Proclamations of Jesus

1. Jesus’
Proclamations

2. Jesus as a Teacher (Rabbi)
▪In the Gospel record, Jesus is called a “teacher” more than fifty
times. In each case it is a translation of the Aramaic title rabbi
which literally means ‘the great one’
▪The rabbis were respected interpreters of the Jewish sacred
scriptures, and the Jewish people looked to them for authoritative
guidance.

3. Jesus as a Prophet
▪Jesus was not only a teacher but also a prophet, that is,
one who speaks for God.

4. Jesus as a “wisdom” teacher
In Israel’s tradition ‘wisdom’ articulates about how one
should live (teaches a way of life) and is composed of
(a) “worldview,” a basic image of reality; and
(b) “ethos,” a way of life which is also a path through life.

5. Wisdom teachers are known in every culture throughout
history as either:
➢ Teachers of conventional wisdom
➢ Teachers of subversive or alternative wisdom

6. Wisdom teachers speak of two ways or two paths:
• A wise way and a foolish way
• A narrow way and a broad way
• A righteous way and a wicked way
They encourage their hearers to follow one and avoid the other.
Wisdom teachers make observations about life and speak out
of experience.

7. Conventional wisdom
➢ cultural consensus.
➢ tells us how to live: it is what we are socialized into as we grow up in any given culture.
➢ it is based on rewards and punishments: “you reap what you sow”
• Secular version: “work hard and you’ll succeed”
• Religious version: “God will reward or condemn you depending on what you’ve done”
➢ It has social and psychological consequences.
• Social: creates social boundaries by giving greater value to some roles than to others
• Psychological: self-worth, identity, and self-esteem becomes based on how one measures up
to social norms
Conventional wisdom is a culture’s domestication or map of reality built of language,
words, systems of ordering.

8. Jesus as alternative wisdom teacher
Parables:
•Short stories that invite the
hearer to enter the world of the
story and to see differently in
light of the story
•Example: story of the Good
Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
Aphorisms:
•They refer to the short
metaphorical sayings of Jesus,
including nature sayings,
proverbs, and even beatitudes

9. Conventional wisdom Jesus’ alternative wisdom
God is punitive lawgiver and judge God is gracious
A person’s worth is determined by measuring up
to social standards
All persons have infinite worth as a children of
God
Sinners and outcasts are to be avoided and
rejected
Everyone is welcome around the table and in the
kingdom of God
Identity comes from social tradition Identity comes from centering in the sacred, from
relationship with God
Strive to be first
The first shall be last...; those who exalt
themselves will be emptied...
Preserve one’s own life above all
The path of dying to self and being reborn leads
to life abundant
Fruit of striving is reward Fruit of centering in God is compassion

10. ➢Jesus’ alternative wisdom teaching undermines and
subverts the social boundaries generated by the conventional
wisdom of his day
➢His aphorisms and parables invite us to see differently.

11. a. Truisms
◦ No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the
other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and
wealth. (Mt 6:24)
◦ Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? (Lk 6.39)

12. b. Subversive Wisdom
◦ With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all
the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of
all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make
nests in its shade. (Mk 4:30-32)

13. c. Social Reversals
◦ But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. (Mark 10:31; Mt
20:1–16)
◦ For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves
will be exalted. (Lk 14:11)
◦ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for
my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. (Mk 8:35)

14. d. Purity
◦ “It’s not what goes into a person from the outside that can defile;
rather it’s what comes out of the person that defiles.” (Mark 7:15)

15. While Jesus teachings can be identified as an alternative wisdom teaching,
they are in no way detached from Jewish ethical traditions.
Jewish ethic is basically an interpretation of God’s will, which is found in the
Torah…

16. Jesus as Social Prophet
Jesus challenged the system of purity, and
advocated the politics of compassion.

17. Purity System
Purity systems generate a class of untouchables and outcasts.
Purity was the core value structuring the society:
• Purity was not an individual virtue
• Purity was political
• It was the ideology of the temple elites
• The Jerusalem temple was geographically and symbolically the
center of the purity system

18. In general the
pure/impure or
clean/unclean
social structure got
attached to other
central contrasts:
Pure Impure
clean unclean
righteous outcasts, sinners
(sin is a matter of being unclean, not behavior)
male
(generally but not automatically pure)
female
(automatically impure)
rich
(generally but not automatically pure)
poor
(conventional wisdom said the poor hadn't
lived right)
Jew
(generally but not automatically pure)
gentile
(impure by definition)
well/healthy/whole ill/maimed/diseased
(social meaning of being impure)
agricultural produce on
which taxes were paid
agricultural produce on which
taxes were not paid (declared unclean,
boycotted by the righteous)

19. ◦ “It’s not what goes into a person from the outside that can defile;
rather it’s what comes out of the person that defiles.” (Mark 7:15)
To say purity is what’s on the inside is a profoundly politically
subversive statement.
“Blessed are the pure in heart...” (Mat. 5:8, NRSV)
To say purity is a matter of the heart is to deny that purity is a matter
of observing the purity system.

