Jesus’ Life



Jesus’ Life

Introduction

We know more about Jesus than we know about many ancient historical figures, a remarkable fact given the modesty of his upbringing and the humility of his death. Jesus did not grow up in one of the great cities of the ancient world like Rome or even Jerusalem but lived in a Galilean village called Nazareth. He died an appalling, humiliating death by crucifixion, reserved by the Romans for the most contemptible criminals.

That such a person could have become so significant in world history is remarkable. But how much can we know with certainty about the Jesus of history? How reliable are the New Testament accounts about him? Opinions vary widely among scholars and students of the Bible.

Gospel accounts

Our most important resource for the study of Jesus, though, is the literature of early Christianity and especially the Gospels. In order to understand them, it is important to realise that the Gospels are not biographies in the modern sense of that word and they often have gaps at just the points where we would like to know more.

They are books with a message, an announcement. They are, for want of a better word, propaganda for the cause of early Christianity. This is why they are called Gospels - a word derived from the old Anglo-Saxon word God spell, from the Greek evangelion: 'good news'. John's Gospel provides a clear example of how the Gospel writers, or evangelists, were thinking about their task.

The Gospel is written not simply to provide information about Jesus but in order to engender faith in him as Messiah and Son of God. This purpose is reflected throughout the Gospels, which are all about the twin themes of Jesus' identity and his work. For the Gospel writers, Jesus was the Messiah who came not only to heal and deliver, but also to suffer and die for people's sins.

If it is important to realise, however, that while the Gospels are similar in purpose, there are some radical differences in content. Most importantly, John differs substantially from the other three, Matthew, Mark and Luke (the Synoptic Gospels).

Who Jesus is

Given the similarities in wording and order between the Synoptic Gospels, it is certain that there is some kind of literary link between them. It is usually thought that Mark was the first Gospel to have been written, most likely in the late 60s of the first century AD, at the time of the Jewish war with Rome. It is unparalleled in its urgency, both in its breathless style and in its conviction that Christians were living in the end days, with the kingdom of God about to dawn.

Unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark does not even have time to include a birth narrative. Instead, he starts with a simple declaration that this is 'The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.' (Mark 1.1). The name Jesus is actually the same name as Joshua in the Old Testament (one is Greek, one is Hebrew) and it means 'God saves'.

It is worth thinking also about the word Christ. This is not Jesus' surname. The Greek-derived Christ is the same word as the Hebrew Messiah and it means Anointed One. In the Old Testament, it is the word used for both priests and kings who were anointed to their office (just as David was anointed by Samuel as King of Israel); it means someone specially appointed by God for a task. By the time that Jesus was on the scene, many Jews were expecting the ultimate Messiah, perhaps a priest, a king or even a military figure, one who was specially anointed by God to intervene decisively to change history.

While the Gospels clearly depict Jesus as having a special relationship with God, do they actually affirm what Christianity later explicitly affirmed, that Jesus is God incarnate, God become flesh? The evidence points in different directions. Mark, the earliest of the four, certainly believes that Jesus is God's Son, but he also includes this extraordinary passage:

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone."

Mark 10:17-18

Jesus appears to be distancing himself from God; it is a passage that at least puts a question mark over the idea that Mark would have accepted the doctrine of the incarnation. But the Gospels differ on this point as they do on several others. John, usually thought to be the latest of the four, is the most forthright. He speaks of the role played by the "Word" in creating and sustaining the world in a passage echoing the very beginning of the Bible, in Genesis:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

John 1:1-4

If John's Gospel provides the clearest indication of early Christian belief in the incarnation, it is at least clear that the other Gospels believe that in Jesus God is present with his people in a new and decisive way. Right at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, before Jesus has been born, we are told:

All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

Matthew 1:22-23

What Jesus did

The Gospels narrate the story of how God's relationship with human beings manifested itself in Jesus' life and death. These books are therefore not just about Jesus' identity (who Jesus is) but also about his work (what Jesus did). There are three key areas of Jesus' activity, his healing, his preaching and his suffering.

Jesus' impact

Whatever one thinks about the historicity of the events described in the Gospels, and there are many different views, one thing is not in doubt: Jesus had an overwhelming impact on those around him. The Gospels speak regularly of huge crowds following Jesus. Perhaps they gathered because of his reputation as a healer. Perhaps they gathered because of his ability as a teacher. Whatever the cause, it seems likely that the authorities' fear of the crowd was a major factor leading to Jesus' crucifixion. In a world where there was no democracy, mobs represented a far greater threat to the Romans' rule than anything else.

