Christ by Jack Miles

Author:Jack Miles [Miles, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-78910-5
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2011-04-27T04:00:00+00:00

HE RESOLVES THE GREAT CRISIS IN HIS LIFE

In Jerusalem more than in Galilee, when Jesus appears in public, he often seems to be alone. This is particularly true as his life nears its end, and true above all in the Gospel of John. Except at the time of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem just before Passover, no enthusiastic crowds gather to hear him speak as they did in Galilee. Individual, anonymous voices do express wonder, but the people he addresses in the Jerusalem Temple—typically referred to as “the Jews,” perhaps in contradistinction to “the Galileans,” perhaps from the perspective of an ethnically mixed Christian community outside Palestine—respond to him with skepticism that escalates into hostility, and he contributes to the escalation. They wonder aloud whether he intends to kill himself. He insists that they are out to kill him. They say that he is possessed by a devil. He counters that they are servants of the Devil. They call him a Samaritan—that is, not a descendant of Judah, not a Jew. He counters that, in spirit, they are sons of Ishmael, not sons of Isaac—in effect, Arabs. The confrontation climaxes when he speaks of himself using the sacred, unspeakable proper name of God, and they take up stones to execute him on the spot for blasphemy. His engagement with them grows steadily more hostile, yet he succeeds in changing the terms of that engagement, terms that are—though they do not yet see this—the terms of their covenant with God.

The escalation from skepticism to hostility begins innocuously enough when Jesus says:

If you take shelter in my word,

you will be my disciples.

You will come to know the truth,

and the truth will set you free.

(John 8:31–32)

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