The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited by Scot McKnight

Author:Scot McKnight
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780310492993
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2011-09-20T05:00:00+00:00

WHO AM I? WHO ARE YOU?

There is a set of passages in the Gospels that, if looked at quickly, can both dazzle and be dizzying, but if looked at any quicker than that they can be ignored. Sadly, they are scattered apart enough that many don’t even notice them. But if they are looked at more carefully, they lead to delight and the essence of the gospel itself — in fact, studying them together in one setting can make for a profound classroom experience, one I’ve experienced a number of times.

What we find in these passages is the residue of a number of discussions between John and Jesus. But what is most interesting is that those discussions are concerned with two essential questions each had for the other: “Who am I?” and “Who are you?” More accurately, these two questions are asking one simple question Jesus and John seem to be asking about themselves and one another: “Which figure in the Bible are you now fulfilling?” This question was being asked on local corners of Galilee and all the way into the seats of power in Jerusalem, but the bigger question gets asked in a number of smaller ways, and here are the ones that we will now seek to answer.

Who did others think Jesus was?

Who did others think John was?

Who did John think John was?

Who did John think Jesus was?

Who did Jesus think John was?

Who did Jesus think Jesus was?

There’s a winning lottery ticket here because if we can answer these questions, we will be on our way to asking whether Jesus preached the gospel.

We begin with this question: Who did others think Jesus was? Jesus himself wondered, so he asked his disciples, and what they answered is found in Matthew 16:14: “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” At the time of Jesus there was a vigorous discussion about who Jesus was, but what strikes the reader who is sensitive to first-century Judaism is that everyone thought Jesus was one of Israel’s great prophets (including John himself) come back to life. Clearly, the way to make sense of Jesus was to connect him to one of Israel’s prophets.

This, then, leads to a follow-up question: If some of Jesus’ contemporaries wondered whether Jesus himself was actually John the Baptist (come back to life), who did those same others think John was? This is one of the first questions dealt with in the gospel of John. Some thought John the Baptist was the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, some thought he was Elijah, and others thought he was “the Prophet” (John 1:19 – 28). What should cause alarms to go off is that John’s contemporaries were compelled to make sense of him by finding him written already into the pages of their Bible.

The only way for John’s contemporaries to make sense of him was to see him as one of Israel’s prophets come back to life, or even more, perhaps the Messiah himself.

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