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    Jesus:Son of Mary and God
    Jesus:Son of Mary and God
    Jesus:Son of Mary and God
    Ebook310 pages19 hours

    Jesus:Son of Mary and God

    By Edwin Walhout

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    The human Jesus. How he got along with his disciples and the Jewish authorities.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEdwin Walhout
    Release dateJan 1, 2011
    ISBN9781458137593
    Jesus:Son of Mary and God
    Author

    Edwin Walhout

    I am a retired minister of the Christian Reformed Church, living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Being retired from professional life, I am now free to explore theology without the constraints of ecclesiastical loyalties. You will be challenged by the ebooks I am supplying on Smashwords.

    Read more from Edwin Walhout

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      Book preview

      Jesus:Son of Mary and God - Edwin Walhout

      Jesus: Son of Mary and God

      by Edwin Walhout

      Published by Edwin Walhout

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright 2010 Edwin Walhout

      Cover design by Amy Cole (amy.cole@comcast.net)

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

      Consult Smashwords.com for additional books by this author in the Bible Studies Series.

      The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Part One: Biographical Episodes

      1 Virgin Birth

      2 Circumcision

      3 Presentation

      4 Temple Visit

      5 Baptism

      6 Temptation

      7 Nazareth

      8 First Followers

      9 Capernaum

      10 Miracle at Cana

      11 Catching Fish

      12 Beatitudes

      13 Prayer

      14 Nicodemus

      15 Three Miracles

      16 Matthew

      17 Scriptures

      18 Sending the Twelve

      19 Turning Point

      20 Parables

      21 Transfiguration

      22 Hypocrisy

      23 Lazarus

      24 James and John

      25 Triumphal Entry

      26 In the Temple

      27 End of the Age

      28 Paraclete

      29 Arrest and Trial

      30 Pontius Pilate

      31 Death

      32 Resurrection

      33 Ascension

      34 Holy Spirit

      35 Great Commission

      Part Two: Apostolic Reflections

      36 Incarnate Logos

      37 Second Adam

      38 Image of God

      39 Humble Slave

      40 Apocalyptic Lord

      Introduction

      Every now and again the subject of Jesus is brought to public attention. We may see a major motion picture devoted to explaining who Jesus was and how he worked. We may find an article in a newsmagazine dealing with the effect Jesus has had on the course of history. We may get a novel related somehow to Jesus and the legends that have become associated with him. Or a TV series explaining him according to the latest scholarly opinions. Even the pope has recently written a book about Jesus.

      So I thought, why not me? Let me sort out as best I can the things I have learned and observed over the years, and try to organize them in a meaningful way. So that is what I attempt to do in this manuscript, addressing such questions as: Who is Jesus? What did he do? What effect did he have? How did the disciples respond? What must we think of him?

      I will be stressing what effect Jesus had on the twelve men who became his inner circle, and on the crowds of people who sometimes flocked to hear him. I have entitled this book, Jesus: Son of Mary and God to emphasize not only his humanity but especially his relation to his heavenly Father. I want specifically to examine the effect Jesus’ miracles and parables and sermons had on the people who lived at the time.

      The theological tradition in which I have been raised customarily treats Jesus in two ways: Person and Work. Who is Jesus and What did he do? What are the various positions that thinkers in the past have taken? Which of those seems best to us today? What proof texts can we adduce to support our view?

      That method may be useful and helpful, but an alternate way suggests itself, namely, simply examining various passages in the Gospels that are significant in coming to an understanding of those issues, who Jesus is and what he has done, without artificially separating the two. What Jesus did cannot really be separated from who he is, and so I would rather approach my subject without borrowing this Systematic Theology technique. Let the two facets blend in with each other.

      The New Testament employs a wide variety of comparisons and symbols as well as direct statements in its presentation of Jesus. Jesus is the man from Nazareth and he is the Lamb of God. He is the incarnate Logos of God and he is a wrongly condemned criminal. So I will be selecting representative conversations and actions of Jesus from the pages of the New Testament, examining them and trying to derive from them something significant about Jesus and his contemporaries.

      Part One contains a large selection of biographical incidents from the four Gospels. Then Part Two examines a few of the reflective analyses of Jesus by the apostles John and Paul. These latter are more philosophical in nature because they seek to define Jesus in universal terms, not in local or parochial terms. They tend to make a connection between Jesus and the entire human race. They identify Jesus universally in terms of the whole world, fulfilling the eternal plan of the Creator.

      Part One thus deals with what people thought about Jesus before he completed his work, and Part Two deals with what they thought after it became clear to them what his life and ministry were all about.