20. Healings
◦ “As the sun was setting, all those who had people sick with various diseases brought
them to him. He would lay his hands on each one of them and cure them.” (Luke 4:40,
SV)
Jesus violated the purity system in his healings by touching those the purity system
considered unclean.
“Friend, your sins are forgiven you.” (from Luke 5:17-25, NRSV)
➢ He subverted the boundaries, healed and forgave sins outside the purity system.
➢ Jesus’ healings illustrate the compassion of God for outcasts and
the priority of people over laws.

21. Relationships with women
Jesus subverts some of the most sacred taboos of his time by:
• Speaking with women
• Affirming Mary’s role as a disciple when questioned by Martha
• Defending the woman who entered an all-male banquet and washed
Jesus’ feet
• Welcoming women as members of his itinerant group

22. Common table fellowship
▪Jesus is accused of eating with “tax collectors and sinners.”
▪In purity society, eating was a political act, who you ate with mattered.
▪Jesus’ open table fellowship was subversive and illustrated an alternative
wisdom.
▪Jesus challenged social/political understandings of his society system and
advocated an alternative social vision.

23. Jesus taught a politics of compassion:
◦ “Be compassionate in the way your Father is compassionate.” (Luke 6:36, SV)
Jesus’ alternative vision echoes and subverts the purity system:
• Echoes the ideological justification of the purity system
• “Be holy as God is holy” - holiness was understood to mean purity
• “Be pure as God is pure” - dominant cultural paradigm of the time
• “Be compassionate as God is compassionate” - echoes that paradigm with a radical
substitution of terms

24. The Good Samaritan parable Luke 10:25-37 illustrates the politics of
compassion:
➢The priest and the Levite passed by the wounded man because of purity boundaries:
death was unclean.
➢The practice of purity interfered with the practice of compassion
➢The Samaritan, considered impure by the purity system, was the one who acted with
compassion
A politics of purity creates radical sharp social boundaries.
A politics of compassion dissolves sharp boundaries, is egalitarian and inclusive.

25. The Great Sermon
Kinship to God

26. The Beatitudes (Matt. 5: 3 – 12) – promises of blessing
Luke’s Beatitudes (Luke 6:20-26)
◦ 4 Promises of Blessing is counter-balanced by 4 warnings

27. The Beatitudes, a profile of Jesus
▪He was poor in spirit,
▪a mourner,
▪meek and lowly in heart;
▪he hunger for the triumph of righteousness,
▪was merciful,
▪pure in heart,
▪a maker of peace, and
▪he suffered for the cause of justice

28. The Moral Antithesis (Matthew 5:2-48)
The Old Order The New Order
No murder
No adultery
Divorce on Condition
No false swearing
Eye for eye
Love your friends
No anger
No Lustful thought
No divorce
No swearing at all
No retaliation at all
Love your enemies

29. 3 Main Characteristics of the teaching-content in the Great Sermon
➢Insight into essential morality
▪ Jesus ignores the ceremonial details of the Law and concentrates on the moral elements
▪ Lays down few basic principles
▪ Stresses obedience to God out of pure heart
➢Inwardness
▪ Jesus always traces sins to their source in the heart… that’s why he condemns hate, lust, revengeful spirit
along with murder, adultery and violence
➢Universality
▪ Jesus addresses the great sermon to everyone
▪ It is broad an all inclusive

30. The Kingdom of God

31. The kingdom of God is the message that Jesus
proclaimed
◦ “Repent, the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
In Christ’s work and passion the kingdom was unfolding. In
Jesus, God came to manifest the qualities of the kingdom and as
sign of its concrete reality on earth.

32. The Kingdom of God
➢refers to the Kingship / reign of God over God’s
creations;
➢It is the belief that God the Creator is involved in the life
of human person, at all times, as sovereign ruler.

33. ➢Kingdom of God/kingdom of heaven
◦does not emphasize the territory of the kingdom but heavily
on the nature of the kingship of the king
◦there are also spatial and politicalnuances of the terminology

34. In Luke’s Gospel
➢special interest in matters of economic justice (wealth
and poverty) seems addressed
➢to relatively wealthy believers in urban centers (like
Corinth), reminding them of Jesus’ commitment to the
plight of the poor and other marginalized groups

35. Luke 4:18-19
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent
me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight
to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.”

36. Luke 8: 1-3
Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages,
proclaiming and bringing good news of the kingdom of God. The
twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cure of
evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom
seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward
Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of
their resources.

37. 1. God's reign as Good News to the Poor –
◦ God's favoritism toward the poor or God’s preferential option for
the poor (4:16–30; 6:20–23; 7:18–23; 14:12–14, 15–24)
◦social reversals (1:52–53; 13:30; 14:11; 16:19–26;
18:14; also 6:20–26)
◦He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and
lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good
things, and sent the rich away empty.

