Thoughts on the Gospel

"The idea that the Judaisms of Jesus' day opposed or ignored forgiveness, justice, mercy, and the love of God is theological antisemitism and historical nonsense." -Stevan L. Davies

This semester, I'm writing a bunch of papers concerning the historical nature of the homeless Jew who is arguably the most important figure in world history. That is Jesus. I find myself getting frustrated often by things like criteria and plausibility, among other things that rule scholarly thought. Its rather unnerving, but ultimately i know that it is good. In one of my papers i am making the claim that to be a Christian is to be a disciple of Jesus, and to be a disciple of Jesus it is imperative to know who Jesus was in first century Roman Palestine so that we can know who Jesus, the claimed Christ, is today. Its hard though. We live in a world of science and technology, a world full of things that Jesus would have never known and in a world with a completely different culture and worldview.

Our lives (Americans/Westerners) are unable to empathize with the Jesus of history and with his world. Yet whenever we think of Jesus, he is totally relatable, he thinks and acts like us, and loves us and died for us. And the Christian worldview is happy with these images. Jesus and Uncle Sam high-five in front of an American flag, and the Spirit descended on Jesus like a bald eagle, not a dove, after his baptism. This is view is incorrect, unfair, ignorant, and lacks integrity though. If we are going to be Christians, we had better know Christ. and if we are going to know Christ we HAVE to know Jesus.

One of the things that has gotten to me more than anything is how American Christians understand the Gospel. We don't understand Jesus so we do not understand his Gospel and we do not understand God. I don't say we on accident. I include myself in this. I do not understand God, the Gospel, Jesus,

But here is what I do know, this understanding of the Gospel of Christ is too small.



This is what most American Christians understand the Gospel to be, more or less.

But when Mark writes of Jesus' first sermon, he writes this:

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."

The Gospel is about the Kingdom of God. It is about his reign. The Gospel is about the Cross, but it is not about our limited, dare I say selfish, understanding of the Gospel.

Let us pursue Jesus and his True Gospel, which is about far more than the forgiveness, justice, mercy, and love of God. But is about his Kingship and Lordship, which is the fulfillment and perfection of his forgiveness, justice, mercy, and love.