      Part One: Episodes from the Gospels

      1

      Virgin Birth

      Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ... When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus. (Matthew 1: 18-25)

      Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. (Luke 2:26-35)

      That a woman could conceive a child without the cooperation of a man is, on the face of it, preposterous. By current biological knowledge it is impossible. Yet it happened, according to the most ancient and reliable reports extant. Perhaps our modern experimentation with cloning suggests that there are possibilities of which we do not now know. Perhaps, after all, God could do it!

      One argument against the virgin birth is that only two of the four Gospels report it, and that nowhere else in the New Testament literature is it mentioned. If it is so important a feature of Jesus’ life, why is it ignored, for example, in all the writings of Paul and of John? The reply to that objection is simply that everywhere that the birth of Jesus is described it is couched in unmistakable virgin-birth language. There are only two places in ancient literature where Jesus’ birth is described, and both do it in explicitly clear terminology of virgin birth.

      Matthew gives the story from the point of view of Joseph, Jesus’ stepfather. He is chagrined to learn that the woman he is about to marry is pregnant, and he knows he is not responsible for her condition. An angel appears to him in a dream, assuring him that the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Not from any male person, but from God. So Joseph marries Mary anyway.

      Luke tells the same story from the point of view of Mary, Jesus’ mother. An angel appears to her and informs her that she will become pregnant. She is incredulous, objecting that she has not had sexual relations with any man, and thus could not possibly become pregnant. The angel assures her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. Mary accepts this message and eventually gives birth to the baby Jesus.

      Hence the argument that, except for these two passages, both of them written a generation or two after the fact, the Bible makes nothing of the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, is countered by the argument that, even so, every time the Bible does describe Jesus’ birth it does so in unmistakable detail of the virginity of Mary. One will have to impugn the authenticity and reliability of both Gospels, Matthew and Luke, if one wishes to reject the factuality of Jesus’ virgin birth.

      Even so, it is true that nothing is made of the virgin birth of Jesus in the rest of the New Testament. And it appears that, other than in a skewed doctrine of Mariology in Roman Catholic circles, it plays very little part in the history of Christian doctrine. It is indeed affirmed in the Apostles’ Creed and in all traditional theology, but that it plays any significant role in the process of gospel proclamation and in the fabric of Systematic Theology is far from clear. It is surely there, but of what import? If it were not taught in the Bible, would there be any deficiency in Christian doctrine, in its world and life view? What, if anything, do those who deny the virgin birth lose by that denial? Does that denial affect in any way the rest of Biblical teaching about Jesus?

      Son of God

      It is interesting to compare the way Matthew and Luke present the angelic message from God. In the Gospel of Matthew the angel tells Joseph to name the baby Jesus when he is born. In the Gospel of Luke the angel tells Mary that the baby to be born will be the son of God.

      Jesus was a familiar name among the Jews of the time. It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Joshua, meaning one who saves. This baby will be a man in the footsteps of the ancient Israelite leader Joshua. Not too much should be read into the name, however, since other boys were given that name as well, and it meant no special thing for them. Still, the name is suggestive of the function that this baby would fill once he grew to manhood. He would do what was necessary to save the world.

      What Luke says is of even more significance. The angel tells Mary that her baby, engendered as it was by the Spirit of God, is therefore the son of God. Jesus is the son of God by reason that he had no human father, but that God was his father. The function of fatherhood is, in Jesus’ case, filled not by a man but by God. It was God who caused Mary to become pregnant.

      Elsewhere in the Bible Jesus is described as the only-begotten son of the Father. This is to say that the way Jesus was born, without the agency of a human father, is unique. It happened to no one else. Jesus is the only human being who was, as the Apostles’ Creed puts it, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.

      The son of God. The term is of great significance, but it has undergone extensive theological permutation in the process of history. For the most part it no longer carries as its first connotation the virgin birth of Jesus but the ontological second person of the Trinity. Often, when we use the term Son of God, what comes to mind is, first, an eternal person co-equal to Father and Holy Spirit within a divine Trinity; and, second, the human person who that pre-existing eternal Son became at the incarnation.

      Consequently, in this usage, the term Son of God connotes primarily a divine being not a human one. In our accepted theology the Son of God is a divine person first and a human being second. However, this is not what Luke or any other Biblical writer affirms.

      In both accounts of the virgin birth of Jesus there is no implication whatsoever of the son of God being a divine being prior to becoming a human being. God, not Joseph or any other male, causes Mary to become pregnant, and therefore the baby to be born will be biologically God’s son not Joseph’s. The name Jesus as well as the title son of God refers to a human being, not a divine person. That is what both Matthew and Luke say.

