Salvation (Part 1)

Ask Me Anything

Week 5: Salvation (pt.1)

Why did Jesus have to die on the cross in order for the rest of us to be saved? I’m a scientist and I’m just not following the cause and effect. Isn’t God all powerful? He made the Big Bang happen and all of this stuff! Why couldn’t he just make it so that we all go to heaven and let Jesus live his life. Is it because we sinned and he’s upset? But he made us this way? Isn’t he supposed to be forgiving? Is God not perfect?
Who doesn’t “go to heaven”? What is heaven? My last student ministry claimed that you go to heaven after you die if you have Jesus in your heart/accept him as the messiah (with some exceptions), but I don’t want to be a part of something exclusive to anybody. That doesn’t make sense with what the Bible says about Grace anyway. What's the truth?
Wait so if you believe that Abraham and Job and David and Jacob and Esther did get saved, why did Jesus need to die? Were they just extra holy or..?
Is Jesus still Jewish? Is that just completely irrelevant?

Before we get too far into the weeds, I want it to be said that these conversations around the meaning of sin and salvation have been happening for centuries across cultures and religions. I believe in progressive revelation, meaning that we are continually reimagining our understanding of God over time, from ancient civilization to now, and will continue. No one theology is truly correct, because any theology that is pushed to its limits will break down. After all, theology is a human attempt to explain divinity, and that understanding will ultimately fail. In The Neighborhood, we prioritize asking questions over providing answers and I think that’s going to be really important to keep in mind as we think of salvation.

As we talk about Jesus, we must look at the gospels. The Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, has great contextual information about the gospels. In the essay "Hearing the Gospels as First-Century Hearers Heard Them," the authors discus the gospels and the way they teach us about Jesus. "Most of what is significant about most founders of movements--whether Socrates, Muhammad, or Joseph Smith--is preserved by the movements themselves, by those initially most interested in the founders. For Christians, the gospels are of prime importance, because they help us to know better the one we also honor as our Lord."

Here are some helpful things to keep in mind as we look at the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John): the gospels are ancient biographies, the four that are canonized were chosen because the authors where either eye-witnesses or second-hand accounts, and Jesus spoke in parables and hyperbole. In the ancient world, a book about a recent historical person was called a bios. Jesus was the teacher, and the disciples, his students. In that time, students of any teacher were expected to replicate and share what they learned from their teacher. Ancient biographies used facts and history to communicate moral, political and theological ideas or emphasis.

There were other gospel accounts, however the four that are canonized today, where chosen because of their reliable authors. Matthew and John were both eyewitnesses, Mark relies on Peter's first-hand accounts, and Luke traveled with Paul and combined his account of the Gospel from several accounts. Stories would have spread largely via oral tradition. Today we might look at that and think of how easily things would have been changed, however oral storytelling was an art form in ancient Mediterranean culture. Memorization was a big part of the education process, and students and disciples had a responsibility to learn, recite and publish the teachings of their teachers. With that being said, each of the gospels was written for a different audience, and the authors would've added that would be significant to the hearers, without altering the underlying history, politics and theology. This is where we see some differences in details between the gospels.

Finally, Jesus taught primarily through parables and made ample use of hyperboles. There is a lot of over-exaggeration in his stories, in order to make a point. When we begin to make these teachings rules or law, things get tricky. Instead we need to ask ourselves what the message is. In part two of the PBS Documentary, From Jesus to Christ, one scholar says that there are essentially two ways in which we can understand the gospels. “Either the stories of the ancient world were taken literally, and now we are so smart that we know to take them symbolically, or they were all intended symbolically and we are so dumb that we are all taking them literally.”

Gospel of Mark - 70 CE (40 years after Crucifixion)

Gospel of Mark was the first written compilation of the story of Jesus. Mark is written for a Jewish-Christian audience and is trying to interpret the Jesus story in light of the temple’s destruction. Mark portrays Jesus as a miracle-working country-preacher. Leading up to the crucifixion, Mark portrays Jesus as dark and terrifying. This makes sense when we think of Mark trying of make sense of the tragedy they have just experienced. He shows Jesus as dying and abandoned by god. On top of that, Mark ends his gospel with an empty tomb and waiting for Jesus.

Gospel of Matthew - 85 CE (55 years after Crucifixion)

Matthew was written 15 years after mark, in the context of the reformation of Judaism after the fall of the temple. Many people moved north after the fall of the temple, Matthew's community felt threatened by some of these changes in Judaism. Matthew traces the lineage back to Abraham and also frequently shows Jesus preaching about the law on a mountain, which alludes to Moses

In Matthew, Jesus frequently attacks the Pharisees, which were not a prominent Jewish sect during Jesus’s life. The Pharisees became prominent opponents within Matthews's life, and there was high tension between the Pharisees and Jesus followers over what should be believed.

Gospel of Luke - 85 CE (55 years after Crucifixion)

Luke was gentile, writing for gentiles. He is concerned with how the rest of the world has learned of Jesus. Luke is Two volumes, Luke and Acts. It is telling us a grander story. It is almost an early Christian romance, with embellishments, shipwrecks. Interesting that this book tries to show the gospel can be compatible with the Roman empire. We see roman guards acting kindly toward Paul. This was written for Greek, roman audiences. We begin to see more antagonistic language towards Jews. This is the first time we see the term "Christians", and no longer Jewish.

Gospel of John - 90 CE (60 years after Crucifixion)

This is often referred to as the spiritual Gospel. It is much more reflective, revelatory, and symbolic. In this book, Jesus is killed on Passover, symbolizing Jesus as the Passover meal. By this gospel, there is a lot more divide and hostility between Christians and jews. John also frequently refers to Jesus as the word of god, which is different from Judaism which sees the Torah as the word of God.

The Work of The People has a great interview with Mike Frost about the Cross being multi-faceted. There are so many ways of interpreting the crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. We do ourselves a disservice when we only preach one version. Because it can mean so many different things to so many different people.

We so often hear one specific facet of the Christ event, when there are so many ways it can be interpreted, understood, and embodied. Yet, even beginning with the gospels, the authors told the stories in a way that their communities needed to hear. Paul, spoke what needed to be said to each of the churches in his letters, and it's important to know the historical context. Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at different pieces of scripture that discuss Jesus's death, and different ways to interpret salvation.

Philippians 2:5-11

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Scholars believe that this piece of scripture comes from one of the earliest church hymns (poems) that we can find. This is pretty incredible when we think about this as being one of the earliest ways that Jesus was discussed. We can see that Paul (and this hymn) use a lot of imagery that would've been very familiar in ancient Rome and would've contrasted Christ with other deities.