meditatio at the water's edge

Okay, I just got my computer back, so here's some stuff I wrote last week (with considerable influence from N.T. Wright)...

How was Jesus presenting a new and different way of being Israel?

First, a quick overview of four of the main ‘ways’ of being Israel
1. Pharisees: the path of strict Torah obedience. The way to see the return of YHWH was through strict, legalistic obedience to Torah.

2. Herodians: the path of compromise with the Romans. The way to survive under the occupying forces was to go along with Rome. “ Let’s just quietly get along with things the way they are; keep bringing sacrifices to the temple, keep celebrating the feasts. Opposition is a good way to get oneself killed, so why fight?”

3. Zealots: the path of violent resistance against Rome. Why fight? “Because YHWH is on our side,” the zealots would say. The only way to get rid of the Roman army is to lead ‘God’s army’ into battle against them. This path, however, always ended up with rebels hanging on crosses or falling on the point of a sword.

4. Essenes: the path of escape and separation. The Essenes saw the temple as completely compromised, and so they got away from Jerusalem and created their own community in the wilderness.

Jesus was not suggesting the kind of Torah observance the Pharisees demonstrated. Jesus was not advocating violent revolt against Rome, but neither was Jesus suggesting a path of compromise with Rome.
Jesus was not advocating an escape from engagement with the nations (the Gentiles). In fact, Jesus was pointing out that the nationalism of the Jews was keeping them from being faithful to their vocation as the light of the world and a blessing to the nations.

Jesus was therefore suggesting a new way of being Israel—which was really the old way—the way YHWH had always intended them to be Israel. What was new was that he was suggesting that he was, in some way, the pattern for what the true Israel was to look like and the path by which Israel would live out her true vocation.

Maintaining the special place of Jews in God’s redemptive plan for the whole world, yet challenging the Jewish nationalism that was (ironically?) preventing them from fulfilling their ancient vocation, Jesus was not rejecting Judaism (he was a Jew!). Rather, he was calling Israel to return to YHWH by repenting of their wrong paths and following him in his ‘way’.

Thus, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a young donkey, and then turned over the tables in the Temple, Jesus was making symbolic declarations, not only of his claims to be the Messiah, but of the judgment that was about to come to Israel—the Day of YHWH’s visitation was at hand.

Whose vision—whose way—would be vindicated? Only time would tell.

And time did tell. The scriptures say that Jesus was vindicated as God raised him from the dead to be the firstfruits of Israel’s rebirth. History tells us that those who opposed Jesus received God’s wrath by the hands of the Romans as Jerusalem, and the Temple were destroyed in 70 AD.

What does all this mean for us on Palm Sunday? Let this question ring in your mind, “What kind of Messiah are you assuming Jesus to be today?” Imagine yourself waving palm branches and reciting Zechariah and Psalm 118. What path of being God’s people are you following?

The path of legalism: loving rules more than people?
The path of compromise: loving culture more than God?
The path of violent resistance: hating your enemies and cursing those who persecute you?
The path of escape: living in your own little Christian ghetto, cut off from a world in pain?

Or are you following the path of Jesus: loving God, loving your neighbor, loving your enemies, engaging with outsiders and those in pain, and even laying down your possessions, your preferences, your life for a friend?