WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE JESUS? [2]

(This is the fifth in a series on Jesus. Earlier articles can be found at http://jmm.aaa.net.au/catalog/section/jc1.htm )

~~~

What did Jesus look like?

We're looking for a picture of Jesus for the frontpage of our website. Which one should I choose? Why?

Images of Jesus reflect the ethnic/regional origins of the artists. From the late third century onwards he has been depicted with a face like Apollo, or a tunic-clad philosopher with long hair and a beard; from the 16th to 20th centuries Asian and black Christs appeared. I grew up with a Swedish-looking Christ, and GenX'ers probably think he's like the actor Robert Powell, who portrayed Jesus in the well-known 1977 film Jesus of Nazareth. All these have one factor in common: none of them look very Jewish.

All that aside, who's most like Jesus today? That's the question I'd like to introduce in the next couple of articles, basing our discussion on the astonishing Matthean depiction of the Last Judgment (25:31-46).

This is the final teaching in Jesus' public ministry: Matthew's Gospel seems to be written as a catechism: it begins with the beatitudes and ends with this climactic Last Judgment scene. Let's look at the Big Questions.

~~~

1. Who does Jesus think he is? He assumes the messianic title 'Son of Man' (Daniel 7:13 sq.), owns legions of angels, is King over everything, Shepherd of all humanity, Judge/dispenser of eternal life or judgment to every human being on behalf of God his 'Father', and exists-by-proxy in the lives of all the 'wretched of the earth'. The history of this planet reaches its denouement when he wraps it up.

Re 'Son of Man': this enigmatic phrase is the second-most-commonly used title for Jesus in the four Gospels after 'Jesus' itself. It's only used of Jesus - not of other humans. Is it a synonym for 'I'? Scholars have used many words to debate this question. Conservative theologians (like I.H. Marshall in 'The Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels', IVP 1992, pp. 775-781) tend towards the view that the title reflected Jesus' self-designation as the messianic figure in Daniel 7: 'The memory of the fact that the idiom was used as a self-designation prevented it from being taken over by his followers'. More liberal scholars (see eg. the respected Anchor Bible Dictionary article) tend to take more seriously the possibility that the messianic/transcendent connotation was a throw-back from the early church's tendency to have a more exalted view of Jesus than Jesus had for himself. We'll return to this question later.

Notice that 'all' the angels are present. 'All'??? All of heaven witnesses this great climactic scene. We are asked to imagine the staggering sight of every human being from all of time plus all the angels created before/beyond time assembled in one place. Some crowd! (Beats the Guinness Book of Records 3 million strong gatherings at an Italian anti-war rally or a Brazilian rock concert!).

Who are the subjects of the judgment? Some (conservative) Christian teachers suggest that the church will have a special privilege at the Great Judgment. But Matthew's Jesus speaks of the judgment in universal terms (e.g. 24:4-31; 16:27) - 'the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and he will repay *every person* for what each has done'.

2. Is this passage saying that the criterion of judgment is *not* 'receiving Jesus as your personal Savior': it has nothing to do with grace, 'justification' or the forgiveness of sins? It's not about being credally correct, believing all the 'right doctrines'? Is it saying that care for the poor is not a matter of 'extra credit', but is the raw decisive criterion of who's 'in' and who's 'out'? So it's not a matter of faith, as classic Christianity has posited, but love?

How are we 'saved'? By faith? Certainly, and this parable does not contradict that at all: it's saying rather that our Christian faith isn't genuine unless it issues in loving, selfless behaviour. As James said, 'Faith without works is dead.' Faith that receives grace becomes gracious. Faith becomes love or else it is not true faith. Luther said: 'The good works of our judgment text are open witness of the fruit either of our faith or unfaith'. Titus (2:11-14) and Ephesians (2:8-10) talk about salvation by grace which leads to good works.

'Judgment' everywhere in the NT is a matter of 'works' (Romans 2:9-16, 25-27; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; 9:27; Luke 10:30-37).

I was googling homilies on this topic and came across a Lutheran pastor's comment: 'I hate [this teaching], because it seems to make *works* the requirement for being blessed by God. There is no mention of faith or justification or forgiveness or the cross -- the acts of God that bring us salvation. Rather, the text is all about human actions.'

We'll return to that tomorrow...

-- Shalom! Rowland Croucher http://jmm.aaa.net.au/

'We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.' - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man