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Was
it just another Weekend in Jerusalem?
by
mark priddy
Friday
seemed like any other day. It was moderately
cloudy, the temperature was in the mid 60s. Spring
was just around the corner; warmer days were just
ahead. A slight breeze was blowing through the
narrow streets of Jerusalem, but beneath the
quiet, a noise was brewing. At midday the sky grew
excessively dark. The day turned unsightly.
Terrifying clouds loomed overhead. What could
possibly have caused such a change in the weather
pattern? This
was a day like no other.
Let’s look back over the centuries and
listen in; put yourself into the story and see
what it evokes within you. Take your time and
imagine the scene.
When
they came to the place that is called The Skull,
they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one
on his right and one on his left. [Then Jesus
said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not
know what they are doing.’]
And they cast lots to divide his clothing.
And the people stood by, watching; but the
leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved
others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah
of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also
mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine,
and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews,
save yourself!’
There was also an inscription over him,
‘This is the King of the Jews’…
It
was now about noon, and darkness came over the
whole land until three in the afternoon, while the
sun’s light failed; and the curtain of the
temple was torn into two.
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said,
‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’
When the centurion saw what had taken
place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this
man was innocent.’
And when all the crowds who gathered there
for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they
returned home, beating their breasts.
But all his acquaintances, including the
women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at
a distance, watching these things.
Now
there was a good and righteous man named Joseph,
who, though a member of the council, had not
agreed to their plan and action.
He came from the Jewish town Arimathea, and
he was waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God.
This man went to Pilate and asked for the
body of Jesus.
Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen
cloth, and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb where no
one had ever been laid.
It was the day of Preparation, and the
Sabbath was beginning.
The women who had come with him from
Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how
his body was laid.
Then they returned, and prepared spices and
ointments.
On
the Sabbath they rested according to the
commandment.
But
on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they
came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had
prepared. They
found the stone rolled away from the body.
While they were perplexed about this,
suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside
them. The
women were terrified and bowed their faces to the
ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you
look for the living among the dead? He is not
here, but has risen.
Remember how he told you, while he was
still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be
handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on
the third day rise again.’
Then they remembered his words, and
returning from the tomb, they told all this to the
eleven and to all the rest.
Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the
mother of James, and the other women with them who
told this to the apostles.
But these words seemed to them an idle
tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking
in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he
went home, amazed at what happened. (Luke
13:33-38,44-56; 24: 1-12)
Jesus
was the great storyteller, traveling throughout
the countryside proclaiming the gospel story of
the Kingdom of God over and over again. His
message challenged the religious and nonreligious
of His day. His was a summons to his listeners to
give up life, in order to find it.
It was a call to re-order their lives
around what he called the kingdom of God. If they listened and followed they would be light to the
world, true image bearers of Yahweh, “God”.
They listened with great interest and support.
They believed his words. They proclaimed
him their king with palm branches and shouts of
“hosanna.”
What
was it about his message that caused ordinary men
and women to set aside their agendas and follow
him? Were
his stories and actions that radical, that
different from other would-be messiahs? And, why
would these who hailed him as king, so quickly
give him up to be crucified between common
criminals?
What
was his aim? What was the significance of the
resurrection?
What was the purpose of the events that
made up his life story?
Where did Jesus fit into the larger story
of God’s redemptive plan for his fallen
children? Could one man possibly draw together the
threads of the saving plan of the one true God?
Let’s explore this thought.
The
larger Story Of God
In The Message, Peterson offers
important insight and captures our imagination
regarding Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection
and where he fit into the larger story of God.
“The
story of Jesus doesn't begin with Jesus. God had
been at work for a long time. Salvation, which is
the main business of Jesus, is an old business.
Jesus is the coming together in final form of
themes and energies and movements that had been
set in motion before the foundation of the world.
Matthew
opens the New Testament by setting the local story
of Jesus in its world historical context. He makes
sure that as we read his account of the birth,
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, we see the
connections with everything that has gone
before….
