Vision Collections No. 1 Gospels
Gospels for the 21st Century
By David Hulme
Published by Vision Media Publishing at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 Vision Media Publishing
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Vision Collections are compiled and revised from material previously published in serial form in the quarterly journal Vision (http://www.vision.org/).
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® (© 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society). Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
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Chapter One: Humble Beginnings
Chapter Two: Understanding the Human Heart
Chapter Three: First Things First
Chapter Four: Weighing the Evidence
Chapter Five: The Way of Transformation
Chapter Six: Reconciling Relationships
Chapter Eight: The Repentant and the Self-Righteous
Chapter Nine: Inclusion and Exclusion
Chapter Ten: Belief and Positive Action
Chapter Eleven: It Is Finished
In my many years of detailed research and study about the life of Jesus, I have watched most of the movies depicting His story yet found none of them wholly true to the biblical account. In reviewing books and art with His life as the subject, even from authors and artists who proclaim to believe in His Messiahship, I’ve had the same experience. How can that be? Jesus is arguably the most well-known and influential person in human history, and after 2,000 years, writers are still producing related works at a rate of hundreds of books each year.
The problem of inaccuracy seems to lie in how the New Testament record is approached. An experience with a major TV network might illuminate the point. I submitted a proposal for a 13-hour series on the New Testament that met with much interest and led to an initial contract. But then the vice president asked me if I could take a more doubtful approach. I explained that I wanted to take the unconventional stance of accepting the biblical record as factual and write the script accordingly. Since, to the best of my knowledge, no TV documentary series had ever taken such a path, this would provide the unique angle considered so important by television executives. I tried to convince him that this view would be refreshing for his audience. A few weeks later, having met with the script editor assigned to the project (who also pressed for a more skeptical treatment), I received a note from the vice president expressing regret that the project was being abandoned. Despite his best intentions and personal interest, he could not get his staff to agree with the approach. Doubt triumphed.
This book is the result of taking the New Testament at its word, reading it carefully for what it actually says. For almost 40 years I have found it revealing and liberating to do so, and along the way I have had to correct my own preconceived ideas. If so many can get the simple facts about the life of history’s most famous person wrong, what might they do with His teachings and the practices of His earliest students? Regardless of whether you are a believer in Jesus as the Messiah or just interested in learning more about His life and teaching, I think what follows will surprise you and open the door to a more accurate and, I hope, a more enlightened reading.
David Hulme
March 2010
“We have to admit that there is an immeasurable distance between all that we read in the Bible and the practice of the Church and of Christians.”
—Jacques Ellul
What was it about Jesus Christ that attracted great crowds to listen to Him? Was it the miracles, the parables in everyday language, or the force of His moral teaching? Was it the perceived possibility of the overthrow of Roman rule, or His searing critique of religious corruption? Was it all, some or none of these reasons?
And why, ultimately, did the religious leadership of the day determine to end the work of the man from Galilee?
Answering these questions takes us on a fascinating journey that will probably change your perceptions of Jesus and His original followers.
As we begin, let’s get our geographic bearings. Jesus grew up in Galilee, a territory to the north of Judea. It was located at the intersection of trade routes linking the eastern Mediterranean Sea coast with Damascus in Syria and the lands beyond. Its name in the Aramaic language of Jesus’ time was Galil hagoim—Galilee of the strangers—because along its network of roads passed all manner of peoples. These were the surroundings of Jesus' youth, the places where His father, Joseph, worked as a carpenter.
Near Nazareth was the regional capital city of Sepphoris. Among its ruins today are the remains of a much later fort built around 1260 by the Crusaders. It stands at the top of a hill that dominates the countryside—a now-silent reminder that in the centuries after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, other strangers continued to crisscross Galilee’s productive landscape. The Crusaders were drawn not by trade but by religious fervor—Christians seeking to win back their lost holy places from the followers of Muhammad.
What would the man from Nazareth have made of all the bloodshed they committed in His name? Did His message of a coming peaceful kingdom have anything to do with a vicious struggle over holy places? We could ask the same questions today. Religious conflicts have not gone away, and the holy places are still a bone of contention. Surely the principles underlying the faith He exemplified cry out against such strife.
Disappointed Visitors
American author Mark Twain expressed similar thoughts back in 1869. He visited Bethlehem, the place of Christ’s birth, and later wrote, “The priests and the members of the Greek and Latin churches cannot come by the same corridor to kneel in the sacred birthplace of the Redeemer, but are compelled to approach and retire by different avenues, lest they quarrel and fight on this holiest ground on earth.”i It seems that even those who venerate the places Christ may have been, fight among themselves over those locations.
Twain was disappointed by his dusty three-month horseback journey through Syria and Palestine—especially by the many holy sites. He complained that they were often tawdry and commercialized.
Yet in Galilee he found some serenity. One night, sitting outside his tent on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, he marveled at the region’s history and associations. “In the starlight,” he wrote, “Galilee has no boundaries but the broad compass of the heavens, and is a theater meet for great events; meet for the birth of a religion able to save the world; and meet for the stately Figure appointed to stand upon its stage and proclaim its high decrees.”ii
In the early 1940s, a young British aircraft engineer stationed in Egypt also visited the Holy Land. When he saw the various holy places, he felt a little as Mark Twain had. He was certainly discouraged by the tasteless “sacred” grottos with their trappings of religiosity. He even asked himself whether some of the celebrated Christian sites were really connected with the life and times of the humble man from Nazareth. That young Royal Air Force volunteer was my father. His fascination with the land—and the implications for Western civilization of what happened there—has become my own.
