Student Copy T1 Topic 2.3 Jesus of Nazareth Full-1

Theology I – Chapter II: Topic 2.
3 Jesus of Nazareth [1]
Code Number: TH111 E

Course Title: "SEARCHING FOR GOD IN THE WORLD TODAY"
CHAPTER II: JESUS OF NAZARETH, GOD’S DEFINITIVE AND UNIQUE OFFER

OF LIFE AND LOVE
2.3 Jesus of Nazareth:

The Human Embodiment of God’s Story of Life and Love
Announcement to Students: After this topic, before the “Act” step, there will be a
long quiz. Coverage of the long quiz:
2.1 “Revelation-Faith”: The Christian Way for Searching God in Everyday Life
2.2 The Bible: The Written Story of God’s Friendship with Us
2.3 Jesus of Nazareth: The Human Embodiment of God’s Life and Love
Introduction
Topic 2.3
JESUS OF NAZARETH: THE HUMAN EMBODIMENT OF GOD’S STORY OF LIFE AND LOVE
Objective: After this lesson, the student is able to explain the social world of Jesus
and the profile of Jesus as a Spirit-filled person that made him the human
embodiment of God’s story of life and love.
In the last two sessions, we focused on God’s revelation in and through our everyday,
ordinary life, and in the Bible we read the written testimony of people who experienced God’s active
and saving presence of life and love. Particularly in the previous topic, we were introduced to the
four gospels that remember and retell the words and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth. Much of what we
know of him comes from the communities who reflected on Jesus’ figure and meaning in the light of
their faith in the resurrection. The stories of the communities, together with those who wrote their
experiences (Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John) are valuable sources, for they are our access to meet
the Jesus of history. We ended that topic with a basic “timeline” of Jesus.
People of today know Jesus, one way or another, or at least they have heard his name. For
many Filipinos, they hear about Jesus almost everywhere – in their homes, television, churches,
schools, streets, and even in public vehicles. Images, pictures and status of Jesus abound in our
environment. Since childhood, Filipinos have been familiarized with the life of Jesus through
catechesis, liturgical celebrations, devotions, prayers, and songs. Many religious assemblies and
festivities drumbeat Jesus’ name; he is proclaimed as the Christ, the Messiah, the Lord, the King, the
Savior, the Redeemer, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, and many other
titles. Filipino Christians breathe Jesus in and out of our everyday lives.
Theology I – Chapter II: Topic 2.3 Jesus of Nazareth [2]
In this session, and the next two topics as well, we are going to meet Jesus again for the first
time. By “meeting him again for the first time,” it meant to discover Jesus in his world, the man who
lived in a specific time and place, among his people and through the eyes of his disciples. The
people with whom Jesus lived experienced him as human, but after his death and resurrection, they
realized that there is something “more” in this man from Nazareth, that he was not only human but
God dwelt in him in a special and unique way. In the language of the Church, Jesus is the “fullness
of divine revelation,” which meant that we come to know God’s life and live in a fuller or complete
way in and through Jesus. In the more formal language of Christians, Jesus is both “true God and
true human.”
What makes Jesus different and why do Christians believe that he is the bearer of God’s
salvation (lubos na kaginhawaan) to the world? It is the task of this session to start retelling his story.
Scholars refer to this Jesus as the “historical Jesus,” the “Jesus of history,” or the “pre-Easter Jesus” –
the Jesus in flesh and blood who lived and died. Who is this man who we proclaim as the human
embodiment of God’s story of life and love?
“SEE”
LET US “SEE”
Who Do We Say Jesus Is?
“Who do you say I am?” (Mk. 8:29, Mt. 16:15) – Peter was asked by Jesus if he really
understood his identity and purpose. It is the same question that Christians or the followers of
Christ have been asked in different times, places, and cultures. It is a question that is also posed to
us today: Who is Jesus?
We are going to do a short activity where everybody is tasked to remember the Jesus we
have known in different periods of our life.
Individual Work - Below is a table with three columns. On the left column are three periods of
our life. On the center column, write a word or two that you learned or knew about Jesus – Who was
Jesus for you? On the right column, write one (1) significant event when or where you learned about
the Jesus you wrote on the center column. You can simply write a few words or phrases that fit
inside the box. There are no “right” or “wrong” answers in this activity, and your answers will not
be graded by the teacher. (If you have these student hand-out notes, you can write on the space
provided below. If you don’t have your notes, write your answers in a half sheet of paper.)
MOMENTS in my Life Who was/is Jesus for me? A significant event that is
related to my knowledge of
Jesus
A) When I was 1 to 5 years

old (early childhood
years)
B) When I was 6 to 12 or 13
years old (elementary or
primary school years)
C) When I was 12/13 to 16 or

17 years old (high school
or secondary school
years)
D) At this moment of your

life…
Small Group Sharing - After filling up the columns, share your personal stories to your
classmates. Form small groups with three classmates. As you listen to one another, you can take
down notes on ideas that strike you most or which you find similar and different. Later, when we
regroup again as a class, we will ask one representative in each group to give a summary of their
sharing.
Further Reflections and Analysis - Let us now analyze our experience in this activity and draw
insights or realizations from it:
1) First of all, was it easy or difficult to recall your knowledge about Jesus at
different moments of your life? Explain your answer.
2) As you listened to your classmates in the small groups, what did you notice?
What strikes you most in all your responses? Did you hear any similarities about
the Jesus we know? How about differences? What explanations can we give your
these similarities and differences?
3) How do we get or from where do we get our knowledge of Jesus? What kind of
experiences leads us to our understanding of Jesus?
4) Did our knowledge of Jesus change as we go through different moments or years
in our life? What could be the reason for the change? Or, did some of us not
experience any change in our knowledge of Jesus, and why?
From our sharing and analysis, a few points can be highlighted.
a) We do not have only one knowledge of Jesus. There is plurality and diversity of answers
to who Jesus is. We see this in the different ways our classmates understand Jesus. But
even as individuals, we have several understandings of who Jesus is at various moments
of our lives.
b) Our situation in life and the circumstances where we find ourselves in different stages or
moments of our lives are important factors to how we perceive Jesus. When we were
children, our parents, relatives, catechists, teachers, priests and/or sisters were our
sources of knowledge about Jesus. As we grow up and have significant personal
experiences, our knowledge of Jesus also changes. There are times when we doubt or
question our faith in Jesus; this is part of our search for him in our lives.
c) Yet, we need also to look at our knowledge of Jesus in relation to what we know of him
as a Christian community or Church. We are part of a bigger community with whom we
share our convictions about Jesus. This community has a rich tradition of experiences of
Jesus, one of which is the Bible through which we come to know him in his time and
world. We said in the previous topic that we can know Jesus in a closer way according to
the stories of those who witnessed him up-close and personal. This is what we are going
to learn, to meet Jesus again for the first time.
“DISCERN”
Our personal knowledge of Jesus needs to be evaluated in the light of what we know about
the “historical Jesus”. When we say the “historical Jesus”, this refers to the human Jesus, in flesh and
blood, finite or mortal, who walked in this world, lived, and died two thousand years ago. Knowing
this man in his world is important because if we really want to have a better understanding of him,
and if we want to follow him more faithfully, we need to know him more within the world, the
situation and circumstances he found himself.
But can we really go back in time and space to meet Jesus again. Fortunately, there have been
many scholars and historians who for last one hundred years have been trying to retrieve some
aspects of Jesus that we did not know before. We may not be able to have a complete picture of
Jesus, but at least we can work on the things that we now know through the studies of scholars.
With their help, the story of Jesus can be retold with better clarity.
“DISCERN”
In this “Discern” step of our lesson, we will be transported back to the time of Jesus. This
step is divided into two sub-sections: first, the Jewish world of Jesus, and second, a profile of Jesus.
Part I: The Social World of Jesus