Yet in spite of Jesus' popularity during his lifetime, the early Christian movement after Jesus' death was only a small group with a tiny power base in Jerusalem, a handful of Jesus' closest followers who stayed loyal to Jesus' legacy because they were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah, that he had died for everyone's sins, and that he was raised from the dead. It was a movement that received its greatest boost when the most unlikely figure joined it, the apostle Paul.

What’s In A Name?

The simple and familiar name “Jesus Christ” offers a great deal of information about the influences that shaped Christianity.“Jesus” is a Latinized form of the Greek “Iesous,” a transliteration of a Hebrew name most contemporary Christians probably would not recognize: Y’shua. And “Christ” is not, properly speaking a name at all, but a description. It is a variation of the Greek word “Christos,” which means “the anointed one.” This word is, in turn, a translation of the Hebrew “Messiah” – in Jewish tradition, a figure chosen and anointed by God who would bring salvation to Israel.

The name “Jesus Christ” captures a fateful (and, at the time, controversial) moment in the history of religion. These two words served to introduce Jesus, and the Jewish concept of a redeemer for the subjugated nation of Israel, to a distinctly non-Jewish audience. The various messages sent to that audience laid the foundations of Christianity. In other words: The figure at the center of this faith is described at a distance, in translation, as the result of Greek cultural influences in the Mediterranean societies where the faith first gained wide acceptance among non Jews. It was after this phased of its development that Christianity began the ascent that would lead to its status as one of the world’s major religions.

Who was the “real” Jesus?

Today, we may expect written history to be an attempt at a neutral accounting of events, not realizing this is a modern value that cannot be applied to the sacred writings of antiquity. The compilers of the Gospels didn’t set out to answer the modern questions, “What was Jesus really like?” and “What was the precise sequence of the events in his life, historically speaking?” Assembled from various sources a generation or two after Jesus’ ministry, and written in Greek, rather than the Aramaic he spoke, the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are part history and part faith testimony, not contemporary journalism or biography.

Jesus' Birth and Early Life

Jesus was born to a devout Jewess named Mary and a carpenter named Joseph. According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was conceived by a miracle of the Holy Spirit before the couple had had any sexual relationship. Matthew and Luke also report that Jesus was born in Bethlehem because the Roman emperor had decreed that all families register for a census in their ancestral hometowns. Mark and John do not discuss Jesus' birth; they begin their narratives with Jesus' adulthood.

The Gospels are virtually silent when it comes to Jesus' early life, but some information can be inferred from references elsewhere. Jesus was from a small town called Nazareth, where he probably trained as a carpenter under his father.

Jesus spoke Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew, though it seems he knew enough Greek to converse with Roman officials during his ministry.

The Gospel of Luke offers the only account of this period, in which a 12-year old Jesus wanders off from his parents in Jerusalem to discuss religion in the temple. When his frantic parents finally track him down, Jesus asks, "Didn't you know I would be in my Father's house?"

Teaching and Healing Ministry

Jesus re-enters the Gospel narratives at about the age of 30 (circa 26 AD). The four gospels agree that Jesus' first act was to be baptized by John the Baptist, a charismatic figure who called people to repent for their sins and baptized those who responded. This event marked the beginning of Jesus' ministry. (Some have also theorized it was at that moment the human Jesus became divine.)

After the baptism, several of John's followers left to follow Jesus. Jesus then selected several others until he had established a group of 12 disciples. (Two of these disciples, Matthew and John, are the traditional authors of the Gospels that carry their name; others were Peter, Andrew, James son of Zebedee, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas Iscariot)

Jesus then spent from one to three years teaching and working miracles among his disciples and before large crowds. His recorded miracles included turning water to wine, walking on water, cursing a fig tree, healing the sick, multiplying a small meal to feed a crowd, casting out demons, and even raising a man from the dead.

The teachings of Jesus focused primarily on the "the kingdom of God" and were usually relayed through parables drawing on familiar images from agricultural life. He rebuked the hypocrisy of some Jewish leaders and taught the importance of love and kindness, even to one's enemies.

