main themes of
jesus' teaching
Shema
Deut.6.4f
- the creed Jesus memorized as a child
- it is central to all of Jewish life
- there is only one God, YHWH
- we are to love him with all our being
- remember this always. . .
god as father
- the Shema says to love God
- but by calling God "Abba,"* Jesus uses the language of home, family, love, trust
- we simply can't love God with all our being and love other gods at the same time
*Aramaic for Father
hosea 11:1-4
love for god is holy & sacred
As love for one's spouse or children is 'holy' in that we don't give that love to anyone else, so love for God is to be 'holy' in that Israel doesn't give that love to any other god.
Scot McKnight, The Story of the Christ, 25.
Jews understood God's covenant
loving kindness.
Jesus teaches his followers
to trust and love God in return.
God's Kingdom
- 'kingdom of God' and 'kingdom of heaven' mean the same thing at the time of Jesus
- def: the time & space expression of God's perfect will, visible here and now
- it is both immanent and imminent
The 'kingdom of God is upon you' means
that God's kingdom, the society in which his will and his people will live in utter shalom has arrived.
McKnight, 28
By 'kingdom' Jesus envisions a society in which God's healing ways will restore all persons to their proper place (justice), and these persons will be restored in heart, soul, mind and body.
McKnight, 29
The 'kingdom' of Jesus is the society in which God's will is done and in which humans are restored to be the sorts of persons God wants them to be and in which humans interact to form the society of shalom.
McKnight, 32
But how does one 'enter the
kingdom of God'?
ethics
Jesus wouldn't provide a simple formula
for entering the kingdom of God.
Instead, Jesus spoke of repent & believe.
We want simple formulas.
But there isn't one.
What was involved in becoming a disciple?
repent & believe
REPENT
Repent means to "do a 180,"
to turn from sin & self,
back to the covenant & God.
Which parable, unique to Luke,
is a story of repentance?
BELIEVE
Belief is not something in your head.
It's not just what you think.
Belief is 3 things:
1. to know something or someone is true
(to be certain or sure)
2. to trust that something or someone
3. to act on that knowledge & trust
love
- because the 'kingdom' is so personal for Jesus, everything he believes comes back to love (Shema)
- of the 613 commandments / prohibitions, love was the most central
- love God by loving others
Justice
- in the modern West this relates to individual happiness, freedoms and rights
- but for Jesus, God made man to be Eikons that reflect God as they love Him and others (the Jesus creed)
- justice, therefore, is shaped by relationship to God and others
forgiveness
- if kingdom, love, repentance, faith & personal relationship are central, so will be forgiveness
- if his disciples don't forgive others, God won't forgive them because the two loves "cannot be divorced from one another." (40)
- forgiveness ends a cycle of violence
The poor
- in the kingdom, love shapes all relationships
- loving others is demonstrated in our care for the marginalized and poor
- Mary was a poor outcast, belonging to a class of Jews called Anawim
- Mary's hand rocked Jesus' cradle = his vision of a kingdom that included justice for the poor
3 features of the anawim
- socially destitute and suffer due to poverty
- gather at Temple to express frustration & hope
- yearn for justice and the coming of Messiah to establish that justice (41)
prayer
when humans communicate
in utter truthfulness with God
McKnight, 42
- Jesus sought solitude for prayer
- be honest; keep it plain, simple
- don't make it a show
- the Lord's prayer was built on the Kaddish
- to it Jesus adds prayers for others
- the last line is not in the earliest manuscripts of the gospels
Kaddish
Jesus built the Lord's Prayer
on the Kaddish:
Magnified and sanctified be His great name in the world He created according to His will.
May He establish His kingdom during your life, and during your days, and during the life of all the house of Israel, speedily and in the near future.
And say Amen
And, as he so often did,
Jesus made the Kaddish his own.
- added Abba
- name sanctified (not magnified)
- Kingdom established (not soon)
- bread
- forgiveness
- temptation
- no Amen
Jesus' prayer has two parts:
the "You", and the "we/us"
You
May your Name be hallowed
May your kingdom come
May your will be done on earth
WE / us
Give us our daily bread
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those...
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us...
SHema & Kaddish
Jesus changes these 2 central Jewish creeds:
Shema from love God only to
love God-and-others
Kaddish from concern for God only to
concern for God-and-others
Shema of Judaism: love God (by following Torah)
Shema of Jesus: love God (by following Jesus)
and love others
Kaddish of Judaism: petition for God's glory
Kaddish of Jesus: petition for Abba's glory,
and petition for others
Love God
May your Name be hallowed
May your kingdom come
May your will be done
LOVE OTHERS
Give us our daily bread
Forgive us our sins
Lead us not into temptation
Pray for what Abba wants,
Pray for what others need,
Then go live it.
Credits
Scot McKnight, "The Story of the Christ," Continuum, 2005.
main themes of jesus teaching
By mrsb
main themes of jesus teaching
- 1,119