Let us start with the world of

Jesus’ time. Do you remember this
picture of the painting of Pieter
Breughel, entitled “Census at
Bethlehem”? We met this picture
earlier this semester when we
talked about the everyday life of Jesus. Of course, the everyday of Jesus was not like what we see in
the picture. Brueghel’s painting was a European village, while the village of Jesus was in Palestine.
You might be surprised that Palestine is located in what modern-day geographical map calls
“Western Asia.” It’s part of the biggest continent in the world, the same continent where we
Filipinos live. In the map below, you can see the Philippines and modern-day Israel. Geographically
therefore, Jesus was an Asian!
The Continent of Asia
A. Palestine during Jesus’ Time

The Land of Birth of Jesus
Jesus was born and lived in Palestine. In the Old Testament, this place is referred to as the
“Land of Israel” and Canaan. Palestine during the time of Jesus was generally agricultural and far
greener than it is today. The population was distributed in small villages and hamlets across the
countryside.
The center of village life was the marketplace, small shops, and the synagogue. The
synagogue (“house of assembly”) was a central meeting place especially for praying and studying
the Hebrew Bible, but it also functioned like a multipurpose hall for large meetings, as well as a
social service center where poor people and the sick can seek assistance. At the local level, the
synagogue was the seat of the local Jewish government.
Galilee, the Northern Region surrounding the lake, is a fertile land for water that was
abundantly flowing from Lake Gennesareth to the Jordan River. Flavius Josephus, a 1st century
historian, wrote about this fertile land:
“...Its nature is wonderful as well as its beauty; its soil is so fruitful that all
sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants accordingly plant all sorts
of trees there; for the temper of the air is so well mixed, that it agrees very
well with those several sorts, particularly walnuts, which require the coldest
air, flourish there in vast plenty; there are palm trees also, which grow best in
hot air; fig trees also and olives grow near them, which yet require an air that
is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of nature, where it
forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one another to agree together;
it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if every one of them laid claim to
this country; for it not only nourishes different sorts of autumnal fruit beyond
men's expectation, but preserves them a great while; it supplies men with the
principal fruits, with grapes and figs continually, during ten months of the
year and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe together through the whole
year."
Within Galilee is Nazareth, the hometown of Jesus. It was a small village overlooking the
fertile plain, but it was relatively poor. There was a scarcity of natural resources such as water and
fertile soil. In such a situation, there tended to be a fair amount of sickness and disease. This is
where the small boy Jesus lived and grew up. Historical records differ in statistical data of the
population. It was fewer as 200 people and big as 2,000 people. Majority of the people in Nazareth
were Jews, but there were also people whose religion was not Judaism. The general term for people
who are not Jews is “Gentiles” (The pictures below are in an open museum which reconstructs the
everyday life of people during the time of Jesus.)
The gospels do not tell much what happened to Jesus before his baptism at Jordan when he
was already about 27 to 30 years old. We can however speculate that Jesus spent his childhood and
adolescent years just like any other boy who was growing up. That his roots were in Nazareth and
Galilee do explain why he was referred to as “the man from Nazareth” or “the Galilean Jew.”
The southern region is Judea which spreads until the Dead Sea. Towards the Dead Sea is a
rocky and dry area, which made the land less fertile for agriculture. Jerusalem was the central seat of
economic, political, and religious power, not only in Judea but in the entire Palestine. It was more
cosmopolitan and contained far greater ethnic diversity than other places in Palestine. The temple
was found there. In Jesus’ time, there were synagogues everywhere but there was only one temple
and it was in Jerusalem. Jews went to Jerusalem especially during the Passover feast, the major
religious holiday. This feast celebrated the deliverance of the Jewish people from their slavery in
Egypt.
During the first century, the temple courtyards had often become a marketplace. Local
merchants would sell sacrificial animals at excessive cost in order to turn a profit from the tourists or
religious seekers that would come to the temple. This is the background of the story in the gospels
when Jesus vented his anger at the vendors in Jerusalem temple. He was not angry with the people
who were just trying to make a living. His criticism was addressed to the temple and the priests; it
had ceased as a place of prayer and became a symbol of economic power.
Between Galilee and Judea is Samaria which was far more dry and barren. Other provinces
of Palestine of Jesus’ time were Perea and the Decapolis which are sometimes called Transjordan for
they are located beyond the Jordan River. Phoenicia was the province near the Mediterranean Sea;
accordingly, the inhabitants there were good shipbuilders. Stretching to the north of Palestine is
Philip’s Tetrarchy with its cities such as Bethsaida and Caesarea Philippi. Bethsaida was said to be
the hometown of Peter, Andrew and Philip, three of the first disciples of Jesus.
B. The Everyday Life of the People

All the gospel accounts agree that Galilee is the main arena of the public ministry of Jesus. In
the Gospel of Mark, about eight chapters tell about the activities of Jesus within Galilee. This is
where Jesus immersed himself in the lives of ordinary people and met them in the ordinariness of
life (we talked about this in our earlier topic on the “Everyday”.) Galilee was where Jesus traveled
around, conversed with different kinds of people, ate with social outcasts and sinners, did works of
healing, and proclaimed the good news of salvation, which he called “kingdom or reign of God” (we
will study more about this word-concept in another lesson).
Without exaggeration, Jesus was a provincial or countryside person, having grown and
ministered in the largely agricultural province of Galilee. Even his language about God and God’s
kingdom, which were described in images, symbols, and parables, were taken from the rural
environment. What kind of world did he live in?
We are going to present Jesus as he lived within his Jewish society and culture, and we will
try to meet him there as a Jew and among his people.
1) Majority of the people during the time of Jesus were rural poor.
The economic life of the majority of the people was harsh. There were few places bustling
with trade and business, but there were more places were life was difficult for people. And while
there were fertile lands, there were many places where agricultural work was less productive
because the land was dry and barren. In the small barrio of Nazareth, people would be engaged in
small farming and in various small livelihood activities for their daily needs. The villages and
towns were also quite distant from one another. The rugged terrain and mountainous areas made
traveling dangerous, because also of bandits who held up people for goods or money. This is the
background of one story in the Gospels where Jesus told his disciples to go to villages two by two or
in pairs. People travelled in groups because of the threat of bandits.
According to historical researches, majority of the people in Palestine were peasants, such as
farmers, tenants, sharecroppers, and laborers on the land where they form the main labor force in
agriculture. There were also artisans, fishers, and merchants. In particular, farming was centered on
grain, vegetables, fruits, oil, and dates. Tending sheep, goats and cattle was also a common work for
the Jews. Documentary evidence shows that only 1-2% of the population took 50-60% of agricultural
productivity. This means that the poor farmers tilled the land, planted and harvested crops, but
they benefited very little from their produce. Much of the fruits of their labor went to feed people in
big towns and cities. There was large disparity between the rich and the poor.
In order to feed their own families, the farmers combined farming and making domestic
handicrafts. They also cultivated their small background with whatever crops they can grow for
their daily needs. Among the farmers, there were those who own small parcels of land, including
tenants and effective possessors. “Effective possessors” are farmers who did not have legal written
titles to the land they reside on but their family and ancestors had lived there already for several
generations. These made them “effective” owners of the land. This is something similar to what we
call today “ancestral lands” of many indigenous people. They did not have legal papers to prove
that the land was theirs, but it was the land of their ancestors and they were obliged to nurture,
preserve, protect and even defend it.
2) Majority of the people were also relatively non-literate.

