary forms used by Jesus survived a transition from the Aramaic that Jesus spoke, into the Aramaic oral traditions of Jesus’ listeners, and finally to written Greek over a 40- to 60-year period.

Stories and sayings survive because they are easily remembered. This process of survival of Jesus teaching material is not seriously disputed.

Over the past 30 to 40 years, scholars have begun placing the words of Jesus into the context into which he spoke them. The meaning of Jesus’ teaching is becoming clearer. We now know that Jesus spoke his teachings to a huge poverty-stricken peasant population.

Further, the Jesus teaching material was spoken in the primary seedbed of Zealots, a radical movement that advocated violent rebellion against the wealthy and the powerful.

Authors of the Greek narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote decades later, used original Jesus materials, but put them into a completely different context. In the process, they gave meanings to Jesus material that he never intended or would have accepted.

My seminary training taught me to ask not “what the Greek or Hebrew said” but to ask questions of context. Who wrote the material? When was the material written? To whom was the material written? What were the circumstances of the writer and the recipients? Why was the material written?

My seminary training insisted that I be a lifelong student, asking the questions that bring me enlightened understanding.

The insistence of recent scholarship is that the teaching material of Jesus from Nazareth be carefully removed from the context created by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul. The material then is placed into the context into which Jesus lived and taught. That context is rightfully described as an advanced agrarian society in which poverty overwhelmed, violence was fostered, and injustice reigned.

The implications of recent scholarship beg to be recognized in 21st century Christian churches. Churches are ignoring very good scholarship at their own peril.

The basic message from Jesus is blunt and real. The spirituality of Jesus was a direct result of his involvement in the political, social and economic issues of his own day. Justice was at the heart of the spirituality of Jesus.

Ordained clergy are at the heart of the churches’ dilemma. Many have been trained in seminaries and have been taught what I have described in reference to the stories and sayings of Jesus. They know the social and economic implications of the Jesus material.

Most seminary trained clergy choose to side-step the justice messages of Jesus. Clergy become adept at conducting baptisms, communion services, funerals and weddings and preaching innocuous sermons. They bless public gatherings with polite and meaningless prayers of invocation and benedictions. However, they will not speak from pulpits or public platforms about income disparities, paying employees a living wage, universal health care, or the welcoming of immigrants.

Another huge shortcoming of Christian churches is that they have lost their ability to discuss and argue the hard social and political issues that emerge from the Christian gospel. The parables that Jesus told were not told to make audiences agree with the storyteller or one another.

They were told as discussion starters that hopefully produced understanding and a commitment to a just society. The lack of vigorous discussions in Christian churches about social justices is nothing less than scandalous.

The earthly ministry of Jesus was not about the saving of souls for an eternal heaven. A serious study of his parables and aphorisms produce a very different perspective. The messages of Jesus were about people readily at hand, who needed to be restored to communities of justice, caring and love.

Christian churches have lost their way seeking social acceptability and comfort for the elite. Churches judge, reject and condemn. In the process, they have claimed the presence of their Christ in a cup of juice and a bite of bread. The distortion is disastrous.

The need of Christians to take a new look at Jesus of Nazareth and his teachings is urgent.