Enter Jesus of Nazareth. We might think that the good news starts with his birth---Christmas. After all, there are angels and shepherds, and miraculous pregnancies, and wisemen from the east bearing gifts. The angel announces, "Good news for all people, Christ the savior is born in Bethlehem of Judea!". His birth was connected to King David's story! His birth was connected to the words of the ancient prophets, who promised a child would be born to rule after his ancestor David. This story certainly confirms the good news. But it alone is not the good news, despite our attempts to make Christmas the great day of celebration. It is his adult life that makes his birth newsworthy. So, we will return to the pre-ministry stories later.
He was a carpenter by family trade, who lived in the Galilee region of Israel, the town of Nazareth, in the early 1st century. He was a practicing Jew, who took turns reading from the Torah at synagogue on the Sabbath. Around the age of thirty, Jesus travelled to Judea and the Jordan river---about where the Israelites entered the land following Joshua at the end of their 40-year sojourn in the wilderness from Egypt to an occupied homeland. There, at the Jordan, a man named John was baptizing people. John was a prophet. He called people to enter the wilderness and the waters as a sign of repentance, the renewal of their covenant commitment to God. He believed that a crisis moment was upon them and that he was sent by God to precede one who would come with the power of God. Baptism was a ritual cleansing act and a drowning of the old self, so that a new self might emerge ready to live in faithful obedience with God. John opposed Jewish rulers who adopted pagan morality, especially Herod Antipas. He was one of king Herod's son who had inherited a part of Judea upon his father's death. Antipas was having an affair with his brother's wife. John instructed soldiers, tax collectors, and teachers of the law to be prepared for the coming of Messiah (the future King).
Jesus of Nazareth was baptized in the river Jordan by John to "fulfill all righteousness" (according to the Gospel of Matthew). Jesus' ministry was a fulfillment of the commandments of God and was a faithful renewal of the covenant. Jesus' baptism identified Jesus privately and publicly as the Son of God, the one anointed by God as God's chosen servant. Jesus was God's Kingdom representative, who best represented God's intentions and promises for God's people Jesus was sent to demonstrate God's covenantal faithfulness to God's people through his words and actions.
This was not going to be an easy sell. Some people would believe that Jesus was God's chosen servant and others would not. The gospels tell the story of Jesus' life as eyewitness testimony to His identity and vocation, because this had global implications. By the time the gospel was written down, the Christian movement had spread throughout the Roman Empire and included both Jews and non-Jews in its numbers of adherents.
So, what did Jesus teach and do that identified him as God's representative and how is this good news?
PART 2
Jesus returned to the Galilee after a 40 day wilderness journey. This journey symbolized a spiritual exodus, a movement from his former vocational identity into a new vocational identity as anointed Messiah. This movement signified change, transformation, and revolution--both personal and corporate. This wilderness excursion confirmed his identity as the Son of God. He depended not on the creation for life, but the creator. He was not tempted by power or privilege, but chose humility and obedience to the Word of God. In this way, he overcame the threats inherent in human existence---a desire for self-preservation, the abuse of privilege for selfish gain, and a willingness to pledge allegiance to another in exchange for political power.
In the Galilee, he sought out disciples or students who would learn his way or "yoke". He was an unauthorized Rabbi, who gathered new students. He called Fishermen. These were skilled laborers, whose livelihood was tied to their boats, nets, and daily catch of fish. They fed people. These fishermen were not educated men. They had an elementary education, at best. They were not studying Hebrew or theology with another Rabbi. Rabbis gathered disciples from among the faithful, in order to raise up another Rabbi. A Rabbi would choose children who excelled in schooling. Others were sent from school to apprentice to the family trade. People were not vocationally or career mobile, as we are today. They had one job and typically work was about subsistence and village survival. Fishermen were already working in a trade.
But, these four young men, to pairs of brothers, left their nets and their boats to walk with Jesus and learn his way. Why?
These were young men, curious and malleable. They were trapped in the net of Roman tyranny. They were oppressed. Discontent, anger, frustration, and fear motivates change. Jesus invited and challenged uneducated workers to join him in this new exodus, this revolutionary journey from slavery to freedom, from death to life, from fear to faith. This movement was for everyone, not just the pious or the educated or the wealthy or the well-connected. This movement was for everyone, especially for those who found themselves suffering at the bottom of the human pyramid. Jesus embodied the Words of God found in the Hebrew Scriptures---words that suggested that the God of the universe established a particular kind of relationship with a particular group of people on earth, in order to become universally known and trusted. Israel was meant to be a light house, so that other ships might navigate their way toward this God who comes near. Jesus understood this and expounded on it.
Jesus began his teaching in this way: "The Time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news." So, his post-baptismal, post-wilderness excursion return was about good news. This good news has to do with timing, God's nearness, repentance and belief. The word for time in Greek here is kairos and it is likened to the ripening of fruit, as opposed to the hands on a clock. This nearness of God's kingdom or rule has to do with timing, like a process being completed or preparations being finished.
We'll return to the meaning of ''the Kingdom of God" shortly. But first, about the word repentance. It is a word that has more to do with revolution than with confession of sin. It has less to do with personal piety and more to do with a change of one's heart and mind or a reorientation of one's direction in life. Jesus was inviting people to change course and go another way, toward the Kingdom rule of God and away from the kingdom rule of the Herods, Rome, one's self...Jesus was not democratic or socialist. If one could suggest a political persuasion, we might say Jesus was a theocratic monarchist. God is King. Period. God is a particular kind of ruler, according to Jesus.
Next, we will see how Jesus' God's rule is good news for everyone.
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