      Accordingly, Jesus is the one and only man in whom God took up residence from the moment of conception. That is the significance of the virgin birth, or rather of the divine conception. Here now is a true human being, born of a real woman, but in whom the presence of God is functioning even before he is born. It is precisely this presence of God in Jesus that enabled him to grow up as he did, without sin, and to accomplish the deeds he did.

      So do we lose anything if we give up the New Testament insistence on the virgin birth of Jesus? Yes, indeed! We give up the recognition that God was functional in him from the beginning of his life on earth. The fullness of God came to be operative in the fullness of a human being when Mary conceived this child by the Holy Spirit.

      That same fullness of God continued to be operative in this baby as he grew up to be a child, a young man, a mature preacher of the kingdom of God, a worker of miracles, a man crucified and risen again, a man ascended into heaven, whose spirit continues to this day to be the most dominant force within human history. The doctrine of the virgin birth is the opening scene of this continuing saga of divine redemption in Jesus. God is at work for the salvation of the world from the moment of Jesus’ conception. It is part and parcel of the whole package of salvation that God is creating within human history. Don’t give it up!

      2

      Circumcision

      After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. (Luke 2:21)

      Joseph and Mary were loyal, practicing Jews. They were concerned to do everything necessary to follow the customs that identified them as Jews. Luke mentions circumcision and presentation. Both were long-time features of the Jewish way of life. Far from being renegades, Joseph and Mary, perhaps even because of the unusual circumstances of Jesus’ birth, wanted to be scrupulously accurate in their marriage and new parental responsibilities. They did not want any taint of irresponsibility or carelessness to provide a flaw in their relationship. So Jesus was circumcised the eighth day and in due time presented to the Lord at the Jerusalem temple.

      Circumcision was a rite that was definitive of Jewish nationality, going all the way back to Abraham (Genesis 17:10). Not only was it a rite of Jewishness, it also symbolized being part of the people of God. From the Jewish perspective, of course, being a Jew and being the nation of God were identical. If you were a Jew you were a child of God. And if you, as a male, were circumcised you were considered a Jew in good standing. Even after the Christian faith began making inroads into the outside Gentile communities, there was considerable controversy about whether or not you could be a good Christian without being circumcised. Circumcision was one of the definitive marks of Jewishness.

      So of what significance is it that Jesus was circumcised as an infant? He was not, of course, himself aware of the ritual at age eight days, so the significance cannot be in his own psychology. The responsibility for circumcision was not his but his parents. Totally independent of whether or not the infant Jesus desired circumcision or not, Mary and Joseph did observe the Jewish sacrament, thereby affirming that Jesus was a genuine part of the Jewish community.

      Consequently one must recognize that whatever changes Jesus later brought into the religious life of people, these changes arose from within the bosom of Jewish faith. Judaism was the mother, so to speak, of Christianity. Jesus was a full-fledged Jew, nurtured to be loyal to its institutions throughout his life.

      Later Jesus would make it plain that some of the traditional institutions of Judaism were no longer useful. Certain aspects of that faith were designed from the beginning to be temporary, useful and necessary for a while. But when the purpose for which they were designed was achieved they would become redundant. Circumcision was one such custom. The old covenant of which circumcision was a part would be replaced by a new and better covenant.

      In later life Jesus would be explaining that these traditional customs were useful in the past to keep us from being absorbed into the broader idolatrous human community, but now we have a new and more powerful method of confirming that we are children of God. Physical circumcision does not in itself guarantee any spiritual standing, so we need something that does. Jesus provided that something, namely his Spirit, who wrote God’s law on human hearts not merely on tablets of granite.

      So the significance of Jesus’ circumcision must be seen in the light of the eventual purpose of Jesus to move people beyond the external symbol to the internal reality. Jesus is not an outsider, coming in from elsewhere to destroy Judaism, but an insider, coming from within to make Judaism even better. Christianity is not an external enemy of Judaism, but is the product of the internal spiritual forces within Judaism. Judaism is the bud from which Christianity flowers. That is what the circumcision of Jesus should convey to us.

      3

      Presentation

      When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. (Luke 2:22-24)

      Much the same can be said of the presentation at the temple as was said of his circumcision. Presentation (redemption) was another of the definitive customs of Judaism. Since Jesus was the firstborn son, his parents brought him to the temple, offered him to the service of the Lord, and then paid the tax for getting him back into the family.

      This custom goes back to the time of the Israelite exodus from Egypt. When Moses was negotiating with Pharaoh to permit the Israelites to leave Egypt, God did the thing that forced Pharaoh to yield to Moses’ demands. God sent his angel of death to strike down the firstborn sons of every household in Egypt. The Israelite families could escape this plague by sprinkling blood on the doorpost of their homes.