Better
yet, Matthew tells the story in such a way that
not only is everything previous to us completed in
Jesus, we are completed in Jesus. Every day we
wake up in the middle of something that is already
going on, that has been going on for a long time,
genealogy and geology, history and culture, the
cosmos—God. We are neither accidental nor
incidental to the story. We get orientation,
briefing, background, reassurance.
Matthew
provides the comprehensive context by which we see
all God's creation and salvation completed in
Jesus, and all the parts of our lives—work,
family, friends, memories, dreams—also completed
in Jesus. Lacking such a context, we are in danger
of seeing Jesus as a mere diversion from the
concerns announced in the newspapers. Nothing
could be further from the truth.”
(Introduction to Mathew)
Like
a natural born river guide Peterson helps steer us
towards an understanding that the mission to
redeem fallen creation did not originate with
Jesus. What
happened in the events of the first century are
not disconnected from what went before:
Abraham’s call (Genesis 12), its renewal at
Sinai (Exodus 19), the promise of restoration
(Isaiah 40-55), and the vision of Israel’s glory
and renewal of creation (Ezekiel 47), are all
picked up in the New Testament writings and serve
as the backdrop of what was going on within early
Christianity itself.
The previous scenes (as found in the Old
Testament) function as an earlier act in the great
cosmic drama and that reaches its climax in the
work of Jesus for the salvation of the world.
A
Short Metanarrative
The
story of God begins with a picture of his
creation, perfect in every manner. In it we see
the wild goodness of the heart of God. The story
of the fall of humankind is told by the
storyteller at the beginning of the book of
Genesis (chapter 3), and it sets the stage for the
conflict out of which the rest of the story is
told. This dark story of humankind describes a
point in time when the created being decided to
challenge God in a desire to be more godlike.
Independence
versus dependence sets the plot in which the story
proceeds. The
story of God’s “good” creation, and of human
revolt, as told in the early chapters of Genesis,
reaches a climax in chapter 11, with the story of
the tower of Babel. Humans, overconfident in their
own ability, think they can compete with the
creator of the universe. They seek to use their
own devices to become equal with God.
God cannot put up with this egotistical
rebellion. He divides the people into nations with
a variety of languages, thus making it impossible
for them to unite and formalize their rebellion.
This is an illustration of the breakdown of
relationships between humans in general.
Rebellion
against the creator results in a fractured world.
It is in that context that Genesis tells of a new
beginning, a new task, and a renewed people for
God. This new story begins with Abraham and Sarah.
They are called to take their entourage, to
a new land, to be agents, of the creator’s
mission to his lost and rebellious world. The
purpose of God’s call to Abraham was to restore
and renew the entire world.
N.T. Wright reminds us “that many
Christians often think of that call as either a
false start. God wanted Israel to bless the world;
it didn’t’ work, so he called Jesus instead,
or as a remote example of Christianity-before
Christ. In fact, the whole point of the Abraham
story is that it marks the beginning of what God
intended to do for the whole of creation.” (The
Challenge Of Jesus)
The plot takes the form of a covenant that
God makes through Abraham with Israel.
As the
story line propels forward, we see that the call
on Israel, fleshed out through the renewal of
covenant, was often forgotten.
The Children of Israel turned to false
idols instead of the one true God.
God could not have this so he would raise
up a member of the clan to address a fresh word of
challenge to the family.
His job was to remind the covenant people
about the wider mission to which they were called.
They were to be a light to the nations. But their
response like a British traffic circle, continued
to go round and round—rebellion, repentance,
restoration, --rebellion, repentance, restoration.
However, the call of Abraham’s family, to be the
solution to the problem of the world, is not
forgotten, but through the prophets was passed on
in hope to the future generations.
As the story
unfolds, the vocation of Israel, her whole
destiny, to be the people of God, to be God’s
way of saving the world, reached its climax in the
life, death and resurrection of Jesus. He came to
be what Israel had failed to be. Israel was called
to be the light of the world and they failed in
their assignment.