The Earliest Followers
It is common knowledge that Western civilization has its roots in the Greek and Roman worlds. We can see it in our legal systems, our communications, commerce and science, our forms of government, as well as our art and literature. But overlaying that foundation is another powerful influence—the value system found in the Bible, the familiar Book of books. Its principles have guided monarchs, statesmen and ordinary people through the ages.
When Alfred the Great, for example, set down his code of law for the English peoples, he attached a paraphrased translation of the Ten Commandments and abridged passages from a couple of chapters in the book of Exodus—the ones that spell out practical applications of the Ten Commandments. Centuries later on the American continent, the founding fathers of the United States formulated their constitution, guided by that same enduring biblical heritage. So a central part of our Western cultural foundation can be traced to a narrow land at the crossroads of the ancient world.
What did the earliest followers of Jesus have to tell their world? Have Jesus’ teachings enjoyed accurate transmission across the years? How much of the original faith still exists? Is the Christian religion we know today in part accumulated misconception?
A hundred and fifty years ago, Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote that millions of people through the centuries have “sought little by little to cheat God out of Christianity.”iii It’s a shocking assertion. More recently, the French writer Jacques Ellul said, “We have to admit that there is an immeasurable distance between all that we read in the Bible and the practice of the Church and of Christians.”iv If these assertions are correct—if, as Kierkegaard also said, “the Christianity of the New Testament simply does not exist”v—then perhaps it’s time to go back and rediscover the authentic faith. Our story begins on a Sabbath day in Galilee.
“Jesus . . . did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18–19, New International Version throughout unless otherwise noted). With these words from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus announced His mission in the synagogue of His hometown of Nazareth in the late 20s C.E.
The Gospel writer Luke tells us that at first the townspeople were impressed by the words that came from His lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. But before long, Jesus’ teaching angered them, especially when He began to explain that “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.” He reminded His listeners of ancient Israel’s rejection of its prophets—men of God—who came with unpopular messages. They warned their societies of the need to radically change behavior and live according to God’s laws. When Jesus made such pointed statements, His audience was infuriated perhaps as much as their Old Testament forebears had been.
The result of His speech in Nazareth was that the audience took Him to a cliff overlooking the town. They intended to throw Him over the edge and kill Him. And don’t people think the same way today? The notion of killing the messenger when we do not like the message is familiar. On this occasion, although it was a close call, Jesus survived. Luke’s account simply tells us that Jesus “walked right through the crowd and went on his way.”
This early incident in Jesus’ ministry reflects the tension He often generated. On the one hand, gracious speech; on the other, uncompromising moral logic that cornered His listeners.
From Conception to Misconception
Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth was a very small place at that time. But the village was not His birthplace, of course. That distinction is reserved for Bethlehem, about 90 miles to the south in ancient Judah. It was there that Jesus’ parents, Joseph and Mary, had their roots.
Every year at the Christmas season, the town of Bethlehem is filled with pilgrims acknowledging what they believe was the time and place of their Savior’s birth. But does the traditional Christmas story reflect what the Bible says? You might be surprised.
Two thousand years ago, the Mediterranean basin was a Roman-dominated world. Just before Jesus was born, the emperor Caesar Augustus (27 B.C.E.–14 C.E.) issued a decree calling for a census. Joseph and Mary had to go to their ancestral home, Bethlehem, to register. When exactly was this? Though the Bible is not as specific as we might like, we are given several clues. One is that King Herod, who searched for the infant Jesus, died in 4 B.C.E.
Luke gives us another indication. He writes about the census: “This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town” (Luke 2:2–3, English Standard Version). This translation suggests that more than one census occurred under Quirinius’s supervision. We know from Roman records that he was governor from 6 to 7 C.E. But this is too late for Jesus’ birth. While some scholars argue that there were two officials named Quirinius, it could be that the same man conducted two registrations, the first around 6 to 4 B.C.E. Since we’re told Jesus was born during Quirinius’s first census, this is one way that the birth can be dated approximately. An alternate translation reads, “This was the census that took place before Quirinius was governor of Syria” (emphasis added); i.e., he was in charge of the census, but not yet governor. This would also confirm a date prior to 6 C.E.
Note that this book uses the designations “C.E.” (common era) and “B.C.E.” (before the common era) instead of “A.D” (anno Domini, “in the year of our Lord”) and “B.C.” (before Christ). The latter terms are in fact inaccurate. But where did the idea come from to divide time into “B.C.” and “A.D.”? Surprisingly, it wasn’t until 526 C.E. that a Scythian monk, Dionysius Exiguus, living in Rome, created this method of dating. And it was not until a thousand years later that “B.C.” came into use. Gradually the now common misconception took hold that Christ was born at the division of the years between B.C. and A.D. But the few historical benchmarks given in the New Testament give no support to such a conclusion.
Another misconception concerns not the year but the day of Christ’s birth. It is now known that December 25 could not have been the date. More likely, Jesus was born in the early autumn. We can establish this general period from specific details in the Gospel of Luke.
