Bruce What the Bible Says About the Work of Christ

Jesus Past, Present, And Future
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-912149-13-1
Verlag: Kingsley Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten

Who was Jesus? What did He do? What is He doing now? And what is He going to do? F.F. Bruce lets the Bible speak for itself in this illuminating introduction to the past, present, and future work of Jesus. The book is a perfect starting point for both individual and group study. Each page exhibits Bruce's spiritual maturity and his intimacy with Christ. 'By his present work,' says the author, 'Christ gives his people the grace to endure; his future work will bring them final salvation and victory.'

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bruce, F. F.

Leseproben

CHAPTER 2

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

AT QUITE AN EARLY STAGE IN HIS MINISTRY Jesus began to find himself at odds with the religious and political authorities.

Conflict with the religious authorities

CONFLICT WITH THE RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES arose first of all from Jesus’ insistence on healing people on the Sabbath day, even during synagogue services. The law of the Sabbath was laid down in the fourth of the ten commandments. The fourth commandment directed the Israelites not to do any work on the Sabbath day. At one time everyone had a fairly clear idea of what was meant by “work” in this sense, but with changes in conditions of life, it became necessary to define “work” more precisely. In some Jewish teaching there were set forth thirty-nine forms of activity which were to be regarded as “work” forbidden on the Sabbath day. For example, reaping grain and grinding it were two of these activities. When fault was found with Jesus’ disciples for plucking ears of grain as they walked through the fields on the Sabbath and rubbing them between their hands to extract the kernel, it was because plucking was reckoned to be a form of reaping, and rubbing a form of grinding.

As for healing people on the Sabbath, the exponents of the law were not unreasonable. If it was a matter of life or death, if delay would be dangerous, then by all means, they agreed, the saving of life should take precedence over the Sabbath law. But if sick or disabled persons could easily wait until sunset, when the new day officially started, then let them wait.

But Jesus said, “Why should they wait?” A law of God could best be obeyed by the fulfillment of the purpose for which it was given. Now the Sabbath was given for the rest and relief of human beings, and anything which promoted that end was a proper thing to do on the Sabbath. By curing people he gave them rest and relief from disease and pain, and the Sabbath was the most fitting day for such activity.

This reasoning was persuasive and attractive, but many of the religious leaders found it subversive. Jesus, in their eyes, had no authority to act or teach as he did; he was undermining established authority and was a dangerous influence.

In Galilee and Jerusalem alike it was this attitude of his towards the Sabbath that first involved him in conflict. John tells in his gospel how Jesus, during a visit to Jerusalem, cured a cripple on the Sabbath day at the Pool of Bethesda. When he was challenged for his alleged breach of the law of God, he gave an astounding reply: “My Father is working still, and I am working” (John 5:17).

This reply might well have reminded his hearers of a subject which lent itself to grave debate. Did God himself desist from all work on the Sabbath day, as his people were commanded to do? True, when creation’s work was finished, the scriptural narrative told how “he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done” (Genesis 2:2). But it was plain that, when he rested from his creative work, he did not rest from his work of providence, from maintaining the creation in being, either then or on any subsequent Sabbath day. If he did, then inevitably the universe would dissolve into nothingness, and would have to be created all over again at the beginning of each new week. So, it was generally agreed, God kept on working all the time, Sabbath day or no Sabbath day.

What made Jesus’ reply so astounding, however, was that he claimed this example of God as a precedent for himself to follow. Not only so, but he spoke of God as “my Father” in a way which suggested that he stood in a special relation to God. What the Son sees the Father doing, it is his right and indeed his duty to do. If the Son sees the Father working on the Sabbath, it is for him to work on the Sabbath too. But this, his hearers decided, was intolerable; he was in effect putting himself on a level with God. This was as near to blasphemy as made no difference—and blasphemy was a capital offense in Jewish law. His bold claim was not forgotten. It was brought up against him on each subsequent occasion when he visited Jerusalem for one or another of the great festivals, and on his last visit it figured in his trial and condemnation.

