A Reflection on the Historical Jesus by Bob Miess
Historical biblical scholarship has been going on for over 300 years, but in recent years it has become available to the general public. And the conclusions are enlightening. As I write about this, I am reminded that we're talking about a historical reconstruction, and not the man, Jesus. Historical reconstruction has to do with likelihoods, not certainties. So when we ask who Jesus was, it is both a question of what is historically verifiable, and a question of faith. The findings are open to interpretation.
The picture that I draw, based on these investigations, looks like this. Jesus was a man who spoke in parables and in aphorisms. Aphorisms were pithy statements that make a challenging, often surprising, point. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." "Blessed are the poor." The parables were very short stories that draw the listener into assumptions, and then add a surprising twist that turns the assumptions on their heads. Generally these aphorisms and parables talked not so much about God but about the Kingdom or Empire of God or of Heaven, which was an alternative to the oppressive and oppression-generating Empire of Caesar. The Kingdom was primarily about human relationships, and in Jesus' teachings, what seemed like the regular order of those human relationships was inverted and turned outside-in, with the powerless having power, the rejected being included, the outcast being brought in. It did not matter whether you ate the right food in the right way at the right time, whether you followed the accepted rituals, whether you were dirty or clean, or whether you were an outcast for any reason. Everyone had access to what Jesus called the "Kingdom of God" or "Kingdom of Heaven."
And his actions fit the theme. People who were sick were treated in what we might call psychosomatic healing events that were more about acceptance, inclusion in the community, and healing of the spirit than about fixing broken body parts-yet healings they were, nevertheless. Troubled and frightening people, who were in Jesus' time called "possessed," were released from their troubles and brought back into the community as whole and worthy persons. Jesus welcomed people like prostitutes and tax collectors, who were despised in his society. Everyone was welcome at his shared discussion meals. The way he acted, you would think that this "Kingdom of Heaven" already existed, and was actually available to all.
Now those were revolutionary ways of seeing the world. But how relevant are they today? Well, let's see, Jesus was living in the time of an oppressive Roman Empire. Do we have oppressive systems like the Roman Empire to grapple with in our world today? His world was filled with powerful people who took advantage of the powerless. Do we have people with unequal power abusing those with lesser power? In his time, those on the middle of the economic ladder felt that they had to oppress those below them or risk falling to lower levels themselves. In our time, does the middle class feel forced to oppress others because they fear losing what little they have? Jesus was surrounded by outcasts and downcasts. Do we have people who are rejected in our society and even in our own hearts? His was a world that viewed people as less worthy if they happened to be poor, powerless, sick, or possessed. They were blamed for their own misfortune. Do we have poor, powerless, sick, and mentally ill people being blamed for their life situations and left to their own devices?
It seems that Jesus was responding to issues that have a lot of relevance in our world today.
But can we actually apply what he said and did to our world? Aye, there's the rub. That's a faith question, isn't it? And I suspect it is very like the faith question faced by the followers of Jesus in his time. Can we trust ourselves to this radical way of being with one another?
What would it be like to live in a world in which all are welcome right now without mediation, including you and me and everyone else? What would it be like to live in a world in which the hungry are fed, the powerless are not mistreated by the powerful, the weak are not abused, the sick are healed, and the unacceptable are accepted? What would it be like to live in a world in which we felt safe and loved enough to reach out in love toward others, enough to be compelled to stand on the side of love every time? Is this a world I would live in? And will I enter it? Will I go sit at the welcome table? And if I do, how will that affect my life and how I am in the world? How will it affect my power relationships, the separation I sometimes feel from other people, and the expectations I have of people?
As for me, I want to be at that welcome table. It fits my Unitarian Universalist affirmation of the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and the interdependence of all that exists. It presses me to ask deeply how I will relate to people whom I might see as different from myself - to terrorists, to immigrants who entered this country illegally, to those who make war on my homeland, to those in my homeland who want to wage wars on others, to those who create nuclear weapons, to those who use drugs and those who sell drugs to them, to people of different races, classes, and religions, and more. And it presses me to do something about the oppressive systems that I participate in every day.
And I want to be in a community that lives this way - what Howard Thurman called a "Beloved Community" - a community that knows in its bones that it is loved, and therefore is able to live in a loving way, transforming the community, tranforming the world.
Resources on the Historical Jesus and Early Christian Movements