The temple at Jerusalem had well-defined priestly serving cycles. John the Baptist’s father was one of those serving in Jerusalem from time to time. He was designated to serve in the course or cycle named after Abijah, head of one of the priestly families in the days of King David. The timing of the Abijah course was around July-August. The Gospel of Luke tells us that John the Baptist was conceived just after one such visit to Jerusalem. And we also know from Luke that John was about six months older than Jesus. We can establish by simple arithmetic that John was born in the springtime in Palestine, and that Jesus was therefore born in the autumn.
Significant Humility
Joseph and Mary must have had a difficult time getting to Bethlehem. The journey would have taken three to five days. To get to their destination, they probably took the usual route: from Nazareth down the Jordan Valley to Jericho. From there they would climb almost 4,000 feet to Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
As the young parents-to-be traveled along trade routes and regional roads, they no doubt spoke of all that had brought them to this moment. Mary was pregnant, though still a virgin. How could that be? Luke tells of an angelic vision revealing to Mary that her child would be the Messiah, the One long awaited by the Jewish people.
Joseph’s first thought had been to break their betrothal agreement in a form of private divorce, avoiding the embarrassment Mary would experience otherwise. For more information, we have to turn to another of the four Gospel writers, Matthew. He tells us that Joseph “was a righteous man and did not want to expose [Mary] to public disgrace” (Matthew 1:19). Joseph soon understood from an inspired dream that he should continue with the marriage. The child, he now knew, was conceived by God’s intervention.
It was all very difficult to understand, but Joseph’s strong belief in the divine message motivated him to complete the marriage agreement. After all, the Hebrew Scriptures had foretold that a virgin would conceive a son named Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” Joseph and Mary were sufficiently convinced by their unusual experiences to believe that God was involved.
Let’s now look at some of the circumstances and the myths surrounding the birth of Christ.
When Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem—birthplace of Israel’s most famous king, David—they found that the Roman census had brought many people home. That meant rooms were scarce. Luke says “there was no room for them in the inn.”
As it turned out, the circumstances gave Jesus’ birth a significant humility. This King of kings and Lord of lords would be born in a stable, which, according to numerous scholars and commentators, could have been inside a cave in one of Bethlehem’s hillsides.
The birth of Mary’s firstborn son attracted the immediate attention of humble shepherds who had also heard and seen angelic beings—this time announcing the extraordinary birth. In the fields near Bethlehem, the shepherds were watching over their flocks. This suggests that Jesus’ birth was not in the middle of winter, when shepherds and flocks do not stay out at night. It does snow in Bethlehem in winter.
The angel told the shepherds that the Christos, or Messiah, the long-awaited Savior of mankind, had come. The sign the shepherds should look for was a baby lying in an animals’ feeding trough—a manger. In or near the village they found the child and His parents exactly as mentioned. Overwhelmed by the accuracy of the angelic message, the shepherds became the first humans to announce Jesus’ birth.
It was a world looking for a messiah; in fact, messianic expectation was commonplace. Some of the Jews wanted liberation from their Roman oppressors—their messiah would be a political leader. Others wanted deliverance from disease and every human woe.
And it was not only in Israel that a savior was anticipated.
Long-Predicted Holy One
About 40 years before the birth of Jesus, the Latin poet Virgil wrote that “a God-like child shall be born. . . . Come quickly to receive your power,” he said, “for all the world awaits you. Oh that I may live to see so noble a subject for my verse.”
The prediction of such a child was an ancient tradition, even in China, where in the early 500s B.C.E. the philosopher Confucius wrote that “the Holy One must be sought in the West.”
As a result, some histories mention that about 70 years after Jesus’ birth the Chinese emperor Mimti, under the influence of this expectation, sent messengers westward into India to inquire after the long-predicted “Holy One” of Confucius.
A ruler in India had also understood that the birth of this unusual child was to occur. In about 1 C.E., he sent emissaries to Palestine to know whether the predicted royal child had actually made his appearance.
But a child born in a stable did not seem to fit the messianic expectation at all. And yet those mysterious visitors, the Magi or wise men referred to in Matthew’s Gospel account, had a different opinion.
Matthew tells us that some time after Jesus’ birth, “wise men” came from the east in pursuit of a star. They inquired about “the one who has been born king of the Jews.” In the details of this story we begin to unravel more of the misconceptions about Jesus and the belief and practice of the early Church.
Notice that the New Testament record says nothing about how many wise men came. Nonbiblical tradition tells us there were three, even three kings. But apparently the “three kings” theme did not become popular until the Middle Ages. The New Testament record is silent about the Magi as three kings.
Tradition further misleads us, saying the Magi visited Jesus at His manger. Even the second-century church historian Justin Martyr was at variance with the biblical account with respect to the Magi’s visit. He wrote: “When the Child was born in Bethlehem, since Joseph could not find lodging in that village, he took up his quarters in a certain cave near the village; and while they were there Mary brought forth the Christ and placed him in a manger, and here the Magi who came from Arabia found him.”
Yet notice the words of Matthew’s Gospel about the wise men: “The star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary . . .” (Matthew 2:9–11). These visitors came to see a child in a house, not a newborn in a stable.
The King Escapes
As astrologers or philosophers, the Magi were likely aware of the messianic expectations of the age. When their observations of the night sky recorded an unusual star, they journeyed west following its uncharacteristic movements.
Their travels took them first to Jerusalem, since the one they were seeking was to be a new king of the Jews. Because of their questions, they gained an audience with the elderly and paranoid Herod in his palace. Despite his great public works and the loyalty they engendered, Herod was clearly disturbed by the threat of a rival king. Calling for the Jewish religious leaders, he asked where the Messiah was to be born. “‘In Bethlehem in Judea,’ they replied, ‘for this is what the prophet has written . . .’” (verse 5).