It was a risky condition to be effective possessors because any time the land can be taken
away from them. According to Dominic Crossan, a historian, 95-97 % of the people in Palestine were
non-literate; meaning, they lacked the ability to read and write. While schooling was available for
children (something like our elementary and secondary schools today), many had to skip classes or
drop out of school in order to help their families in the fields or other businesses. (Does this sound
familiar to some of us who had to come late or dropped out of school because we need to help our
parents and siblings?)
In terms of language, they knew Hebrew because their bible was written in Hebrew. But by
the time of Jesus, Hebrew was not anymore the everyday language of people. In fact, Aramaic was
the language of Jesus. For the Jews, including Jesus, the “Torah”, translated as “law” or “rules of
life,” was the source of all learning – religion, history and ethics. (As we learned in the previous
topic, The Torah includes the first five books of the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and
Deuteronomy). They learned the Torah in the synagogue. Young girls would learn at home from
their mothers and other women.
Higher schooling that would enable them to deal with social and legal concerns and
problems were not available t o most people. This lack of literacy led to the displacement of many
peasants from their land. Somebody can just tell them that they were to vacate their land by
showing any piece of paper that attest to legal ownership. Because the peasants cannot read, they
succumbed to the pressures of the literate people who wanted to grab their land. There were also
tenants who were dispossessed or evicted from their land due to unpaid debts or non-payment of
taxes.
The life of poverty was aggravated by the tax system. People paid various levels of taxes. For
peasants it was in the form of their products. On the local, neighborhood or district level, tax-
payments were justified for protection to against invaders, dangerous neighbors, local disturbances,
and bandits. (You may want to compare this to “kotong” in the Philippine setting.) There were also
tithes given to Pharisees to support the synagogues and to the priests of the Jerusalem temple. Jews
were required to give sacrifices to the temple – sometimes in the form of money, and usually by
purchasing sacrificial animals to offer to the priests.
Moreover, taxes again and agricultural products were paid to political rulers and to the
Roman authorities. King Herod, for example, required at least a 1/3 of the total crops and other
agricultural products to be submitted to him. The collection of taxes was done with the
reinforcement of the military and through violence too if the peasant resisted to comply. This
created an image that the tax collectors were “bad guys” and they were adjoined to the “sinners”
because some of them had corrupt practices that exploited the poor.
3) Poverty, marginalization, and social dislocation caused social and political

