Teachings,+the+secret+message+of+Jesus+(3)

The Jewish message of Jesus
(Kai Stormwalker)

One thing we need to remember about Jesus is that he was Jewish. He was not a Christian. It wasn’t until many years after his death that he followers came to be known as Christians. Many Jewish people still argue today, as they did back then, whether Jesus was a legitimate or false prophet. And although the followers of Jesus see him as more than a prophet, we need to examine his role as a prophet in order to understand him more fully.

“In Judaism prophets and priests were in very different and sometimes opposing roles. The priests were responsible for the regular, ongoing day-to-day and year-to-year religious life of Judaism - the key words being regularity and its cousin regulations. The priests made sure the traditions and practices of regular religious life went on as they should with holidays and sacrifices, feasts and fasts, Scripture and tradition. In Jesus’ day, priests were closely allied with the scribes - religious scholars who studied and argued about what exactly the rules and regulations of Judaism should be. Together, they constituted what we might call the religious establishment.”

- Brian McLaren

A. Think about the outward appearance of the priests as they are portrayed in the Bible. What set them apart from other people?

Read Exodus 39:1; Matthew 23:5-7

B. Think about the outward appearance of the prophets as they are portrayed in the Bible. What set them apart from other people?

Read Isaiah 20:2; Matthew 3:4

C. What might this difference say about them?

D. How did Jesus’ message compare to those proclaimed by other prophets?

Read Isaiah 3:13-23; Jeremiah 5:26-31; Matthew 5

Like other prophets before him, Jesus proclaimed a message regarding the truth of following God. While the priests were concerned with maintaining traditions, Jesus proclaimed the need for total transformation. To be totally transformed is to see everything in a different light, to see everything new. From the day we are born we are exposed to the culture of our world. We are inundated with messages telling us what we need in our lives to make us happy. The message of Jesus is the only message that can truly give us life and hope. Unlike the prophets before him, Jesus was able to provide a solution, a way for people to experience the power of God in their daily lives. The message of Jesus is that by letting him transform our lives, we in turn, can work with him to transform our world. It is a continuous transformation that begins when you accept Jesus for who he is. For too many people the “Kingdom of God” is something is someplace down the road. The Jews of Jesus’ day saw it as something that could only come about later - after the Romans were ejected or eliminated, after the Jews were militarily mobilized and lead by a great military leader (or messiah), after all the prostitutes and drunks and other undesirables were either reformed or eliminated. But Jesus said the Kingdom of God is at hand.

Read Matthew 4:17, 10:7; Mark 1:15; Luke 21:31

E. If we can accept that the Kingdom of God is at hand what might it mean for us?

F. Does it seems unrealistic?

G. Does it threaten the status quo? In what ways?

H. Ultimately, what was Jesus saying to the leaders of the nation and the heads of the religious establishment?

Read John 18:19-24, 33-38; 19:11

I. What was the result?