The deceitful Herod then sent the Magi to find the child and return with a report “so that I too may go and worship him.” However, the men were warned in a dream to avoid Herod, and they returned home by another way. Herod’s anger knew no bounds when he discovered the Magi’s surreptitious departure. Using the information they had given him about the star’s first appearance, he ordered the brutal killing of all boys aged two and younger.
Another message came to Joseph and Mary: this time they were told to flee from Herod’s wrath. They immediately took their young son and escaped to Egypt by night. Nothing is known of their refuge in Egypt—neither place nor exact length of time—except that they returned to Nazareth after Herod’s death.
A Childhood Experience
During the subsequent years in Galilee, Jesus apparently grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke tells us that He developed well under His parents’ care.
The only recorded account of His boyhood years was an unusual event in Jerusalem. His well-known interaction with the teachers of the law in the courts of the temple is recounted in Luke 2:41–47. At the Passover season, when He was 12 years old, Jesus became separated from His parents. For three days, unbeknown to Mary and Joseph, He held His scholarly listeners spellbound with questions of great depth and understanding.
Naturally His parents expressed anxiety and concern for their missing son and no doubt some irritation at His apparent lack of concern for them. But this was a defining moment and one Mary would later ponder. When His parents eventually found Him, Jesus answered them with the questions “Why were you searching for me?” and “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (verse 49) or “about My Father’s business?” (New King James Version). But at this point his parents did not understand, though His mother “treasured all these things in her heart.”
Where did Jesus spend the remainder of His youth and early adult life? It can only be a matter of intelligent guesswork since none of the Gospel writers mentions anything about Jesus between the ages of 12 and about 30.
Laying the Foundation
Luke records in verse 51 that Jesus returned to Nazareth from Jerusalem and was obedient to His parents. That relationship no doubt allowed Jesus to learn from Joseph the craft of a carpenter.
The carpenter’s role could have taken Joseph around the environs of Nazareth. A discovery near Jesus’ boyhood home allows us to speculate reasonably about His youth and what He might have learned as a carpenter’s apprentice.
Though the Gospel accounts don’t mention Sepphoris, archaeological excavations indicate that it was an important city four miles north of Nazareth. It served as the provincial capital of Galilee during Jesus’ time. In this case, what the Gospels do not mention forms the basis of an informed opinion. We know that Jesus grew up with a carpenter for a father, that He was obedient to His parents’ wishes, and that Nazareth was His family home. We also know that after Herod the Great’s death, Herod’s kingdom was divided among his three sons, Archelaus, Antipas and Philip.
Herod Antipas ruled Galilee and began an extensive rebuilding program in the gateway city of Sepphoris. The construction continued throughout Jesus’ youth at Nazareth. It is therefore possible that Joseph and Jesus worked on the project. Carpenters in those days were also stonemasons, and the scale and grandeur of Sepphoris would have kept local artisans busy for years.
Herod Antipas had been educated with his brother Archelaus in Rome. His experiences immediately before his return to Palestine were entirely in a Roman imperial context. It is no surprise, then, that Sepphoris was a city built in the Roman architectural style, with an amphitheater, baths, government buildings and so on.
If Jesus did experience urban life at Sepphoris, it would have taught significant lessons about trade and business, and about politics and human government. What is often missed in explaining the Gospels is the political atmosphere of Christ’s time.
Also overlooked is the political milieu of John the Baptist’s ministry.
An Unusual Message
John the Baptist was almost as controversial as Jesus Himself. Giving the historical and geographical context, Luke says: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert” (Luke 3:1–2).
The result was that John the Baptist began preaching that repentance of sin before God was essential and that baptism by immersion in the River Jordan would begin the renewal process.
It was an unusual message at the time, in that baptism was not a common ritual. Certainly the prophets of old had spoken of repentance and forgiveness of sin. The Jewish people were also familiar with ritual purification baths, but washing sins away was new.
The Baptist’s life had paralleled Jesus’ own in several ways. John and Jesus were kinsmen—their mothers were related. Both John’s mother, Elizabeth, and Mary had conceived miraculously within a few months of each other. Elizabeth knew that her pregnancy was as much a remarkable sign of divine intervention as Mary’s. Elizabeth had been unable to bear children until her old age. When the two met in the early days of Mary’s pregnancy, Elizabeth’s child had moved suddenly in the womb, and Elizabeth took this as a meaningful sign.
Qumran Connection
It is likely that John’s older parents died before he became an adult. It is also possible that as an orphan he was brought up in a religious desert community.
Such a community might have existed at the well-known Qumran, overlooking the Dead Sea. The inhabitants were possibly Essenes, a reclusive and strict sect of the Jews. If they lived in the desolate surroundings on the edge of the Judean wilderness, they certainly lived an ascetic life. The Essenes were awaiting a messiah who would deliver them politically—a warrior king. Then, they believed, a priestly messiah would come to Jerusalem to purify temple worship as well as the sacrifices.
John the Baptist had little in common with such views, but as we’ve noted, he did practice the ritual of baptism by immersion. At the ruins of Qumran, there are what look like ritual baths or miqva’ot, where immersions could have taken place as acts of purification.
