From Philip Yancey:
The more I studied Jesus, the more difficult it became to pidgeonhole him. He said little about the Roman occupation, and yet he took up a whip to drive petty profiteers from the temple. He urged obedience to the Jewish law while aquiring the reputation as a law-breaker. He could be stabbed by sympathy for a stranger, yet turn on his best friend with the flinty rebuke, “Get behind me, Satan!” He had uncompromising views on rich men and loose women, yet both types enjoyed his company.
One day miracles seemed to flow out of Jesus; the next day his power was blocked by people’s lack of faith. One day he talked in detail about the second coming; another, he knew neither the day nor the hour. He fled from arrest at one point and marched inexorably toward it at another. He spoke eloquently about peacemaking, then told his disciples to procure swords. His extravagant claims about himself kept him at the center of controversy, but when he did something truly miraculous he tended to hush it up. As Walter Wink has said, if Jesus had never lived, we would not have been able to invent him. (The Jesus I Never Knew)
Good words to end the year with.
I think everything the gospels say that Jesus did makes sense when read in the context of the Old Testament. I have not read Yancey, but I wonder if he has studied the Old Testament enough to understand what the gospel claims about Jesus.
Instead of what Wink said, I think it would be more accurate to say that Jesus was “invented” by the prophets. Of course, invention is not really the right word. Through the prophets (that term understood broadly as the Old Testament writers) the apostles and others since them have seen that he was and is the Messiah.
I’d say the Gospels are a kind of “invention” in the sense all literary art is invention. Shakespeare invoked the Muse in one of his plays, to enable him to “ascend the brightest heaven of invention.” The Gospels provide portraits of Jesus… a portrait is never identical with its subject, but it can give a viewer access to a subject they never had the chance to meet in person.
Yancey has written several fine books that are not deep in academic theology but speak out in clear, easily understood language that helps answer the questions of those trapped in grade school level Christianity and those who are suspicious of Christ in any form. Thanks for posting the quote and citation.
CP
Pingback: Power « Spirit Led Info
Pingback: Power « Spirit Led Family
Pingback: Power « Spirit Led Living
Pingback: Power « Spirit Led Recovery