Jesus would come to be the heir of
Israel’s destiny—he would be the light of the
world. Darkness pervaded the world.
God’s attempt to shed light had been
thwarted by a disobedient and selfish people.
But Jesus came; God came into that
darkness. The
light is now shining in the darkness, and the
darkness has not and will not overcome it.
Israel’s
vocation, to be the divine answer to paganism, to
be the divine answer to the powers of this world,
was to be fulfilled in Jesus. The ambiguities
inherent within this vocation were to be embraced
by the Messiah himself. Ultimately, Jesus is what
Israel failed to be. Jesus is what Adam failed to
be--fully human.
Jesus bore the image of Creator that had
been breathed into God’s marvelous creation.
Jesus has come to the land of sin and
death, in order to rescue and restore a lost and
rebellious humanity. On that Friday
morning, nailed between two common criminals,
Jesus would reveal the true God in action as the
lover and the savior of the world.
Jesus’
resurrection, illustrated by the empty tomb,
“marked the beginning of the End, the turning of
the ages.” Creation is complete, new creation
can now begin. God has done what he has promised.
The spirit, who hovered over the waters of
creation, now broods over God’s world. This is
the new Genesis.
With
this comes the challenge.
The charge that Jesus gave to his disciples
stands at the forefront of all Christian mission,
all discipleship, and all Christian community:
“‘Peace be with you, as the Father sent
me, so I send you.’ And he breathed on them as
once, long ago, God had breathed into the nostrils
of Adam and Eve his own breath, his breath of
life. ‘Receive
the Holy Spirit.
Forgive sins and they are forgiven; retain
them and they are retained.’” (John 20:19-23)
In commissioning his disciples Jesus set forward a
world revolution, one that is still in process
today and will carry on until God's will is done
on earth as it is in heaven.
By
his death and resurrection, Jesus made it possible
for us to be restored to the image of God, to
become fully human as God intended. Our vocation
is to be the agents of God’s kingdom, bringing
his restoration to his world.
As communities of faith, we must ask what
it means to become followers of Jesus, to take up
his agenda—to enter into the ongoing drama of
what God has done, is doing and will do.
In
the book StormFront, Charles West reminds us.
“If the world is to be claimed for the God who
created it and loves it, the powers of this world
who have enslaved it must be faced, in the power
of the Spirit, with the challenge of the cross and
resurrection…that we are sent into every sphere
of life as the church dispersed, not as
individuals.
In the family, in the work place, in the
community, and in politics we wrestle with the
powers to discern, make known, and serve the work
of the Spirit and the reign of the risen Christ.
The
plan of God is to bring all things together under
Christ (Eph. 1:10). As communities of the Spirit,
we must fight the temptation to create a holy
ghetto—a place isolated, secluded and protected
from the horrors and sin of this world. We must wrestle and grapple with what it means to faithfully
"indwell the story" and from within that
story seek to be the voice and hands of Jesus for
their time and place? How can we create
environments of hope, healing and community—a
community that does not live for itself but rather
exists for the sake of the world as a sign,
instrument and foretaste of God's redeeming love
and grace? Our vocation, as the “sent” people
of God is to represent the compassion, justice,
and peace of the Rule of God in all spheres of
life. We are to announce redemption to the world
trapped in its fallenness, healing to the world
that is broken and desperate, and to proclaim love
and trust to the world that knows only
exploitation, fear, and suspicion. Our true
vocation is to be image bearers, reflecting to one
another and the world, the divine nature of our
Triune God.
“The
light is now shining in the darkness, and the
darkness has overcome it”
So
was it just another weekend in Jerusalem?
_____________________
Mark
is the founder and Director of Allelon, a private,
nonprofit foundation. The ongoing desire of
Allelon is to resource, equip the whole body of
Christ and to offer companionship for missional
church leaders from a wide array of organizations
and denominations that are working towards a
missional kingdom paradigm. He and his wife,
Jeanette, have six children and live in Eagle,
Idaho where they lead a small missional community
of faith.
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