Apparently the members of the Qumran community spent a lot of their time copying out the Hebrew Scriptures and writing their own commentaries on them. Perhaps this explains why many inkwells have been found there—certainly an unusual item to discover in large quantities.
Of course, the caves in the area are most famous for the 1947 discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In three of the caves, fragments of a manuscript known as the Cairo Damascus Document were found. They mention a diet including locusts, something the Gospels tell us John ate. This was not necessarily unusual, since the Jews considered locusts fit for food.
A further indication of John the Baptist’s possible Qumran connection is the fact that, like John, the community used a verse from Isaiah to describe their purpose. That verse reads, in part, “A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord’” (Isaiah 40:3). It must be said, however, that John and the Qumran community used the verse to different ends. If John did have anything to do with the community, he moved away from them once his public work began in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar.
The Hebrew Scriptures are often used by the Gospel writers as supporting evidence for the subject at hand—for example, the mission of John the Baptist. This shouldn’t surprise us: the only “Bible” the Gospel writers had was what we call today the Old Testament.
Prescription for Today
John was a fiery preacher. He was one to straighten things out without fear of man. When the people from Judea and Jerusalem went to the Jordan River to hear John, he didn’t spare his words. Identifying certain religious leaders among his audience, he characterized them publicly as a “brood of vipers.” He warned them that divine retribution will come to the unrepentant, that complacency is a trap, and that a show of religiosity is not enough. A change of heart is what God wants to see.
In this respect, John’s mission was not unlike that of the Old Testament prophets. His prescription for behavioral change was the same. When asked for advice on how to practice righteous living, John would reply with specifics, such as “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”
The much-hated tax collectors also sought his advice. To them he said: “Don’t collect any more than you are required to.”
Then the soldiers came: “‘And what should we do?’ He replied, ‘Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay’” (Luke 3:11–14).
Share your goods, don’t take more than you should, don’t steal or accuse others falsely, and be content with your pay—these sound like prescriptions for today.
And of course, they are, because John’s expression of right values, based in the Hebrew Scriptures, was timeless. That’s an important aspect of original New Testament teaching—its timelessness. It’s something we will continue to note throughout this book.
More Powerful Than John
The kind of discussion John had with his audiences led some to wonder whether he was the anticipated Messiah. Could he be the Christos to come?
John’s answer to this was emphatic and at the same time puzzling. He said: “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (verses 16–17).
Whoever he was speaking of had not yet been publicly revealed. But soon Jesus came from Galilee. John reacted to Jesus’ request for baptism by declaring, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14).
Jesus’ reply was that it was necessary to complete the ceremony so that His own life story would set the course for all human beings. That is, everyone at some point must accept or reject purification before God. If Jesus was to serve as a living example for all, then this part of the human experience could not be excluded.
Exactly where along the Jordan John baptized Jesus is unknown, but what happened is explained in all four Gospels. As Jesus came up out of the river, what appeared to be a dove—a symbol of the Holy Spirit—descended on Him. And a voice was heard, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:13–17; Mark 1:9–11; Luke 3:21–22; John 1:32).
After this simple but profound ceremony, Jesus, at the age of about 30, began His public work.
The Tempter’s Trap
Jesus’ immediate challenge concerned the use of His considerable powers for His own purposes. Immediately after His baptism, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to meet an opponent from the spirit world: after having fasted 40 days, Jesus encountered Satan the devil.
Matthew describes His opponent’s first line of attack: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread” (Matthew 4:3).
The craving for food was no doubt intense. The knowledge of His own power to miraculously change the circumstances was also present with Jesus. Was this an opportunity to use it for personal benefit?
Christ’s reply was simply, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
The tempter then made two more appeals. Why not throw yourself from the highest point on the temple’s walls? Surely God will save you. After all, you could prove who you are by taking what would be a suicidal leap, because the Scriptures promise your protection: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone,’” quoted the tempter.
But Jesus knew that testing God’s protection would be willful and wrong. His response? “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Finally, the devil took Christ to a high mountain and surveyed the kingdoms of the world. “‘All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’”
His offer was seductive in the sense that Jesus knew His destiny was ultimately to have rulership of the world—but only on His Father’s terms, not as Satan’s slave. His reply was final: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
This account of the temptation is followed in the Gospel of John by more details about the role of John the Baptist. The religious leaders were obviously perplexed by his ministry and wanted to know who he really was. The Pharisees, having suffered his verbal attacks, sent some of their Sadducee associates from Jerusalem to speak with John.
“Are you the Christ?” they asked.
“No,” said John, “nor am I Elijah, nor the Prophet foretold in the Scriptures. I am simply the messenger coming before the Lord” (John 1:19–28, paraphrased).
The next day, John identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God”—the one who was prophesied to come as a sacrificial offering for humanity (verse 29). And the following day he repeated the phrase to two of his disciples, one of whom was Andrew. Both then became followers of Jesus, along with Andrew’s brother, Simon Peter.
First Public Miracle
At this point Jesus went back to His home region of Galilee, and His public ministry began to emerge alongside that of John. Within a few days, Jesus had attracted two more disciples, Philip and Nathanael.
According to John’s Gospel, it was now that Jesus’ first public miracle occurred. At Cana in Galilee, Jesus, His mother and His disciples were invited to a wedding. During the feast, the supply of wine ran out, and Mary mentioned this to her son. Jesus’ reaction suggests that she knew He could provide more wine, but that He preferred not to do so to avoid notoriety.
“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” He asked. “My time has not yet come” (John 2:4).