ferment.
Jesus lived in a time of social and political ferment. People were burdened economically and
politically by the local and foreign elites. Oftentimes, we understand the message of Jesus as
directed to Jewish authorities. While it is true that Jesus was critical of religious authorities, his
words and actions were also addressed to the entire social system that bred poverty,
marginalization, and social dislocation. His ministry was also a criticism also to the foreign
intruders, the Romans, who had made life of the poor extremely difficult.
Richard Horsely, a bible scholar and historian, writes: “The demand for tribute to Rome and
taxes to Herod in addition to the tithes and offerings to the Temple and priesthood dramatically
escalated the economic pressures on peasant producers, whose livelihood was perennially marginal
at best. After decades of multiple demands from multiple layers of rulers many village families fell
increasingly into debt and were faced with loss of their family inheritance of land. The
impoverishment of families led to the disintegration of village communities, the fundamental social
form of such an agrarian society. These are precisely the deteriorating conditions that Jesus
addresses in the gospels: impoverishment, hunger, and debt.”
In 63 B.C., after much turmoil and civil war amongst the Jews, the Romans invaded and
conquered Jerusalem. The Romans administered Palestine through carefully selected local leaders,
as most places in the Roman imperial territory. Generally, the Roman imperial rule imposed its
supremacy over conquered people through heavy taxation system that was backed up with military
threat or actual violence. Although local leaders governed Palestine, they were supported by the
Roman military forces. It was a practice of accommodation that promoted mutual vested interests.
By 40 B.C., the Romans had chosen a shrewd leader, Herod. Herod himself would continue in
power until his death in 4 B.C., which incidentally is the year when Jesus was born. The reign of
Herod had a reputation for cunning and cruel governance. After his death, his sons maintained the
Herodian dynasty until almost the end of the first century A.D. (Political dynasty is not unique to
our times.)
The sentiment of resentment and protest was etched in the memory of the largely poor
Jewish population. Under the coercive and brutal Roman imperial rule, which was cemented by a
relatively few families who controlled the economy, politics, and religious life of Palestine, majority
of the poor, non-literate peasants were anticipating a change. There was restlessness and high
expectations filled the air in connection to an action of God who would fulfill the promise of fuller
life for all. People were anticipating the coming of God’s anointed one who would liberate them
from the social problems. In their history, they called this the “anointed one” Mashiah in Hebrew,
where the English word “messiah” comes from. In the Greek New Testament, the equivalent of
Mashiah is Christos, the Christ.
4) They believed in an invisible world that is charged with power and energy,
and which can effect change in life.
In terms of social life, people crafted their world in personal relationships. Houses were
relatively small, enough for family members to sleep in. The cooking area was usually separated
from the main house. Family activities and neighborly conversations were done outside the house,
often under the trees, small stores or shops, or in the fields. Relationships were formed and forged
through face-to-face interaction. Time is fluid; it was determined by events or changes in natural
environment. Eating was occasioned not by digital time (7:00 o’clock or 12:00 on-clock), but by the
“body clock,” that is, people eat when they were hungry. They interpreted signs in nature to decide
on things to be done or not to be done. Tradition of beliefs and practices were passed on orally;
traditions were continued on the assumption that they were beneficial to people, unless proven
otherwise.
A major aspect of the Jewish tradition is the belief in an invisible world or the world of the
spirits. In ordinary, everyday life there is a non-material, non-visible world other than the visible
reality. This invisible world was the habitat of beings that cannot be seen. This world and its beings
were not abstract or remote, not hypothetical reality or literally localized “up there.” People
experienced it as alive and personal, charged with energy and power, intersecting in life, in the
everyday things and events in life. (We wonder if there are among us today who also believe in a
world inhabited by beings that we cannot see. In the Philippines, the practice of “pasintabi” or “tabi-
tabi” is still common in many places.)
For the rural people, they believed that there were individuals who know the invisible world
and could negotiate with beings that cannot be seen. These are human mediators between the world
of humans and the world of the spirits. In their history and culture, some of those considered
mediators were Abraham, Moses, and most of the prophets. These people had encounters with
spirits in the invisible world, and they were empowered to speak on behalf of the unseen God. For
ordinary people, the Spirit is God or Yahweh. As we shall see later, Jesus was considered to be a
Spirit-filled person who had an intimate relationship with the sacred, with a Spirit or God who is
experienced to be actively present in the world.
C. The Social Location of Jesus in Jewish Society
Where did Jesus stand in all this? We are told in Mark 6:1-3 that some people asked about
Jesus: “Is this not the tekton (woodworker)?” Also in Matthew 13:55, Jesus was referred to as “the
tekton’s son? In English versions of the Bible, the tekton is translated as “carpenter,” but the proper
translation is “woodworker” whose work was broader than carpentry. A woodworker may function
in various ways, such as tree-cutting, stripping, constructing, polishing, and so forth.
The tekton belongs to the artisans. An artisan is an individual who has special skills or craft
for livelihood. Woodworkers, or carpenters in the narrow sense, were artisans. During the time of
Jesus, the artisans comprised 5% of the Palestinian population. They belonged to lower social
stratum than effective peasants. In this sense, the effective possessors had land that they tilled
regularly and the products were also regular. The artisans however depended on the job orders,
thus their economic livelihood was not always guaranteed. On the same bracket with the artisans
were fishers, small traders and merchants, other artisans, such as stonecutters, masons, sculptors,
and craftsmen of metal, wood, cloth dye.
Most of the artisans in Jesus’ time originated from dispossessed members of peasantry,
meaning, those whose lands were taken away from them and were evicted out of their places.
Without land to till and produce, they turned to artisan work. Economically therefore, if the effective
possessors were poor, the artisans were poorer. Below the artisans were the “poorest of the poor”.
These included the sick, the jobless, the disabled, the outcasts, the slaves, and people who engaged
in morally questionable professions at that time, like prostitutes. Petty criminals also belonged to the
poorest of the poor.
We may have to look also into the economic profile of the mother of Jesus, Mary. According
to the Gospel of Luke (2:24), the pregnant Mary followed a Jewish ritual by offering for her
purification to God with “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” In the Old Testament, we find a
prescription in Book of Leviticus 12:8, which says that if the woman “cannot afford a lamb,” birds
will do. This text implies that birds are the offering of the poor.
What can we draw from these two biblical passages about the social and economic location
of Jesus?
The social and economic location Jesus of Nazareth:
 he was neither rich nor poorest of the poor, but certainly belonged to poor
peasantry
 his material lack is a forced poverty brought about by unjust social system (we
should not romanticize and spiritualize the poverty of Jesus)
 his hometown is Nazareth, a semi-isolated rural village, with no economic
significance (the population was as few as 200 and as many as 2,000); life there
was difficult
 Jesus probably grew up with non-literate peasant tradition, though he was a
smart or brilliant one on the evidence of his usage of sayings, parables, and the
Hebrew Bible
 his life of poverty may also explain why his heart was for and with the poor and
those who are suffering in any way. He knew what it means to suffer and he
granted the marginalized people the privilege of God’s kingdom of justice and
liberation.
D. Groups and Movements with Power Over People
While the majority of the people were powerless, there were few groups and movements
who wielded power in Jewish society in Jesus’ time. Four of these groups figure notably in the
Gospels.
Pharisees – The Pharisees were the local leaders in synagogues where they preach and teach
the Torah. Some Pharisees were based in rural areas, others in towns and cities. Collectively, they
believed that the strict observance of the Torah will lead them to salvation. By strictly obeying the
law of God as written in the Torah, they consider themselves to be holy people. In fact, the name
“Pharisee” comes from Hebrew “parush” or Aramaic “parishya,” which means “separated.” In
Hebrew language the equivalent of “holy” is “qadosh”.
The Pharisees tried to impose their brand of holiness on Jewish people through the
separation of those who were “clean” because they faithfully follow the Torah and those who were
“unclean” or “impure” because they do not follow the Torah. The latter included the sinners, the
sick, those with skin disease (usually identified as “leprosy” in the Gospels), physically disabled,
mentally problematic, women during their period, those born out of wedlock, as well as people in
morally questionable professions. The Pharisees saw their plight and suffering as a consequence of
not following the laws, especially found in the book of Leviticus. Purity was associated with
wholeness, while disabilities were associated with sin. Those who were considered “unclean” were
forbidden to enter the city of Jerusalem. They were excluded from the community. The Pharisees’
policy of moral, physical, and religious “cleanliness” resulted to intense social division in Jewish
society.
The Pharisees were nationalistic. Since they believed that the Jewish people were specially
called by God as His/Her chosen people, the Pharisees rejected foreign influences, such as the Greek
cultural penetration and the Roman imposed ways of living on their culture. Among the Pharisees,
there were some who overburdened the poor with too many special traditions or with a literal
interpretation of the bible. They were the ones whom Jesus criticized because they “tie up heavy
loads and put them on people’s shoulders, but they are not willing to lift a finger to move them”
(Matthew 23:4; see also Mark 2:23-27).
Scribes – The Scribes were the educated ones and were well versed with the Jewish Law.
They would usually try to oppose the teachings of Jesus just to insist that there is no other law but
the Jewish Law. As literate people, the Scribes were part of the guardians of the Jewish traditions;
and as interpreters also of the Hebrew Bible, the Scribes increasingly became an elitist group that
protected fiercely the community’s traditions. Along with the Pharisees, the Scribes opposed Jesus,
the poor Galilean Jew, because he subverted the meaning of traditions.
Sadducees – They came from rich families. Because of their education and positions in Jewish
society, the Sadducees belonged to the urban elite. They were
sympathetic to the Romans and sought to maintain their privileged economic and political positions
in society. They also often disagreed with the Pharisees because the Sadducees rejected the oral
traditions and much of the doctrine of the Pharisees (Sadducees stressed the “written law”, while
the Pharisees insists on the interpretation of the written law).
The Sadducees lived primarily in Jerusalem, whose lives often focused around the
happenings of the Jewish temple. They were opposed to Jesus because they perceived his teachings
and actions as potentially overthrowing the Roman government, thus jeopardizing their positions of
prestige. The Sanhedrin (the judicial council of the Jewish people), who tried Jesus on court, was
comprised primarily of Sadducees.
Priests – The Temple of Jerusalem was not only the center of Jewish religious life but symbol
of economic and political dominance of elite. The Temple was managed by the Priests, whose task is
to offer sacrifices to God. They were assisted by a “clergy” of lower rank, the Levites, who were not
priests but Temple officers.
Priestly office was hereditary; its lineage goes back to Aaron, the brother of Moses. It was not
a full-time occupation, except perhaps for the high priest during his tenure. Most priests worked in
Temple for only a few weeks each year. They were partially supported by the tithes or temple-taxes
and the first-fruits that the peasants gave the temple (see Ex. 30:11-16; Deut. 18:1-5). When not
serving the temple, some priests worked as Scribes. There were ordinary priests (a few were
Pharisees) and there were aristocratic priests, who were descendants of rich priestly families. Some
scholars suggest that John the Baptist was a son of a priest who left his family and their riches to
become an itinerant or travelling prophet.
Among the well-to-do priests was the high priest. He had actual authority in Jerusalem even
though government was formally in the hands of a Roman prefect. During 6 to 66 A.D., high priests
were chosen by Rome from one of four priestly families. The high priest and other rich priests
constituted the most powerful sector of the Jewish urban elite in Judaea.
These four groups were relatively small in numbers. But because they were literate or
educated and economically well-to-do, they had great influence on the lives of the Jewish people
who were poor peasants and non-literate. These groups we have mentioned were at the center of
Jewish social life. There were other groups who are also mentioned in the Gospels.
Zealots – They were the rebels or revolutionaries who aspired for a new government and
who wanted to remove the Romans from Palestine through seizure of power, often through armed
violence. During the time of Jesus, the Zealots engaged in pockets of resistance but they were not
really a force to reckon with. Not until the decade of 60s that the Zealots would participate in a
bloody armed struggle against the Romans and local elite. The Jewish rebellion was crushed
violently and the Jerusalem Temple was burned to the ground.
Samaritans – They lived in the hilly region between Judea and Galilee. The Samaritans were
quite an independent group of people. Thomas Rausch, a historian and theologian, describes them
as follows: “There were a mixed people, descendants of survivors of the northern kingdom of Israel
and of those people brought in by the Assyrians to resettle the land after 721. Considered heretics
(those who did not follow the religious laws) and schismatics (those who separated themselves from
Jewish traditions) by other Jews, the roots of the schism may lie deeper in the old tensions between
the tribes of the north and the south. Having built their own Temple on Mount Garizim (see John
4:20), the Samaritans did not worship in Jerusalem. They only accepted the Pentateuch and looked
for a messianic figure they called ‘the Restorer’.”
In short, independent in ways of thinking and acting, they were ostracized by the Jews.
Interestingly, in the gospels, we read the parable of the Good Samaritan who responded to the need
of the suffering person; we also hear about the woman from Samaria who offered water to Jesus and
his disciples at the well. Treated as social outcasts by the Jews, the Samaritans are portrayed as
examples for living out the ethic or practice of compassion.
Essenes – Unlike the four groups at the center of Jewish society, the Essenes were at the
margins of Jewish society. These were communities that lived outside the cities and towns, mostly in