38. 2. Challenges to the rich
◦ - criticism of the rich who do not share (12:13–21; 16:19–26;
10:29–37)
◦ - oracles regarding the dangers of wealth (6:24–26; 8:14;
12:32–34; 16:9–13; 18:24–30 (The Rich Ruler)
◦ - criticism of the Pharisees and scribes: especially for their lack
of commitment to economic justice (11:37–12:1; 14:1–14;
16:1–15; 20:46–47

39. 3. Various strategies for discipleship
◦ - the ideal of total renunciation of personal possessions (for the benefit of the
poor or the community as a whole): 5:11, 28; 12:22–31; 12:32–34; 14:25–
33; 18:18–23, 28; 21:1–4;
◦ poverty of Jesus and the disciples: 9:3, 58; 10:4; 18:28 , command of not
equipping oneself with material possessions (9:3; 10,4);
◦ full trust in God's provision; these "have-nots" are the addressees of the
Beatitudes in 6:20–23
◦ - the ending of patron-client (benefactor/patronage) relationship: 22:24–30
◦ - right use of possessions (by those with economic means): 3:11–14

40. Is God’s reign only for the poor?

41. Two categories of poor that Jesus blessed
Luke’s version – the economically “poor”.
◦ those who have been dispossessed or forced to be poor under
mammon’s rule of terror.
➢ Conscious of their utter dependence on God, they hunger for
righteousness and peace. Jesus had compassion for them as they were
“like sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34).
In a way, therefore, the reign of God belongs to the dispossessed poor
because it is God’s reign that seeks them. And when God’s reign seeks them,
they are empowered to denounce their enforced and enslaving poverty.

42. Matthew’s version, -- the poor are the “poor in spirit”.
◦ They may not have been materially poor, but they were conscious of their
spiritual poverty, which could only be satisfied with God’s help. Thus,
dependent on God and hungry for righteousness and peace, they are those
who are voluntarily detached from their riches.
Jesus seemed to have taught that the renunciation of mammon is a
basic qualification to enter and serve in God’s reign (Matthew 19,
also Luke 19). Therefore, for the rich who are poor in spirit, finding
God’s reign involves renouncing their riches and loyalty to mammon.

43. So there is no discrimination against the rich with
God’s preferential option for the poor. The reign of God
is open to both the rich and the poor but it comes to
them differently (i.e. with different demands) because
of their different social locations.

44. "What are we supposed to do?" (3:10ff)
- share your extra coat with anyone who has none (3:11; cf.
6:30,34,38; 19:8)
- for the tax collectors: collect only what is prescribed (3:13)
- soldiers: do not extort money? (3:14)

45. Christian Discipleship
Mark 3:14
He appointed twelve that they might be with him and
that he might send them out to preach…

46. In the gospels the disciples are those who learned from
Jesus. The phrase in Mark 3:14, “that they be with him”
shows that being a disciple means having a lifelong
relationship with Jesus. The disciple is not there merely to
learn from the teacher but to share his whole life with him
without reservation even at the face of death.

47. Mark 8:22-10:52 offers some important insights about
what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

48. Mark 8:34
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and
said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me”.

49. “To deny oneself” does not imply self-hatred. It
rather conveys the idea of rejecting one’s selfish
longings or interests.

50. Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant
of all (Mk 9:35).

51. Jesus makes it clear that greatness is rooted in
servanthood. The illustration of a child is instructive. That
greatness is found in taking the side of the insignificant
and powerless. Jesus further warns the disciples to
empower them, not to exacerbate their powerlessness.

52. John’s Gospel
Jesus’ “I Am” statements

53. Jesus Roles in John 1:1-18
➢This passage provides a powerful opening to this gospel.
It lays out the main themes of John’s gospel – life, light,
truth, the world, testimony and the pre-existence of Jesus
Christ. He is the Incarnate Word, who reveals God the
Father to us.

54. Then comes the statement: “the Word became flesh”. The
Word took on our human nature in all its fullness. He did
not have, as some people believed, just the external
appearance of a human but was “like us in all things”. And
he lived right among us.

55. He was the One who would reflect God’s glory in the world.
➢ Stands in opposition to the claims of Roman emperors who
were said and believed to be radiators of god’s glory by virtue
of their political prestige within the imperial-colonial
framework of Rome.

56. 1.“I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35, 41, 48, 51)- nourishment is total surrender and trust in the
person of Jesus.
2. “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12) Jesus as the One who embodies the light that symbolizes
hope and guidance and wisdom
3.“I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7,9)
4.“I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25)
5.“I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14)
6.“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6) - exclusiveness as against idolatry
7.“I am the true vine.” (John 15:1, 5)

57. “These are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is
the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you have
life in his name” (John 20:31).