I have finally completed the majority of my classwork this semester and can now get back to posting on Wright. We continue in chapter 7 of Jesus and the Victory of God (pp. 244-319) on the stories of the kingdom, with a “controlling story” of invitation, welcome, challenge, and summons (p. 245). Because of the length and density of content, I am breaking this chapter up into multiple posts, with this one focused on invitation (pp. 244-64).
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mk. 1:15). The question to ask is: what exactly is this call to repentance? Put differently, what should the hearers of this call repent of? Wright argues, “It was an eschatological call, not the summons of a moralistic reformer. And it was a political call, summoning Israel as a nation to abandon one set of agendas and embrace another.” (p. 251, emphasis original) The activity required—what Israel must do— is “to abandon revolutionary zeal.” (p. 250, emphasis original) To put it a bit more descriptively, “give up your way of being Israel, your following of particular national and political aims and goals, and trust me for mine instead.” (p. 254) It is no wonder most of the Jews couldn’t accept Jesus’ message. It is not only radical for his time, but it is radical for our own. Quite distinct from being a way of military victory, Jesus’ way is “the way of the cross.” (p. 254). Rather than hanging out in fine houses dining on the very best of foods, Jesus’ way is to share food with the poor, the sick, the broken. Rather than rubbing shoulders with the rich and powerful, Jesus touches the unclean and polluted. In other words, as my new creation post attempted to preview, Jesus is pointing them to a new way of life! He’s bringing into reality a very different kind of kingdom, one that we would never expect.
Wright goes on to emphasize something very important about this repentance, one which really upset the Jews. It “did not involve going to the Temple and offering sacrifice… Jesus offered membership in the renewed people of the covenant god on his own authority and by his own process.” (p. 257, emphasis original) You get hints of this in Mark 2:1-12 when the Pharisees silently question his ability to forgive sins. Or the repeated clashes with them over healing on the Sabbath. Just who does this man think he is?! Jesus is offering membership in God’s community through his actions, not through the praxis of first-century Judaism.
Thus, what Jesus is inviting the people to follow is “a different way of being Israel, and to await a different sort of vindication.” (p. 258) Paul will tell us at the opening of Romans that God declares Jesus the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead (Ro. 1:4); the vindication comes after the cross. Yikes! This is true for us as well.
You may begin to see why Jesus simply cannot be a good moral teacher, and Wright continues to tease this point out through his chapters. Once you understand what Jesus is saying and doing in a first-century context, you just don’t have that option. He is either guilty of the very worst form of blasphemy and should be put to death, or he is from God. They chose the former. The resurrection tells us that the latter is true.
We will continue in the next post with welcome. In the interim, consider what the call of abandoning revolutionary zeal might mean for us today. Instead of ‘a different way of being Israel,’ how about a different way of being an American?
Chapter 1: Jesus Then and Now
Chapter 2: Heavy Traffic on Wredebahn: The ‘New Quest’ Renewed
Chapter 3: Back to the Future: The ‘Third Quest’
Chapter 4: Prodigals and Paradigms
Chapter 5: The Praxis of a Prophet
Chapter 6: Stories of the Kingdom (1): Announcement
Chapter 7: Stories of the Kingdom (2)
Chapter 8: Stories of the Kingdom (3): Judgment and Vindication
Chapter 9: Symbol and Controversy
Chapter 10: The Questions of the Kingdom
Chapter 11: Jesus and Israel: The Meaning of Messiahship
Chapter 12: The Reasons for Jesus’ Crucifixion
Chapter 13: The Return of the King
Chapter 14: Results