mountain cliffs, deserts, and seashore. A famous Essene community lived on the western shore of
the Dead Sea at the Wadi Qumran, about an hour from Jerusalem.
They left the mainstream Jewish community, perceiving it as a hopeless case because of its
morally decadent lifestyle. The Essenes became a sect or a cult, living in a monastic-like life under a
strict rule, and shared all things in common. They emphasized the strict observance of the Law,
ritual purity, and the study of the Hebrew Bible. Joining the group meant entering a new covenant
relationship with God. Some of them practiced celibacy; they did not marry and did not have
families. The Essenes believed that God’s final, decisive salvation will happen soon and they were
the ones who will be saved because of their faithfulness to the covenant relationship. Seeing
themselves as “children of the light,” they waited for God to crush the Roman conquerors, the
“children of darkness,” in a cataclysmic battle. The Essenes community did not survive the first
century; they perished in the war against Rome.
Today we give importance also to the Essenes, especially at Qumran. They left a library of
written scrolls that give us vivid ideas about life in the first century Palestine, as well as important
manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. The scrolls were hidden inside a cave, which was discovered in
1947 by a shepherd boy who was looking for a lost animal. Other caves at Qumran have revealed
also many scrolls, which are now considered one of the most important findings for the study of
Jewish history, the Bible, religions, and the world of the first-century, the time of Jesus.
“DISCERN”
Part II: Portrait of Jesus as Spirit-Filled Person
Now that we have sketched the world of Jesus, we will focus on the man who did not only
have a different message but also a message that made a difference on the lives of many, especially
the poor, non-literate people of his time. Later generations of followers, to be called Christians,
would consider him the human embodiment of God’s story of life and love with humanity.
Who is this man, who is described in the Gospel of Luke as a prophet, powerful or mighty in
words and deeds (Luke 24:19)? In our previous discussion, we were introduced to some of the
influential groups in Jewish society. Their power is “over” people, they dominate people with their
economic, political, and religious resources, with the result of making people submissive,
subservient, and helpless. The power of Jesus however, is power “with” people; it was a kind of
power that made people face life with renewed strength, hope and courage. It is gracious power that
effected positive results on people. Amidst the difficulties and problems in life, they have God on
their side, face-to-face in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
As in a painting, let us brush with broad strokes a portrait of the Galilean Jesus. For our
discussion, we will use the study of Marcus Borg, author of Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The
Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith, and Jesus: A New Vision.
Jesus was a Spirit-filled Person, one who has frequent and intimate
experience with the sacred or with God.
A Spirit-filled Person, or simply as Spirit Person, is one who has frequent and intimate
experience with the sacred or with God. Within the tradition of Judaism, which is the religion of
Jesus and the Jews, there are key features that make a person Spirit-filled.
1) The Spirit Person with a Vision and Mission
We recall from the previous section that the Jews, especially those in the rural provinces,
believed in an invisible world inhabited by the unseen beings that are charged with power and
energy. In this context, people also believed that there are mediators between humans and the
unseen spirits. For example, Abraham in the Old Testament had a vision of God who told him to
leave his country and family and go to a land that God will show him, with a promise to make a
great nation. Moses experienced the “burning bush” where he heard the voice of God, whose name
is ehyeh aser ehyeh (translated either as “I am who am” or “I am solidarity with you”), and who
promised to liberate the Israelites from Egyptian slavery toward “the land flowing with milk and
honey.”
a) Jesus too had visionary experience of God of calling and mission. We mentioned earlier
that we know little if not nothing at all about Jesus during his childhood and adolescent years. The
first time we hear of him in the gospels was when John baptized him on the Jordan River. That
experience may have marked a turning-point in the life of Jesus. Let us read the passage from the
Gospel of Mark:
It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was
baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens
being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice
came from the heavens, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
(Mark 1: 9-11)
John was a famous charismatic prophet in the countryside, who called people to change their
lives from their old ways to a more intimate relationship with God. This relationship is sealed by a
ritual of initiation, whereby a person is immersed in water to symbolize cleanliness before God.
People flocked to John. Of them was Jesus.
In the passage we read, it is said that Jesus, arising from the water, “saw the heavens being torn
open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.” This description is typical of mediators between
humans and the sacred in the Old Testament. Six centuries before Jesus, the prophet Ezekiel also
had a similar experience whereby “the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel
1:1). We do not have to take this description literally. We may recall that generally people speak of
God in analogies, such as in the language of images and metaphors. The phrase “the heavens were
opened” is way of speaking of an intense experience of being enlightened or an opening of the heart
and mind, the whole being for that matter, to God.
In the same passage of Mark, we read that “a voice came from the heavens, "You are my beloved
Son, with you I am well pleased." Again, this resembles the experiences of mediators of the Spirit in the
Old Testament. Ezekiel says, “And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of one
speaking” (Ezekiel 2:1). Many centuries before him, Abraham saw visions and heard the voice of
God. Jacob had a vision of a fiery ladder connecting the heavens and the earth, with angels
ascending and descending on it. Moses, the central human figure of Israel’s history, “knew God face
to face.” Another prophet, Elijah, frequented the wilderness and traveled to a sacred mountain,
where he had an experience of God. Whether they really “heard” a voice or “felt” a voice, the stories
convey an authentic faith experience between the believer and God. Here in the Philippines, leaders
or founders of various groups such as those residing in Mount Banahaw claim to have heard the
“voice” (“Santong Boses”) who called and sent to do a particular mission.
When these people said that they “saw” God, it was not merely a visible sight of something
or “theophany,” a face-to-face encounter with God. They were talking about a depth experience,
indeed an intimate experience with the sacred. We recall the “depth experience” in our everyday life
as an event that calls us to deeper reflections about the meaning of life. In the experiences of
Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and most of the prophets, the vision they had was in reference to an
experience of great significance in their lives or a turning-point from something old to something
new.
In the case of Jesus, his experience on the Jordan River was also a visionary one, whereby he
experienced his whole person as empowered by God for a new identity and mission. In our
language today, what Jesus had was a “conversion experience,” not in terms of turning away from
sin but an experience of changing one’s outlook in life, values, attitudes, and practices. From then
on, Jesus thought and acted as God would think and act. God and Jesus were one. The dawning of
the dove is a metaphor for Spirit or for God empowering Jesus. It speaks of an experience of
empowerment to live in new way, and that Jesus was called by God to do mission. This makes Jesus
stand in the tradition of the mediators of spirit persons, of holy men and women, according to
Jewish tradition.
b) The phrase “beloved Son” heightens the calling and missioning. At the center of Jesus’ life
was a profound and continuous relationship to the Spirit of God. Jesus called this God “Abba”.
“Abba” is “father” but with an affective or feeling dimension of an intimate relationship. In other
words, “Abba” is a name of endearment. In Pilipino, the equivalent is “tatay”, which is also “father”
but conveys closeness, familiarity, and confidence. In our world today, children will introduce their
fathers to their friends or teachers as “my father” or “my dad.” But at home or in private, they call
their fathers “tatay” or “papa,” titles with affective strength of very personal relationship. We wonder
how you call your father or mother in private, like when you are confiding problems or secrets, or
when you want to ask something from them.
In the Jewish tradition wherein God must be given the highest formal respect, it is unlikely
for one person to call God “papa” or “tatay” unless one has an intimate relationship with Him. And
Jesus did call God “Abba”. Thus, we can now understand the language of “beloved Son.” Only a
“father” with deep connections with the “son” can the word “beloved” be applied with meaning. If
Jesus called God his “tatay” or “papa”, the “father” who is God can also call endearingly Jesus his
“beloved Son.” The word “beloved” does not mean unique as we commonly interpret it today.
Within the Jewish culture, a father can call a son “beloved” with an endearing quality.
This intimate relationship with Abba was nurtured by Jesus through prayer. In fact, the
gospels portray Jesus as a man of prayer. What form of prayer did Jesus practice? If we are to
connect him again to the culture and society of his time, it must have been like Moses, Elijah, and
other personalities in the Jewish tradition who withdrew into solitude and silence for long periods
of time. It must have been hours of contemplation and meditation. In Mark 1:35, “in the morning, a
great while before day, (Jesus) rose and went to a lonely place, and there he prayed.” We read also
that Jesus went to solitude in a garden to pray on the eve of his arrest.
c) God not only entered Jesus’ life; in the words and deeds of Jesus, he is the face of God or
the embodiment of God’s Spirit. This empowerment led him to speak with authority. Unlike other
religious leaders who would usually read or recite the Torah, Jesus would personally speak of it as
coming from himself. We are told in Matthew 7:29, “They were astonished at this teaching, for he
taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”
When Jesus spoke, his words were compelling enough for his listeners, especially his
followers, to do something or to act out his words. For instance, he would usually use words like
“Amen, I tell you,” or “I say to you,” or “I tell you….” Such words project authority that is coming,
not from the outside, but from within himself. This sense of inner authority surprised the religious
authorities and elite of his time, and also because Jesus attracted crowds. For a son of tekton, a rural
Galilean Jew, Jesus spoke with power and conviction which others sensed in him. No other person
than Jesus could muster such big following in a spontaneous way. He did not need “hakot crowd” or
paid audiences, there were no big announcements when he arrived in a village, and there were no
billboards or tarpaulin to brag his achievements. News spread about a man who speaks with
profound authority and could touch deeply people’s lives.
The four gospels are one is saying that people followed and gathered around him. This
clearly points to a distinct quality he had, a Spirit-filled person. Jesus was widely known, and only a
gracious person (taong may magandang kalooban), who without any official religious or political
position in society, could elicit responses of a multitude of people. People experienced joy with and
around Jesus. Unlike John the Baptist whose message is quite threatening, “Repent!”, the message of
Jesus about God’s saving presence was truly “good news”, especially to the poor and the afflicted in
any way.
One could imagine the attraction that Jesus had, which could be explained in terms of people
sensing that this man was indeed Spirit-filled. In the casting out of demons, he identified the source
of his power – the Spirit of God: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the
Kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:18 uses “Spirit of God, Luke 11:20 uses “the
finger of God”; both refer to the power of God).
Jesus seemed to be aware of the power of God flowing through him. This sense of authority
that came from God was magnified when, coming out of the wilderness or desert where he
confronted within himself the lures of the world and resolved to commit himself to God’s mission
for him, Jesus entered and stood in the synagogue to proclaim his purpose:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he nas anointed me to preach the good
news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord. (Luke 4: 17-21)
From there, there was no turning back. His speech at the synagogue was “paradigmatic” or
exemplary. It was a proclamation of a new world order in which the poor, the captives, the blind,
the oppressed, and all those who are suffering shall be the principal beneficiaries of God’s offer of
life and love. It was also a “programmatic” speech that launched his strategy of living up to his
mission: in and through his words and actions, he was acting in the name of God, by the power of
God, embodying and manifesting the Spirit of God. The unity of his words and deeds were clearly
demonstrated in his healings, which was connected to the experience of forgiveness.
The truth is, we can also be Spirit-filled persons like Jesus. Some of us might have an intense
experience of enlightenment like what Jesus had in Jordan River. But it can also be that in our
moments of silence and solitude, we recognize a “depth experience” in our ordinary life and feel
strongly that God is “speaking” to us in that experience. We shared this experience two topics ago
when we focused on God’s revelation in our lives.
We need to sustain however our “visionary experience” through frequent and intimate
relationship with God in Jesus. Like him, we can develop our “sense of seeing God” in ordinary
events through prayer, whereby we encounter Jesus, not as an abstract idea, but as a “friend” or
brother. Jesus does not want to monopolize his “Abba”. He wants us to have a relationship with God
in an endearing and intimate way. Some of us might prefer to call God “Mama” or “Lolo” or
whatever title so long as it is an experience of closeness and care.
How do we do that? Jesus showed us the way – through silence and solitude in prayer, or
through what we suggested during our topic on “everyday” – through close observation and
reflection. We will be surprised with ourselves when we follow the ways of Jesus, his words will
flow through us and from us in a way that we speak with authority. Think of some people in our
lives who we consider with “sense of authority.” They may not hold official or legal positions in our
communities or society, yet when they speak, everybody listens. Why so? Because their power
comes from within a beautiful self, with words that affect people in a positive way.
We can do it also. But you might feel that we are too young to speak with authority. Jesus
was not old when people sensed God’s authority in him, and he was a “probinsyano,” a man from
Nazareth, an ordinary Galilean Jew. He was a nobody. Yet, it was because his being a Spirit-filled
person that people turned to him to listen. Indeed, awesome things happen in the ordinary. As we
said before, it’s the “extra,” the “special,”, the “sacred” in the ordinary. We are invited to sing this
song of calling and sending:
HERE I AM LORD
I, the Lord of sea and sky

