By Sr. Rekha M Chennattu, RA –
Continuing the series on the theme — A Call to Become the Good News — Biblical scholars speak of the baptism of Jesus as his foundational experience where he discovered his identify as the “beloved son of God” (Mark 1:9-11). Jesus experienced God as unconditional love and always referred to God as his Father – Abba (e.g., Matthew 25:34; Luke 10:22; John 5:17; 6:32). God was the source of his life and mission, and his God experience enabled him to speak on behalf of God and to do the work of God (John 5:19-30).
The evangelist John presents Jesus as someone who is in constant communication with God and who abides in God’s love. The evangelist applied the verb abide (menein) for the first time in the context of Jesus’ baptism to reveal the divine origin and identity of Jesus as the one in whom the Spirit abides (1:31-34). The abiding of the Spirit in Jesus is the sign of his identity as the incarnate Word of God (1:14), the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit (1:33), the one who is constantly in communication with God (1:1-2, 18). Prayer played a significant role in the life and mission of Jesus. The Lukan Jesus prays before each major event in his ministry and dies while praying – “Father, forgive them” (23:34).
Also Read:
A Call to Become the Good News
A Call to Become the Good News: St Paul and Letters
A Call to Become the Good News: The Christian Way
‘Truly, This Man Was God’s Son’
The Markan Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (Mk 1:1), and the suffering Son of Man (8:31). The evangelist Mark gives great emphasis to the suffering death of Jesus. Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ (8:27-30), but he neither realizes nor accepts that Jesus must suffer and die in Jerusalem. Only when Jesus is hanging dead on the cross does anyone understand who he was, and then it is the Gentile centurion who confesses, “truly, this man was God’s son” (15:39).
The evangelist Matthew tells how Jesus was born in Bethlehem while the King Herod sought to kill him, describes Jesus’ birth with striking echoes of the story of Moses’ early life, reports that Jesus’ father, like the Patriarch Joseph, was instructed by God through dreams, and reminds the readers that these things happened to fulfill the law and the prophets. God has come among the people – Emmanuel, providing a new standard of righteousness through his teaching in general and the sermon on the mount in particular.
The evangelist Luke presents Jesus as the one anointed by God to preach the gospel to the poor (4:18). The Lukan Jesus has compassion on the poor, women, Samaritans, sinners, tax collectors and outcasts of all sorts. Jesus eats with the sinners (5:30), his teaching focuses on the dangers of wealth and the need for social justice (16:13; 18:24), he defends the woman who weeps at his feet (7:36-50) and praises the Samaritan leper who returns to give thanks (17:11-19). Inclusive meals and table fellowship with tax collectors and sinners were so characteristic of Jesus’ mission in synoptic traditions (Mark 2:15-16; Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34). Like the OT prophets, Jesus was committed to bringing Israel back to God and was in search of the lost sheep of Israel – sinners and those who lived on the margins of the Jewish community (Luke 4: 16-21; 15:6; Matthew 10:6).
Radical Transformation
In John’s Gospel, Jesus brings radical transformation in every sphere of life, providing bases for critiquing social norms that exclude or exploit the less privileged ones in society. The Johannine Jesus begins his ministry by responding to the humiliation of a poor family who could not afford enough wine for their guests at their wedding celebration (2:1-11). Jesus reacts with indignation to the money changers and those selling the doves in the temple and rebukes them for making the temple a profit-making market place of the privileged and the powerful (2:13-22). Jesus challenges the narrow mentality of Nicodemus and prods him to go beyond the closed boundaries of Jewish traditions (3:1-21).
The Sabbath controversies in chapters 5–10 are powerful critiques of Jewish religious norms and practices that do not enhance life. Jesus brings healing and wholeness to the paralyzed man at the sheep-pool in Jerusalem who had “no one to put him into the pool when the water was stirred up” (5:1-18). The compassion of Jesus feeds a hungry crowd in the mountains of Galilee (6:1-15). Jesus rejects the marginalization of the man born blind as a social anomaly or sin (9:1-3). Jesus presents himself as the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, which has significant religious and political implications for the first readers of the Gospel of John (10:1-18). Jesus weeps at the death of his friend, Lazarus, and raises him to life (11:1-44).
We have a graphic illustration of Jesus’ love in action in the foot-washing event. Jesus overthrows the inequality that naturally existed among them and inaugurates a new covenant community of equals by washing the feet of his disciples and by serving them as his friends (13:1-20). Jesus’ love for his disciples as his friends is spelled out in terms of self-giving to the point of death (15:13-14).
During the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate at Jesus’ trial, Jesus subordinates the imperial power of the Romans to the authority of God (19:1-16). The Johannine Jesus reaches out to all who are in need and on the margins, and brings them wholeness and fullness of life.
Transcending the Boundaries
In conclusion, Jesus was an itinerant preacher who had no place to lay his head (Luke 9:58); Jesus relativized his family ties and identified those who do the will of God as his mother, brothers and sisters (Mark 3:31-35); Jesus was passionately in love with God’s mission – “my food to is to the will of my father and accomplish his work” (John 4:34); he committed himself fully to be at the service of humanity (“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” [Mark 10:45]).
The centrality of love is obvious in Jesus’s teaching (“love your enemies” [Matthew 5:44] or “love one another as I have loved you” [John 15:12]), but Jesus’ way of life is also marked by stark confrontation with the rich and the powerful. Jesus’ extra-ordinary outreach to those on the fringe of the community, transcending the boundaries of Jewish norms, and his powerful protest and fearless resistance to all forms of evil or darkness was the essence of his mission.
To be continued…
Dr. Rekha M Chennattu, RA is a Professor of New Testament and lectures on Biblical themes (exegesis, theology, and spirituality) and has published books and over 100 articles in India and abroad. She is currently the Provincial Superior of the Assumption Sisters (India) and a Member of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference – Office of Theological Concerns (FABC-OTC). She is also an Associate Faculty member of Pontifical Athenaeum, Pune, India.