While Jesus' teachings were fundamentally Jewish, they departed significantly from the Jewish law of his day. Perhaps most astonishing of all was that he taught on his own authority. Whereas Jewish prophets had always prefaced their messages with "thus saith the Lord," Jesus said things like, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.'"

Jesus' popularity grew quickly, but so did opposition from local leaders. Roman rulers were uncomfortable with the common perception that he was the Messiah who would liberate the Jews from Roman rule, while Jewish leaders were disquieted by Jesus' shocking interpretations of Jewish law, his power with the people, and the rumor that he had been alluding to his own divinity.

Betrayal and Execution

In the Gospels Jesus repeatedly suggests to his disciples his end is near, but they do not fully understand or accept the idea. The clearest expression of this is at the "Last Supper," which took place on the night before his death. All four Gospels record Jesus shared bread and wine with his disciples, asking them to "do this in remembrance of me." Christians celebrate this event in the sacrament of the Eucharist, or Communion.

On this evening Jesus also predicts that one of them will betray him, which is met with astonishment and denial. But that very night, Jesus' fate was sealed when Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples and possibly the group's treasurer, led Roman soldiers to Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. As they arrested Jesus, the ever-colorful Peter defended his master with a sword, slicing off the ear of a centurion. But he was rebuked by Jesus, who admonished, "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."

Jesus was brought before the Jewish chief priests for trial. When questioned, he said very little but affirmed he was the Messiah. He was then judged worthy of death for blasphemy and handed over to the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, for punishment. Although reluctant to condemn Jesus for reasons not entirely clear, Pilate sentenced Jesus to death at the insistence of the mob that had gathered. According to Matthew, when Judas learned of the sentence he threw his silver coins into the temple and hanged himself.

Jesus was brutally beaten, clothed in a mock-royal purple robe and crown of thorns, then executed by crucifixion at Golgotha (The Place of the Skull). This method of execution, apparently a Roman invention, entailed nailing or tying the victim's hands and feet to a wooden cross. It produced a slow, painful death by asphyxiation.

The Gospels report that only Jesus' mother and a handful of female disciples were present at the execution. Jesus suffered on the cross for six hours before finally crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and breathing his last. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark report extraordinary events upon Jesus' death - the entire land went dark, there was a great earthquake, the temple curtain was torn in half, and some recent dead came back to life.

The Empty Tomb

Jesus' body was taken down from the cross by Joseph of Arimathea, and placed in a tomb carved into rock. Again, Jesus' mother and one or two other women were the only ones present. These same devoted women came to his tomb the following Sunday morning to anoint his body with spices. When they arrived, they were astonished to find the stone covering the entrance to the tomb had been rolled away, and the tomb was empty.

The four Gospels vary somewhat in their reports as to what happened next, but all generally agree that the women told the other disciples but their story was not believed. The risen Jesus later appeared to the disciples, where he passed through a locked door yet demonstrated he was not a ghost by eating and allowing himself to be touched. He made several other appearances among various groups before ascending into heaven.

Significance of Resurrection

The resurrection of Jesus is central to the early church. Historically, it may be impossible to determine what happened or what the disciples actually experienced, but one thing seems clear - they sincerely believed, from an early date, that Jesus had been raised from the dead.

All four Gospels include an account of the resurrection. In Acts, the central message preached by the apostles is the resurrection of Christ. In his first letter to the Corinthians, which dates to as early as 55 AD, Paul writes that the resurrection is of "first importance" and that "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."

The belief that Jesus' resurrection makes it possible for people to have peace with God in this life and meet a favorable end in the next was a major source of the incredible courage shown by the early Christian martyrs.

Use the reading to complete the outline below about Jesus

I. What’s in a name?

• The meaning of the “names” of Jesus Christ

o

o

• Narratives of Jesus’ Life

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II. Jesus’ Birth and Early Life

• Jesus’ parents

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• The miracle of Jesus’ birth

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III. Teaching and Healing Ministry

• The age and event beginning Jesus’ ministries

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• Jesus’ miracles

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• Jesus teachings

o Message –

o Differ from prophets –

IV. Betrayal and Execution

• Reason for Communion

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• The trial of Jesus

o Those involved –

o Crime –

o Outcome of trial –

• Execution of Jesus

o Events –

V. The Empty Tomb

• Those present

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• Events after death

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• Significance of Jesus’ resurrection

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