I have heard my people cry
All who dwell in dark and sin
My hand will save.
I who made the stars and night

I will make the darkness bright
Who will bear my light to them
Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go Lord
If you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart.
I the Lord of snow and rain

I have borne my people's pain
I have wept for love of them
They turn away.
I will break their hearts of stone

Fill their hearts with love alone
I will speak my word to them
Whom shall I send?
Here I am Lord
Is it I Lord?
I have heard you calling in the night
I will go Lord
If you lead me
I will hold your people in my heart….I will hold your people in my heart...
2. The Healer and Bringer of “Ginhawa” from God
The gospels remember Jesus as a person who was a channel through which healing power
flowed from the world of Spirit into the visible world. People like him were “people of power” or
“men of deeds,” and it was their works of healing that attracted attention from ordinary men and
women, young and old. As a Spirit Person, Jesus performed healing and exorcism. In his public
ministry, we see him restoring the sick to their wholeness and wellness, the disabled regain their
strength, the blind see, the deaf hear, and many more. He even drove out demons or evil spirits. It
surely takes one to have the power for making those things happen. This power in Jesus that makes
him perform wonders is being attributed to God’s power working in him.
During Jesus’ time, the sick and disabled were considered sinners. It was believed that they
committed sins against God and they were paying for it through the illness they are suffering. In
other words, sickness is God’s curse. (In the Visayas region, this idea is close to the concept of
“gaba”.) The sick and the disable were ostracized in communities, because they were unclean and
sinners. People did not want to be associated with them. Economically, they belonged to the poorest
of the poor, because they could not get any job and were at the mercy of others.
Jesus erased the boundaries that divided people. He reached out to the sick and disabled,
and offered them integrity of persons again. He was not afraid to cross borders and meet the
suffering. For him, God has taken the sides of those who were suffering from sickness and disability,
or any form of suffering for that matter. He wanted them to experience the “ginhawa” (salvation)
from God, that they are loved unconditionally. It was pure gratuity or graciousness on the part of
Jesus to heal people; he set no conditions, but simply to act out God’s abiding presence.
And people did experience God in and through Jesus. They did not only experience physical
or moral healing, they felt their own whole self, their personhood, as regaining trust and confidence,
and that they can stand and walk again to face life with hope and courage. This is the “punch line”
in Jesus’ healing – “Stand up!” “Pick up you mat!” “Open your eyes!” “Stretch out your hands!” “Walk!”
“Go home!” It is like Jesus telling the people who are healed – “Stop with your self-pitying!” “Stop
hurting yourself!” “Be still!” “Have courage, you can do it!” “Stop blaming yourself and take away all those
negative feelings!” “Do justice to yourself!” “Smile, laugh, be happy, celebrate!” “You’re alive!” “Commit to
a cause or goal larger than yourself! – Take care of your family! Love others! Serve the poor and marginalized”
“C’mon, have a life!” “And don’t forget – I love you, I am here and will be here forever!
In short, Jesus says, “Peace be with you!”
“Your faith has healed you!” Albert Nolan, a bible scholar, says that this statement of Jesus is
remarkable because it differentiates Jesus from the professional healers, like physicians, exorcists,
wonder-worker, or holy men of his time. “(Jesus) is saying in effect that it is not he who has healed
the sick person… (nor) is it attributed to the effectiveness of some magical formula…. He is not even
saying, at least explicitly, that the (sick person) was healed by God.” It was “Your faith has healed
you.”
What does it mean, “Your faith” makes you well? Jesus is a man who realized that
“everything is possible for God” (Mark 19:27). But he seemed to affirm also the innate power within
each one to overcome suffering. Because the Spirit of God is also present in each of us, “Everything
is possible for anyone who has faith” (Mark 9:23), if only we trust ourselves that we can be healed. A
person who thinks that no healing is possible for him or her ends up with more suffering. God gives
us grace and strength to face our difficulties in life, but it also takes a decision on our part to do
something with our difficulties. That’s how trusting and confident God is to us. As we say it among
Filipinos, “Nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa” – God helps us and always, but it is up to us to do
something good or to change the course of our lives. The metaphors of “mustard seed” and
“moving of mountains” that were used by Jesus speak of the power of faith to achieve impossibly
great things.
The opposite of faith is fatalism or being resigned that we cannot do or change anything
anymore with our life. Fatalism is expressed in statements like, “Nothing can be done about it”; “I
can’t change the word”; “This is my destiny, it shall always be like this”; “There is no hope”; “You
must accept the reality as it is”. These are the statements of people who do not really believe in the
power of God, people who do not really hope for what God has promised.
But Jesus did not give up then, and he does not give up on us today. (“Hindi bibitaw si Hesus
kung hindi rin tayo bibitaw. Kumapit lang tayo”). “Wherever the general atmosphere of fatalism had
been replaced by an atmosphere of faith, the impossible began to happen. In Nazareth, his home
town, there was a general lack of faith and that was why no ‘marvelous’ or outstanding cures took
place there (Mark 6: 5-6)” (Nolan). In the midst of poverty, sickness and other forms of suffering, the
people of Nazareth were fatalistic that no change can happen in their lives. They did not believe in
themselves. This is how we can understand Jesus’ dismay - No prophet is accepted in his own
barrio. “But elsewhere in Galilee people were healed and cured, evils spirits were cast out and lepers
were cleansed. The miracles of liberation had begun to take place.” (Nolan)
The power of the Spirit-filled person is transferrable to us. Jesus commanded his disciples to
do what he did – “to heal the sick, cast out evil spirits, proclaim the good news of salvation…” This
is the truth in the image of the “wounded healer.” Wounded by our own pains and sufferings, we
are called to heal the “sins of the world” – poverty, marginalization, injustice, and other social
problems. That was how the man from Nazareth was in his time; we are also called to be wounded
healers to others, in our families, friends, school, community, and society at large.
(In our next topic on the “kingdom of God,” we shall discuss more about the healings of
Jesus, especially his solidarity with the poor and sinners, his exorcisms, and what we call today
“miracles.”)
3. The Teacher of Alternative Wisdom
A third broad stroke of Jesus as a Spirit Person is about his teachings and they way he
taught. Let’s pause first and ask ourselves these questions:
1. Did you ever have someone who you consider your “best teacher”?
2. What is about this person that makes you consider him or her as your “best
teacher”?
3. What did you learn from him or her which until now has an impact on
your life?
From our reflections and sharing, what’s really the stuff that makes a “best or good teacher”?
One of the most common titles for Jesus that we find in the gospels is his being a “teacher”.
He was often called “Rabbi” by his closest friends. Rabbi is a Hebrew word which means “teacher”.
In the Gospels, it was mentioned fifty times, of which thirty directly applied to Jesus. What makes
this rural Galilean Jew a “the Perfect Teacher”?
First of all, Jesus did not rely on the conventional wisdom being propagated by other sages
or teachers during his time. What is “conventional wisdom”? It is wisdom that everybody knows
and accepts without questions; it is a culture’s understanding about life and the world, and how
relationships are lived in this world-view. This conventional wisdom is passed on from one
generation to another. Maybe the Filipino word-concept “kalakaran” comes close to the idea of
conventional wisdom. It is the way of doing things by people that became entrenched in the
structures of society, so much so that people just follow how things are done, including the wrong
things. In Jesus’ time, the conventional wisdom or kalakaran was preserved and maintained by the
interpreters of tradition, namely, the Pharisees, Scribes, Sadducees, and Priests. They interpreted the
Torah with strict observance, either according to what is written in the Hebrew Bible or its
interpretation or or some rituals of sacrifices, or a combination of all.
Jesus however dared to go against the traditional or conventional wisdom. As a Spirit