But His mother told the servants to help Jesus in whatever way He asked. They filled six stone jars with water, which then miraculously became wine—120 to 180 gallons in all. And there can be no mistake: it was wine. The New Testament Greek word used is oinos—“fermented grape juice.”
The steward of the wedding feast was pleasantly surprised. He told the bridegroom, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” The miracle had the effect of confirming to His disciples that Jesus was from God.
From Cana, on the upper plateau of Galilee, Jesus and His family and disciples traveled down to Capernaum at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, where He would eventually set up a home. But after a few days there, it was Passover season and time to travel to Jerusalem.
Destroy the Temple?
When Jesus arrived at the temple area, He found the merchants and money changers trading in the outer courts. The money changers were inclined to cheat in their foreign-exchange dealings. Jewish visitors came to Jerusalem from all over the known world and brought with them their currencies. They also had to pay temple tax, which required a certain kind of coin from the ancient city of Tyre. Here again the money changers could easily gouge their customers. No doubt similar price-fixing occurred when animals and birds for commanded sacrifices were bought from the merchants. The law of supply and demand always induces greed when morality is absent.
All of this corruption brought Jesus’ condemnation as He drove the traders out of the temple enclosure: “How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” He said (John 2:16). It was an unprecedented action that caused the religious leaders to ask Jesus for a sign of who He was and by what authority He did such things.
His reply was enigmatic. He said, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” To the Jewish leaders this sounded like a preposterous and arrogant claim. How could He rebuild in three days something that had taken years to construct? Jesus was speaking, of course, not of the actual temple but of His own physical body, which, once dead, would be resurrected. After His death, His disciples would recall this unusual statement.
Teaching the Teacher
The Passover season also provided for an important private meeting between Jesus and a key religious leader. Jesus’ popularity was growing—His public statements and miraculous works were drawing increasing attention. Nicodemus, a prominent man in the religious community, came to Jesus under cover of darkness. He acknowledged that the Pharisees knew that Jesus was a teacher sent from God because of the miracles He was performing. Jesus took the opportunity to explain some truths to this leader that he ought to have known.
He told Nicodemus that the kingdom of God is something that is spiritually discerned and that entry into that kingdom is the destiny of humans who come to have a Spirit-led mind.
It is significant that a religious leader could be as unaware as the unconvinced and unconverted. This speaks to the vital importance of a mind that is truly open to God’s Word. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things?” (John 3:10).
Jesus went on to explain that belief in His coming was essential to entry into the kingdom of God. God the Father had given the Son to be a sacrifice for all humanity. People who didn’t want to walk in the light would not come to the Son. The light of truth exposes evil intentions and evil acts.
It was exactly that kind of behavior that John the Baptist was combating. John was still at work baptizing in the Jordan valley. A dispute arose between some of his disciples and the Jews about purification, and about Jesus’ role in baptizing people. John took the position that his own work would now diminish, as Christ’s would expand.
It was a humble recognition that his part was almost done. Shortly John would be thrown into prison as a political prisoner of Herod Antipas. John had been forthright in criticizing the ruler for his marriage to his brother’s wife (who, according to first-century Jewish historian Josephus, was also his niece); the openly adulterous and incestuous relationship was well known—and against the law of God (see Leviticus 18:6, 16; 20:21). As a result, John was soon to be silenced.
As Jesus’ following grew, so grew the need to teach the moral core of discipleship. To that end, Jesus delivered to His disciples what has been termed the greatest moral discourse of all time: the Sermon on the Mount.
Machaerus is an ancient hilltop fortress on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. It may seem an unlikely place to pursue our study of Jesus of Nazareth, especially when there is no evidence that He ever went there. Machaerus was once part of Herod the Great’s line of fortified defenses. All that remains today are the outlines of a few rooms. But in the first century, it contained a palace with plastered walls, mosaic floors and an extensive water- and food-supply system.
It also served as the prison for John the Baptist. And this fact provides the connection with Jesus of Nazareth. What happened to John in the fortress played an important part in initiating Jesus’ own ministry. John had spoken plainly about Herod Antipas’s wickedness. He had also intruded on Herod’s personal life with his criticisms, telling the ruler that he had no right to steal the wife of his half brother Philip.
According to Josephus, it was Herod’s suspicious mind that led to John’s imprisonment. It seems that he also feared John’s popularity with the people and thought that the Baptizer might start a rebellion against him.
Living Water
The Gospel writer Mark tells us that when Jesus heard that John’s preaching had been silenced, He traveled to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, thus beginning His own three-and-a-half-year ministry (Mark 1:14–15). On the way from Judea He passed through Samaria and stopped at a famous well, named after the patriarch Jacob. A woman came to draw water, and Jesus asked her for a drink (John 4:4–7).
The Jews and the Samaritans were traditional opponents, the Jews looking down on their northern neighbors as a religiously and tribally inferior people. So the woman was puzzled that a Jew would ask water from a Samaritan. It would, after all, make him ritually unclean.
Jesus explained that if she had truly recognized Him she would have asked Him for living water. Inviting her to gain some spiritual understanding, Jesus engaged her in a conversation that revealed who He was and His ability to read the human heart.
The woman, it turned out, had had five husbands and was now living with a man who was not her husband. Jesus perceived all of this and shocked the woman by telling her so. This led to her recognition of Jesus’ special discernment, and that perhaps He was a prophet (verses 9–19).
