Jesus' role as liberator Flashcards
Evidence for Jesus as liberator
Healing the blind Man on the Sabbath - liberation through healing, challenging religious law.
Turning the tables in the temple.
Bleeding woman touches Jesus - setting aside religious purity laws, challenging religious authority.
‘White washed tombstones’, ‘blind guides’ - calling the Pharisee priests hypocrites.
‘I did not come to bring peace but the sword’ - Mark 10:34
The adulterous woman.
Parable of the sheep and the goats.
Jesus as a freedom fighter
Fits with the more traditional Hebrew idea of Messiah (warrior king, bringer of God’s justice) - story of Exodus gave them hope that God would send a deliverer like Moses that had been prophesised in the Old Testament
Rides the donkey - humility. Opposes the image of Jesus meek and mild. The event may have been set up to send a message that he was the long-awaited Messiah/king of the Jews.
S. G. F Brandon argued that the historical Jesus was a politically driven freedom fighter. The Gospels later toned him down to present him as a pacifist. The early church may have down played his revolutionary tendencies. Perception of Jesus may have changed over time.
Romans may have executed him as a possible revolutionary as he was arrested for a civic crime not a religious one and was executed alongside bandits.
Jesus the Zealot
The Zealots were calling for a violent revolution and were looking for a warrior Messiah.
Associated with Zealots and some of his disciples were Zealots. Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot (another name for Zealot).
Jesus’ followers had weapons to defend themselves - the garden of Gethsemane.
1970s-1990s poor in Latin America - liberation theologians found inspiration in Zealot-type presentation of Jesus.
Messianic secret - Jesus resists being called the Messiah.
Jesus as the revolutionary for the majority (oppressed and downtrodden)
He challenged religious authority by rejecting religious rituals, such as the religious purity laws.
Preferential option for the poor.
Liberation of the marginalised - good Samaritan, bleeding woman - challenging prejudices.
Liberation is not necessarily about political revolution but in shifting consciousness.
He has inspired many social reformers throughout history including those who advocated black liberation. Shows how the message aims to bring change to the established order.
Authorities did not consider Jesus to be a revolutionary leader or they would have arrested the disciples as well.
Reza Aslan
Zealot: The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.
Argues that Jesus was involved in a much more confrontational resistance than is presented in the New Testament.
Zealot/military Jesus
‘I did not come to bring peace but the sword’ - Mark 10:34
The adulterous woman/ the bleeding woman
Jesus as a challenge to and liberator from religious authority.
“He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
“Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one , Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you either, Go. From now on sin no more”
Jesus knows nobody is without sin.
Oppression of woman - challenges gender roles. Jesus liberates woman.
Liberates her from religious authority and from her sin.
Grace and forgiveness.
Challenges harsh punishment of religious law and the notion of religious purity.
Controversial ideas - looking at the person not the deeds.
Jesus was progressive - revolutionary - shocking.
Parable of the Sheep and the Goats
Jesus as liberation for the marginalised.
He associated with people excluded from society. Freedom for the poor, outcasts and those who need it most.
Preferential option for the poor.
No mention of religious law. Helping others is more important than the law. People were keeping the outward impression of the law but not the inward.
Parable of the Good Samaritan
The religious law meant that people didn’t want to become ritually unclean.
The Samaritans were seen as unclean, outsider, shocking, bad, heretic.
In trying to keep the religious law they ignored those in need. Trying to keep the outward expression of the law rather than the spirit of the law.
Jesus as liberator from sin (theological) - Priest and Levite ended up sinning by trying to keep religious rituals.
Jesus as liberator from what holds people back (existential) - outward expression of faith.
Jesus as liberator from unjust structures (socio-economic) - religious law binding people and stopping people from acting in a morally pure way.