Person, he talked with authority coming from God. Instead of reinforcing the “usual” or “normal”
ways of living, he challenged people for a change of heart and lifestyle for the sake of the Kingdom
of God. The biblical term for this is “metanoia”, which is not only a change of mind but a change in
the totality of the person. The Gospel of Luke describes this kind of wisdom as “turning the world
upside down.” Jesus challenged the customary ways of thinking, valuing, and acting, and sought to
replace it with the ways of thinking, valuing, and acting of God. He did not abolish the Law but
recast or reinterpreted it that would be beneficial to the poor, the outcasts, and marginalized people.
This way, the teachings of Jesus presented an alternative to the current state of affairs. The
alternative was God’s kalakaran which Jesus called the kingdom or reign of God. Jesus sought to
transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy, and
replace it with equality, inclusion, justice, and integrity. “Subversive” or “transformative wisdom”
questions and undermines the conventional wisdom and speaks of another way or another path.
For example, the Jews had a conventional wisdom in which the family is supposed to be kept and
protected as the core of the community. But Jesus, instead of simply accepting such kalakaran,
commanded his followers with this statement, “Leave your friends and family then follow me.” Or
to a follower who wanted to go home for burial, Jesus said, “Leave the dead bury the dead.”
Another is his dislike for fasting; when some Pharisees and Scribes reprimanded him for allowing
his followers to eat rather than fast on the eve of the Sabbath, Jesus seemed to have remarked: “Why
should they fast? They should celebrate instead because I am here already.”
Jesus used images, metaphors and symbols from the local environment to bring about a
more meaningful understanding of his message of the kingdom or reign of God, like mustard seed,
net, lost coin, lost sheep, hidden treasure, pearl, salt and leaven, vine and branches, and many more.
By using these images and metaphors, Jesus got the attention of his listeners because, for one, they
were familiar with those things in their everyday life. Yet, Jesus was discriminate in his use of
everyday images, metaphors, and symbols. Rather than fulfilling the expectations of the listeners,
Jesus led them to think, to question their values, to see other sides of angles of a problem or reality,
and to respond differently other than their customary or conventional wisdom.
In proclaiming new or alternative and subversive wisdom, Jesus used aphorisms and
parables. “Aphorisms” are short, memorable sayings, or great “one-liners,” while “parables” are
short stories taken from everyday life to convey a moral lesson or truth for practical living.
Examples of aphorisms are: “You cannot serve two masters”; “You cannot get grapes from a
bramble bush”; “If a blind person leads a blind person”; You strain out a gnat and swallow a
camel”; “Take up your cross and follow me”; “What does a man profits if he owns the whole world
and losses his soul.” These are short, provocative sayings that mean more than what they say and
invite the hearers to see something they otherwise might not see.
Parables abound in the gospels, thus suggesting that Jesus himself made use of parables in
his lifetime. Many of these pertained to the kingdom or reign of God, or the relationship between
God and humanity. But it also tells how people should treat or relate to one another. For example,
the kingdom of God is likened to a “leaven,” “treasure,” “mustard seed,” and many others. Other
parables are long stories, such as the “prodigal son,” “good Samaritan,””lost sheep,” “faithful
servant,” “ten virgins,” “the rich fool.”
As oral stories, parables draw the hearer to see something else in the light of what happens
in the story. The power of the parables rests in themselves, that is, they have the ability to involve
and affect the imagination and to see life and the world in a way different from the conventional
view, and thereby to subvert the customary interpretation and to offer an alternative practice in the
everyday.
Example: The Parable of the Sower (Mt.13:1-9)

That same day, Jesus left the house and went to the lake side, where he sat to teach.
The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it, while
the crowd stood on the shore. He used parables to tell them many things.”
“Once there was a man who went out to sow grain. As he scattered the seeds in the
field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Some of it fell on
rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seed soon sprouted, because the soil wasn’t
deep enough, the plants soon dried up. Some of the seed fell among the thorny bushes,
which grew up and choked the plants. But some fell in good soil, and the plants bore grains:
some had one hundred grains, others sixty, and others thirty.”
And Jesus concluded, “Listen then, if you have ears!”
Jesus Explained the Parable of the Sower (Mt. 13: 18-23):