Jesus in turn explained to her that the Samaritan religion was in error and that He, in fact, was the Messiah to come. Needless to say, it was an astonishing revelation. For the first time Jesus openly said who He was. Yet He did not tell it to His own people but to a Samaritan woman. This is quite an irony, because she and her townspeople came to recognize Him as “the Savior of the world” (verses 39–42), while at the same time many of His own people did not.
Dawning Light
At this point we will begin to trace Jesus’ footsteps around Galilee. We will turn our attention to the heart and core of His ethical and moral teaching—found in some of the most remarkable passages of the New Testament. These are some of the great truths embedded in the Western cultural heritage; yet so often, it seems, we are unfamiliar with their origin or the thought that lies behind these universal truths.
It was in Capernaum, at the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, that Jesus took up residence after the people of His hometown, Nazareth, rejected His mission. The small fishing village became the base for His work of teaching and healing.
Capernaum’s location in Galilee placed it in the land populated in ancient times by the Israelite tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali. The Gospel writer Matthew tells us that Jesus’ coming to Capernaum fulfilled an Old Testament promise. Isaiah the prophet had said: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:13–16).
According to Matthew, the light that dawned was Jesus and the truth He would bring to Galilee and the world. Matthew used Isaiah’s words to show his Jewish audience scriptural support for Jesus’ mission.
But why did Jesus concentrate on Galilee? Why was it the center of His work? Why did He go back to Galilee from Judea once He heard that John the Baptist was in prison?
As we have noted, Galilee was near the main trade route between the Mediterranean and Damascus and the East. It was a stop along the way for the foreigners, or gentiles, who came and went with their exotic cargoes. It is likely that Galilee had an intellectual openness that would permit Jesus’ teaching to flourish for a while. And the crossroads environment of Galilee meant that word of Jesus’ activities could spread far and wide.
Fishers of Men
During Roman times, the fresh waters of the Sea of Galilee provided for a lucrative fishing trade. It is no surprise, then, that some among Jesus’ early followers were partners in the fishing business. Their names are familiar: the brothers Andrew and Simon Peter, and the sons of Zebedee, James and John.
Luke’s Gospel tells us that one day Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee. Seeing Simon, He asked if He would take Him out a little way in the boat. Offshore, Jesus could speak to the crowds more easily, His voice carrying over the water. Simon had heard Jesus teach before (beginning, as we saw earlier, after his brother Andrew heard John the Baptist proclaim Jesus as “the Lamb of God”), but now he had the chance to listen again in the peace and quiet of the lake’s surroundings.
When Jesus finished teaching, He told Simon to go out into deeper water and let down his net for a large catch. We’re told that Simon and his men, despite having caught nothing all night, immediately caught so many fish that their boat was in danger of sinking. And not only their boat—Simon had to call on James and John to help. They hauled in so many fish that they, too, were endangered (Luke 5:1–7).
What lesson would they draw from this unusual experience? Jesus’ message to the fishermen was simple: Don’t be afraid; from now on you’ll be netting not just fish, but an abundance of men and women for the kingdom of God.
The experience was dramatic enough to become a turning point for those early disciples. They immediately left their occupations and became full-time participants in Jesus’ work. It was a decision that would take them all over Roman Palestine and beyond. Their own land was, of course, familiar territory, but what they would learn from Jesus was something entirely new and unfamiliar.
Speaking With Authority
It was apparently Jesus’ practice to teach in one synagogue or another on the Sabbath day. In Capernaum, a God-fearing Roman centurion had built a synagogue for the Jews. The man was so well loved that when his servant was taken ill, the Jewish elders summoned Jesus to help him.
The synagogue that most visitors to Galilee are shown when they go to the Holy Land to walk where Jesus walked is of third- or fourth-century construction. But in the foundations are the black basalt footings of an earlier building—perhaps the original synagogue that Jesus knew.
In such simple buildings, Jesus astonished His listeners because He taught with unusual authority. Unlike His contemporaries, He didn’t quote others to support His case. He simply showed the scriptural principles from the Law and the Prophets, and detailed the teaching with analogies from everyday life.
In the first-century synagogue, the Jewish rabbis generally taught from a central seated position. If Jesus did the same, He would have had much more contact with the audience than in today’s synagogues and churches.
Typically Jesus would have read from the scrolls of Scripture kept at the synagogue and then commented on them. It seems He was an impressive speaker. And it wasn’t just the regular worshipers who were amazed by His authority; even those mentally troubled by the spirits shouted out in recognition of Him.
Luke tells us that one day in the Capernaum synagogue there was just such a man. He was afflicted with what today some might call a multiple personality disorder. In this man’s case, the spirit of these various personalities suddenly spoke out: “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” (Luke 4:31–34).
And what was Jesus’ response? Simply to command the spirit to leave so that the man’s sanity could quickly return.
It was a startling event. It caused a great stir and spread Jesus’ reputation all around the region of Galilee. A man who could tame a troublesome spirit was rare indeed.
More Misconceptions
In Chapter 1, we discovered some common misconceptions about the New Testament story, such as the date of Jesus’ birth, which we found was not December 25 or anywhere close.
Now we’re about to uncover another myth. For too long, traditional Christianity has had the idea that the disciples, and even Jesus Himself, lived out on the road—that the disciples were mostly homeless, unmarried and poverty-stricken. Yet clearly the New Testament shows that Peter had a home, a wife, and for a time even a fishing business.
