The Daily Discipleship Decision
insights that Ron Allen has shared both in his articles for this
magazine as well as his continual stream of thought provoking books.
We are also fans of the consistently concise and stimulating
Westminster John Knox “For Today Series.” Thus, we eagerly awaited
our review copy of Ron Allen’s latest book The Life of Jesus for Today
contribution to this series. We were not disappointed. In fact, we
thought that Dr. Allen’s summary chapter spoke so powerfully to the
concept of discipleship that we take great pleasure in sharing some of
his points with our readers. We heartily recommend the entire book.
I admit a frustration that comes with the perception on Jesus Christ developed in this book (and that accompanies many other approaches to the life of Jesus). While Jesus spoke directly about issues in his own day, and while the Gospel writers have adopted traditions about Jesus to specific issues in their settings after the fall of Jerusalem, Jesus did not speak directly about issues today, nor do the Gospels.
I articulated [in the book] a perspective on identifying moments of resurrection today that can be enlarged to interpret life from the perspective of Jesus. When confronted with a personal matter or a congregational decision or an issue in the larger world, a Christian can ask,
“With respect to this issue, what perceptions and behavior are most consistent with God’s unconditional love for each and all (elements of nature included) and with God’s call for justice, that is, for all to live in social relationships of love?”
An individual Christian or a Christian congregation can identify attitudes and actions that have the greatest likelihood of enhancing the well-being of the most people in the circumstances. The other side of this question is to ask,
“What attitudes and actions have the greatest likelihood of denying God’s love to some individuals (or elements of nature) or of denying justice (or possibilities for right relationships) in a particular situation?”
Such latter attitudes and actions are typically not consistent with the story of Jesus Christ for today.
This approach is not simply asking, “What would Jesus do?” While asking that question has the virtue of encouraging people to reflect on particular issues from the perspective of Jesus, the truth is that we cannot confidently know what Jesus would do in specific contemporary situations. The approach advocated in this chapter calls for Christians to analyze situations from the perspective of basic values that grow from the story of Jesus, which itself grows from the heart of the Jewish tradition.
Many people today yearn for clear and unambiguous guidance in how to witness faithfully. In some cases, this approach will generate forthright perspectives. For example, in every circumstance, capital punishment is inconsistent with the deepest aspects of the story of Jesus. However, to be candid, some things that happen in life are so ambiguous that it is not absolutely clear what perspectives and decisions express love and which ones do not. Christians may disagree with one another on how to interpret specific events. In some situations, the same decision may express love for some people but deny love to others. Christians must sometimes make decisions based on the likelihood that a particular choice will demonstrate more of God’s love for a person or group than another choice.
The Small Size of the Movement in Antiquity as Lens for Today
Many Christians today think that the whole of the ancient world had its eyes on Jesus and the movement that came after him. As this book ends, however, I pause over the fact that Jesus’ life (and the lives of his followers after the resurrection) attracted very little attention outside their immediate locations. We know of only two or three writers in the first century outside the Jesus movement who even referred to Jesus. The Roman Suetonius mentions a figure called Chrestus, whose followers were creating a disturbance in Rome. The name Chrestus appears to be a misspelling of the Greek word for Christ. The Jewish writer Josephus mentions both John the Baptist and Jesus, as well as other figures such as the prophet Theudas.
However, when seen in the ongoing story that begins in the First Testament, the small notice of Jesus and the Jesus movement is an important reminder. The First Testament consistently pictures God operating in a world in ways that appear to the imperceptive eye to be small and insignificant. Who would have thought that the Sovereign of the Universe would seek to bless the entire world by giving children to a couple (Sarai and Abram) old enough to be on Medicare? Who would have imagined that the people who were called to be the light to the world would be enslaved in Egypt or exiled in Babylon? Even when David ruled and the state was at the height of its political power, Israel was much smaller than the mighty nations around it. It is, therefore, no surprise that Jesus lived on the margins of antiquity.
This pattern of God seeking to bless the world through unlikely figures, communities, and movements, can serve as a template for Christians today. It can cause us to ask, Who are unlikely people today witnessing to God’s purposes for the world to become a place of unconditional love and justice? Who — individuals, communities, or movements — may unexpectedly point the way to regeneration and renewal? From this perspective, a study of the life of Jesus is a resource for the path to blessing.