      In commemoration of this climactic event God said to Moses, Consecrate to me all the firstborn; whatever is the first to open the womb among the Israelites, of human beings and animals, is mine. (Exodus 13:1) Presumably these firstborn children were to become priests for the people. However, the Israelites were permitted to make an offering to the Lord as a means of redeeming their first child, and thus keeping him at home. Later, when the people were about to leave the area of Mount Sinai for their final push into Canaan, the regulation was revised so that the entire tribe of Levi was substituted for the firstborn sons (Numbers 3:41). The Levites became the priests for the people.

      Nonetheless the idea that the oldest son in a family was to be a priest was still maintained, with the provision that the family could, so to speak, buy him back, redeem him. The family could make a certain designated contribution to the authorities, and then keep the oldest son at home. This custom somehow was preserved through all the turmoil of Old Testament history, through the Babylonian Captivity, on into the time when Jesus was born. So Joseph and Mary presented Jesus, as the oldest son in the family, and presented two young pigeons as the repossession price for their son.

      The incident serves the purpose of confirming that Joseph and Mary took their Jewish obligations seriously. They did everything they could to meet the requirements of traditional Jewish law. They were good and observant Jewish citizens. That is the way Jesus was brought up from infancy.

      Simeon

      Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.

      And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed — and a sword will pierce your own soul too. (Luke 2:25-35)

      Luke includes at this point an incident relating to an old man in the temple, Simeon. Luke, you may remember, was not himself a Jew, and was therefore unfamiliar with Jewish customs. He had to research everything that he recorded in his Gospel. During Paul’s imprisonment in Palestine Luke would have had plenty of time to travel around the countryside searching for stories of Jesus. This incident of Simeon would be one of the things someone told him.

      Whether or not the passing years affected the memory of what was said, we cannot say. This incident of Jesus’ presentation at the temple occurred probably about sixty years before Luke heard the story and wrote it down in his book. Luke, himself a Gentile, records Simeon as recognizing baby Jesus as the one whom God is sending to bring salvation not only to the Jewish people, but to non-Jewish people as well, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.

      One might ask, What did Simeon mean? and, How would Simeon know about that so far ahead of time? How would Simeon recognize that this little child will grow up in such a way as to bring benefit to Gentiles and glory to Jews?

      We must understand that Jesus was born into a Jewish community rife with strong messianic expectations. A few generations earlier the Jews had been relatively independent under the regime of the Maccabees. But that ended when the Roman armies brought the entire Mediterranean world under their control. Roman armies kept the peace and put down ruthlessly any sign of rebellion. Roman governors and Roman-appointed kings ruled the provinces, sending annual tribute money to Rome.

      The Jews hated it. They had a harder time than other ethnic groups in accepting foreign domination. Why? Because their national literature contained prolific predictions that God would give them independence and enable them to be self-governing, and even perhaps to dominate their neighboring countries as David and Solomon had done a millennium earlier. Their archives spoke again and again of a man whom God would send as the leader of this resuscitation of the kingdom. This man, anointed by God for this purpose, would come and restore the fortunes of the people of Israel. The Anointed One. The Designated One. The Appointed One. The Savior. The Messiah.

      This mentality was strong throughout the country at the time Jesus was born, and remained strong throughout his career. Somehow God put it into Simeon’s mind that this baby Jesus would grow up to be that Anointed One, bring political independence to God’s people, and in the process bring benefit to surrounding countries as well. That is what was in Simeon’s mind when he saw Jesus in the temple, and in the mind of all Jewish people when they spoke of salvation or of a coming Anointed One.

      And that is what was in the mind of all Jews, including Jesus’ disciples, as they later observed him in his healing and teaching ministry. Everyone viewed his miracles as preparation for his messianic calling to deliver the country from Roman oppression, and to restore the political and economic independence of the people of God. When finally the people recognized that Jesus had no intention of doing what they expected him to do, they turned against him and clamored to have him crucified.

      So here in Jesus’ infancy Simeon is saying things that were meant within the context of Jewish messianic expectation, saying things that were true but not in the sense in which they were originally intended. Jesus’ benefit to the Gentiles and the glory he brought to the Jewish people did not come via political and military means, but via his Spirit. Simeon was speaking words that he meant in one sense, but words that were ultimately shown to have a different, more profound and effective, meaning than the one he intended.

      The benefit for Gentiles we can see in the history of Christianity. By the end of the first century already the transition to Gentile dominance in the church was fast developing. The glory for Jews we can see in the fact that there would be no Jesus and no Christianity were it not for the long centuries of preparation within the old Jewish covenant. The whole world owes an immense debt of gratitude to the Jewish people for its contribution to the salvation of the world, even though that gratitude is tinged with regret that they themselves as a whole have not seen fit to embrace their own gift to the world.

      4

      Visit to the Temple

      Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found

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