The Gospel of Mark describes a visit to Peter’s house by Jesus. It says: “As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them” (Mark 1:29–31).
By the end of that Sabbath, on Saturday evening, many were at the door begging for Jesus’ healing. He helped them, of course, but He also told some of those who had been mentally disturbed not to say who He was—the Christ, or Messiah (Luke 4:40–41). It wasn’t time yet to have that title broadcast, or, like John the Baptist, Jesus could be caught up in Herod Antipas’s paranoia and silenced. It was Antipas’s father, Herod the Great, who’d tried to kill Jesus just after He was born. In the early days of His ministry, Jesus did not need to invite Herod Antipas’s opposition.
The next day, before dawn, Jesus went out alone to an isolated place to pray. Here was an opportunity to reappraise the situation. After some time, His disciples came looking for Him. They told Him that the people of Capernaum wanted more of His attention. But Jesus was now convinced He had to move on and teach in other towns and villages (Mark 1:35–39).
And so began His first great tour of the Galilean region.
Widening the Arc of Ministry
Jesus’ travels only enhanced His reputation. Matthew says that great crowds traveled from far afield to hear and be healed (Matthew 4:23–25). No longer did they come just from Galilee. There were people from the Decapolis—a region of 10 sophisticated cities of Greek culture southeast of the Sea of Galilee. The southernmost of these cities was Philadelphia, which is today Amman, capital of Jordan. People also came from Perea, on the east bank of the River Jordan, and from Judea and Jerusalem.
On His teaching tour, Jesus continued to heal all kinds of sickness, from epilepsy and paralysis to leprosy and various mental illnesses. But He was still wary of the acclaim His actions would bring. From time to time He would withdraw from the public eye for a while.
All the same, His activities were becoming an irritant to the local religious leadership. They obviously feared Jesus’ popularity with their people, and they began to look for every opportunity to criticize.
On one occasion, as Jesus healed a paralyzed man, He said something that astonished His critics. He told the man that his sins were forgiven. The Pharisees and doctors of the law overheard and immediately began to accuse Jesus of blasphemy (Mark 2:1–7).
Perhaps it seems like an overreaction to us. What was blasphemous about what Jesus had said? In claiming to forgive sin, He put Himself on a level with God in the Pharisees’ eyes—for only God could forgive sin.
Of course, the message Jesus wanted to send was that He, as the son of man and the Son of God, had the power to forgive sin. To emphasize the truth of His statement and its spiritual significance for everyone, Jesus restored the paralytic’s ability to walk (verses 8–12).
It was an amazing event. But would we believe it if it happened today? Would we believe in a man who really healed miraculously? It’s something to think about in view of the religious confusion that surrounds us today.
As His following grew, so grew the need to teach the moral core of discipleship. To that end, Jesus delivered to His disciples what has been termed the greatest moral discourse of all time: the Sermon on the Mount.
A Richer Vessel
Symptomatic of our contemporary religious uncertainty is the question that a leading newsmagazine asked on its front cover: “Who was Jesus?” The fact that such a question even needs to be asked would indicate that much of Jesus’ teaching has also likely been misunderstood or forgotten.
Take, for example, what Jesus said to a paralyzed man whom He healed (Matthew 9:2). The issue was sin—an unfashionable concept in our time. Have we perhaps reached the point where we find it difficult to say that anyone is really guilty of anything? That sin even exists? After all, society has taught us to make patients out of sinners. People no longer “sin”; they’re victims of the past, or of their parents, or of “the system.” But Western civilization’s foundational teachings say otherwise. The Bible tells us we do sin. And if we feel guilty as a result, that’s essentially a good thing. Guilt can be good for us, especially if it leads to changed, healthy behavior through God’s forgiveness.
When Jesus simultaneously healed the paralyzed man and forgave his sins, He was signaling not only that sin is a paralyzing force in human life, but also that He was able to relieve the burden of sin and of a guilty conscience. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” He said (Matthew 11:28).
It was a message that obviously impressed the Galilean tax collector Matthew Levi. He, too, lived in Capernaum. The town was on the border between two Herodian territories and had a customs post for tax collection. Matthew was at work one day when Jesus came by and asked him to join in His teaching mission. Matthew agreed and soon prepared a meal in his own house to celebrate. He invited several other tax-collector friends (Matthew 9:9–10).
In Jesus’ time, tax officials were despised—especially by the religious leaders, who objected to their frequent cheating. As it was, taxes could be as high as 40 percent. To make matters worse, the tax money was used to support the ruling Herodians and their Roman masters.
But Jesus made it clear that mixing with despised people like the cheating tax collectors was not a sin. It was an opportunity to help them make spiritual progress.
True Religion
Here was the great difference between Jesus of Nazareth and His religious contemporaries. He really cared for people, for their problems and their struggles; He understood their lot in life. The religious leaders, it seems, were more interested in maintaining their own power and prestige. They cared little for the people or the real spiritual issues. Their religious observance had become a ball and chain, preventing them from practicing true religion from the heart. It was form, not substance—ritual, not reality.
Jesus illustrated this in three telling parables. And in doing so, He answered yet another complaint from the Pharisees. This time even the disciples of John the Baptist had joined in the criticism. It’s possible that while Jesus and His disciples were feasting with Matthew the tax collector and his friends, John’s disciples and the Pharisees were deliberately going without food: they were fasting. Perhaps it was one of their self-imposed fast days.