Conflict with Herod Antipas

IT WAS NOT ONLY WITH THE RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES that Jesus came into conflict. In Galilee—where he proclaimed the new kingdom and performed so many of his mighty works—the ruler there became more and more suspicious of him and his companions. This was Herod Antipas, who had imprisoned John the Baptist and later ordered his execution. Now it seemed to Herod that in Jesus he was faced with another John the Baptist, and that he might have to take the same drastic measures against him. Apart from anything else, Herod was held responsible by the Roman emperor for maintaining peace in his principality, and he could not afford to risk any movement which might develop into a popular rising. He had his informants everywhere, and would know all about those who envisaged Jesus as the military leader for whom so many were waiting. When Jesus sent his disciples out two by two to announce the good news of the coming kingdom in the towns and villages of Galilee, Herod would hear of the excitement which their mission caused. The feeding of the multitude, after which an attempt was made to compel Jesus to assume the kingship, took place on the east side of the lake of Galilee, outside Herod’s territory. But the men who made the attempt were Herod’s subjects. No wonder that some well-disposed Pharisees warned Jesus to get out of Galilee, for, they said, “Herod wants to kill you” (Luke 13:31). This was the occasion which called forth Jesus’ description of Herod as “that fox.” He was not greatly alarmed by the warning. Herod could not touch him before his work was done, and even then it was not in Herod’s territory that he would face the final crisis, for “it would never do for a prophet to perish away from Jerusalem.”

Nevertheless he did leave Galilee at that time and took his disciples out of Herod’s reach to give them the instruction that was necessary to prepare them for what lay ahead of them on their next visit to Jerusalem. The territory through which they passed at this time mostly belonged to Herod’s brother Philip (“Philip the tetrarch”), but the majority of Philip’s subjects were Gentiles, and there was not the same danger of Jewish national enthusiasm boiling over there as there was in Galilee. Philip’s capital was at Caesarea Philippi, near one of the sources of the Jordan, and it was in that neighborhood that Peter made his historic confession of Jesus as the Messiah.

Conflict in Jerusalem

AS WE HAVE SEEN, PETER’S CONFESSION gave Jesus the cue to tell his disciples about his impending rejection and death. And not long afterwards he and his disciples set out on the road to Jerusalem, the most appropriate place in the world (as he said) for a prophet to meet his fate. Jerusalem must hear the good news of the kingdom of God as Galilee had heard it, but Jesus had no illusions about the reception which Jerusalem was likely to give to him and his message. If his message were accepted, it would prove to be the way of peace, but there were forces at work in Jerusalem which would lead to the rejection of the way of peace and thus ensure the ruin of the city and its inhabitants.

The Jewish authorities themselves were well aware of those forces, which were set on a collision course with the Roman military occupation. Those Jewish authorities, at whose head stood the chief priests, were desperately anxious to hold the rebellious forces at bay. Their own position, they knew, depended on the maintenance of peaceful relations with the Roman administration, and if those peaceful relations were disrupted, they themselves would be swept away in the ensuing catastrophe.

But they were far from recognizing an ally in Jesus with his message of peace. There was, indeed, nothing in common between Jesus’ policy of repaying evil with good and the conviction held by the militant patriots that the only good Roman was a dead one. But Jesus was the sort of leader who attracted a following of the common people, and however innocent his own motives might be, such a following as he attracted was likely to arouse the suspicion of the Romans. Public safety might therefore require that Jesus should be put out of harm’s way.

Jesus spent some time teaching in the temple precincts during the week of the Feast of Tabernacles in the autumn of A.D.. 29, and again during the Feast of Dedication at mid-winter, but the crowds that thronged him during those festivals provided a kind of bodyguard which made it inexpedient to take any action against him. For the next three months Jesus withdrew with his disciples to a quiet spot in the wilderness of Judaea. From there he emerged briefly to provide urgently needed help to a family at Bethany, near Jerusalem, with whom he had enjoyed hospitality on his visits to the capital. Lazarus, a member of the family, had died, and Jesus’ action in calling him out of the rock tomb in which he had been interred and restoring him alive to his two sisters, inevitably made a tremendous impression in the whole area.

When, therefore, the Feast of Passover approached a few weeks later and Jesus went to Jerusalem for the last time, he was escorted by a cheering band of pilgrims who clearly thought that the kingdom of God was on the point of being established. Indeed it was, but in quite a...