1. Seeds that fell along the path are those people who hear the words of God but cannot
understand so that the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in them.
2. Seeds on the rocky grounds stand for those who hear the message of God gladly but
it does not sink deep in them and they don’t last long. So when trouble or persecution
comes because of the message, they give up at once.
3. Seeds that fell among the thorny bushes are those who hear the message of God but
the worries about everyday life and their love for riches choked the message and they
don’t bear fruit.
4. Seeds that fell on good soil stand for those who hear the message and understand it.
They bear fruit, some as much as one hundred, others sixty and others thirty.
4. The Prophet of Social Justice based on God’s Compassion
A “prophet” is someone called and tasked by God to speak of His/Her behalf to people. The
prophet is thus a spokesperson of God. The prophet does not predict or foretell future events. On
the contrary, in the Jewish culture and tradition, and in the entire biblical tradition, the prophet is
both a critique of the present-day values and practices and an announcer of the good things that are
in line with God’s promise of fuller life for all. The attention of the prophet therefore is the present-
day world, with its crisis and problems and the need for change.
Sometimes, the prophet uses images that are catastrophic in order to convey the urgency of
changing lives, both in the personal relationships and in the larger society. One of the “prophets of
the old” we studied in this course is Amos. His announcement of the coming of the “day of the
Lord” was both a criticism to Israel’s failure to be faithful to its covenant with God; the same theme
of “day of the Lord” speaks of God’s decisive intervention in history wherein the landless will have
land, the homeless with homes, laborers to receive decent wages, and so forth. When the prophets
speak about the “end”, it is not talking about a violent end of the world in some distant future, but
the “end” is the cessation of evil – poverty, marginalization, exclusion, and injustice – and that the
goodness of God will triumph over evil. Rather than merely personal repentance, the prophets call
for a change of all forms and levels of human relationships, in effect, a transformation of the entire
society.
As a Spirit Person, Jesus was in line with the tradition of the prophets of the old. His
relationship to the Spirit led him to see things from a perspective different from the dominant ways
of thinking. Like the prophets we read in the Old Testament, the Jesus in the gospels felt the feelings
of God: the divine compassion for the victims of suffering.
In a time of threat to life because of poverty and powerlessness, Jesus called people to
change. To the victims of suffering, Jesus’ solidarity with them was pure gratuity; healing and
forgiveness were gifts of the God who cares unconditionally. Jesus required nothing from them but
only to live a fuller life. To his close associates, Jesus required them to “take up the cross and follow
him.” This implies a change of way of thinking, valuing and behaving that places the poor and other
suffering people at the center of their lives. Jesus required his friends to always examine their
motivations, interests, and action, especially of letting go or getting rid of their personal interests
that hinder their service to people. To the elite and holders of power in society, Jesus challenged
them to stop their harmful ways and to use their resources to benefit those who have less, materially
or in terms of decision making and participation in society. Such was the challenge thrown to
Zaccheus, a tax-collector known for his corrupt ways in the community. If Zaccheus really wants to
be a friend of God, he must return to the people the wealth he had stolen from them. Reconciliation
is based on justice; there can be no forgiveness till justice is fully realized.
At the center of the prophetic life of Jesus was his understanding of faithfulness to God. The
Pharisees and other leaders, as well as the rich, uneducated people, measured faithfulness to God in
terms of “holiness” by strict observance of the Torah and through the laws of purity or cleanliness.
Purity or cleanliness was political because it structured society into a purity system whereby there
were social groups who separated themselves from people who were impure or unclean. People
were judged whether or not they follow what is written in the Hebrew bible, including the
prescriptions (“what should be done”) for everyday living, such as what kind of work is clean or
unclean, which kind of animals, and parts of it, to be eaten and not be eaten, what is permissible and
forbidden behaviors, and so forth. For Jesus however, he defined faithfulness in terms of
compassion.
The word “compassion” comes from two words: com for “with” and passion for “feel”.
Compassion is “feeling with” the other person, in his or her difficulties and sufferings. In the
Hebrew Bible, it is sometimes used in relation to the “womb,”as in a woman feels compassion for
the child in her womb, or a man feels compassion for his brother, who comes from the same womb.
As a feeling, compassion is located in a certain part of the body – the loins or the gut, that is, in
Filipino expression, it is the “sikmura.” In truth, compassion is the feeling of the heart.
Compassion is different from sympathy which is “feeling for” another person but without
necessarily attending to his/her need. Compassion is “feeling with” or “being one with” the
suffering of someone else and being moved by the suffering to do something. In the Filipino system
of virtues (or good habits), this is “malasakit” or “pagmamalasakit.” It is motivated by good intentions
of the person, who does things to help another person positively and effectively. Pagmamalasakit
gives the wellbeing of the other as priority.
Compassion or pagmamalasakit is unrequited love. It seeks nothing in return except the

concern for the well-being of the other person. Extending help is beyond duty or obligation. One
practices compassion out of goodness and great concern for another person. For Jesus, as God is
compassionate to people, so too people must be compassionate to one another. Marcus Borg writes
this clearly for us: “Indeed, it is only when we appreciate this dimension of Jesus’ emphasis upon
compassion that we realize how radical his message and vision were. For Jesus, compassion was
more than a quality of God and an individual virtue: it was a social paradigm, the core value for life
in community. To put it boldly: compassion for Jesus was political. He directly and repeatedly
challenged the dominant sociopolitical paradigm of his social world and advocated instead what
might be called a politics of compassion…. Compassion, not holiness, is the dominant quality of God,
and is therefore to be the ethos of the community that mirrors God.”
Jesus’ program of compassion attacked the purity system that emphasized tithing and
neglected justice. The critique of the purity system is the theme of the parable of the Good
Samaritan. The priest and Levite were obligated to maintain a certain type of purity; contact with
death or a dying person was a source of major uncleanliness. Thus, the passers-by acted out their
observance of purity laws. The Samaritan, on the other hand, is described as the one who acted
“compassionately.” Incidentally, the Samaritan (a person from Samaria) was also perceived as
impure according to the purity system of the Jewish culture. It took an impure person to do
malasakit to another impure person. The story also shows that a person who is suffering can and
does help another suffering person.
It would be inadequate to think that Jesus’ compassion in individualistic terms. The actions
of Jesus of healing and touching the sick, mingling and eating with the poor, forgiving the sinners,
befriending women, dialogue-ing with Gentiles (people who have different cultures and religions),
and many more – Jesus was merely dealing with them as individuals. He was advocating a different
way of being in the world and another form of social relationships. Jesus was proposing another
society where the poor, the weak, the powerless, and the outcasts become the center of society’s
meaning of life. His compassion was indeed a politics of compassion.
There is still a fifth feature of Jesus as a Spirit-filled person, that he was am inaugurator or
founder of a movement of change. This however is better discussed in the next topic.
THE LORD HEARS THE CRY OF THE POOR
(Verse 1)
I will bless the Lord at all times,
His praise ever in my mouth;
Let my soul glory in the Lord,
For He hears the cry of the poor.
(Refrain)
The Lord hears the cry of the poor;
Blessed be the Lord.
The Lord hears the cry of the poor;
Blessed be the Lord.
(Verse 2)
Let the lowly hear and be glad;
The Lord listens to their pleas;

And to hearts broken, God is near,
For He hears the cry of the poor.
(Verse 3)
We proclaim you greatness, O God;
Your praise ever in our mouth;
Ev'ry face brightened in your light;
For you hear the cry of the poor.

Student Copy T1 Topic 2.3 Jesus of Nazareth Full-1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Student Copy T1 Topic 2.3 Jesus of Nazareth Full-1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Theology I – Chapter II: Topic 2.

3 Jesus of Nazareth [1]

Code Number: TH111 E

CHAPTER II: JESUS OF NAZARETH, GOD’S DEFINITIVE AND UNIQUE OFFER

2.3 Jesus of Nazareth:

Who Do We Say Jesus Is?

A) When I was 1 to 5 years

C) When I was 12/13 to 16 or

D) At this moment of your

From our sharing and analysis, a few points can be highlighted.

Part I: The Social World of Jesus

Let us start with the world of

The Continent of Asia

A. Palestine during Jesus’ Time

The Land of Birth of Jesus

B. The Everyday Life of the People

2) Majority of the people were also relatively non-literate.

3) Poverty, marginalization, and social dislocation caused social and political

C. The Social Location of Jesus in Jewish Society

The social and economic location Jesus of Nazareth:

D. Groups and Movements with Power Over People

Part II: Portrait of Jesus as Spirit-Filled Person

1) The Spirit Person with a Vision and Mission

I, the Lord of sea and sky

I who made the stars and night

I the Lord of snow and rain

I will break their hearts of stone

2. The Healer and Bringer of “Ginhawa” from God

In short, Jesus says, “Peace be with you!”

3. The Teacher of Alternative Wisdom

Jesus however dared to go against the traditional or conventional wisdom. As a Spirit

Example: The Parable of the Sower (Mt.13:1-9)

Jesus Explained the Parable of the Sower (Mt. 13: 18-23):

4. The Prophet of Social Justice based on God’s Compassion

Compassion or pagmamalasakit is unrequited love. It seeks nothing in return except the

THE LORD HEARS THE CRY OF THE POOR

The Lord listens to their pleas;

You might also like