Would We Recognize Him…

While reading the first chapter of Ann Spangler’s book, Sitting At the Feet Of Jesus, one thing stood out. This is the fact that Jesus’ historical and jewish background is extremely significant. Thinking we can read the scriptures, and have no historical context, is unwise to say the least. If we as a church claim to love Jesus, and want to be in pursuit of Him all our days then we must look through the same lens he did 2000 years ago. I am extremely guilty of this, and reading the first two chapters has shown me that it is no wonder that some passages in the gospel just simply do not make sense to me. Knowing Jesus’ cultural context brings the words to life.

With that aside though one of the biggest things that stood out to me was the false expectations all the jewish sects and factions had of the coming Messiah. They were right in their devotion to scripture. They were wrong in their projection of their preferred way in which they wanted Him to come, and then using the scriptures to adapt to their way. What strikes me the most is the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes were labeled as the religious authority on when and how the Messiah would come. And yet, to some degree these were the same people responsible for Jesus’ murder! Now my question, is how did that happen? How were they so entrenched in the scriptures (so much so that they would tie boxes of scripture around their arms and forehead, something Jesus would have done also!) and yet to condemn Him when He came?  As hinted at earlier, I believe they held the scriptures in the wrong light. As Jesus said in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” They sought the scriptures as an end in themself, and placed their own projections of what the Messiah would do or be, and then brought the scriptures in to line up with their paradigm. This is highly dangerous, and immensely backwards. We and they should look to the scriptures humbly, and allow them to inform us of the paradigm we should have (Romans 12:2). The Israelites missed the mark in thinking Jesus would come and establish a worldly kingdom with an Iron fist, smashing the tyrannical Romans in the process. And yet, he did exactly the opposite. Saying things such as “my kingdom is not of this world” to Pontius Pilate, who of all people was a Roman government official.

With all that on the table now though, the real question is do we do the same today? The most humbling thing when reading that book was the conviction that we can know the scriptures front and back, and yet still be off the mark. Still completely miss the point. Jesus was so revolutionary that he hardly jumped into one of the established “camps” such as the Pharisees, or Essenes. He rather broke the status quo, and acted as if he was working for something better than simply earthly rule (even though he did that too). As christians we must learn from the past and notice the modus operandi of our master. How did he interact with the culture? He fulfilled the law on our behalf, and adhered to the teachings of most of those groups, just went about it in a significantly different way. It is interesting to notice that Jesus rarely debated the Pharisees over theology, but yet had the harshest words for them more than any other people, due to the complete lack of love and humility. Are we as christians not the same today? Do we all have our “camps” such as baptists, methodists, Calvinists, Arminians, post-trib, and pre-tribs? Do we gain these camps simply from tradition, (in the same way the Pharisees had the Talmud) or do we gain them by sitting at the feet of our Rabbi Jesus? The motive makes all the difference. We Americans could learn a thing or two from the religious culture during the day of Jesus.

One of the biggest lessons i think the Body in America needs to learn is that Jesus did not come to establish a political earthly machine in the U.S. Too many times we are like the Pharisees of old, hoping for Jesus to come in and restore our country, rather than seeing he was about so much more than that. We want Him to return us back to the teachings of our forefathers, where we were a “Christian Nation.” Some christians fight tooth and nail over politically charged issues such as gay marriage, war, sustainability etc. Don’t get me wrong, these are HUGE, and I do believe God has his hand in the political arena, but that is not where the battle is fought. Similar to how Jesus coming in to re-establish Israel was not his goal as well.  This is why I pray we go back to the scriptures, and also study the context in which they were written. We so desperately need to see Jesus for who he actually is, because today more than ever there are thousands of different Jesus’s. The question is do we know the true and living one? Only starting with the scriptures and not our own ideas will bless us with a true view of Him. Starting as a “conservative” or “liberal” and then going to the scriptures to make them fit your view is highly dangerous. I plead with you all that we as a body can follow the wise words of a quote in the beginning of chapter two that highlights what kindve people we should be with the ancient texts:

“Pore over them again and again, for everything is contained in it; look into it, grow old and gray over it, and do not depart from it, for there is no better pursuit for you than this.”-Unknown

As for me i dont have nearly this attitude, but i pray I will by God’s grace get there. Below is a song that has really blessed me on this subject of knowing and worshipping the real true Jesus. Would we recognize Him if He were to walk down the street today?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Svz6YFtkI[/youtube]