Simply Jesus - Chapter 7b "The Campaign Starts Here"

The second part of chapter seven has a lengthy portion in which N.T. Wright more fully develops these themes of healing and forgiveness. He takes time to look at Jesus' first big announcement in a synagogue  when He quoted Isaiah 61 about the anointing of God upon Him (Luke 4). His hearers would have heard this declaration as a fulfillment of the Jubilee and a releasing from all debt and slavery - they would have understood this to be not only personal forgiveness but a corporate forgiveness.

Immediately after Jesus' announcement that He was the fulfillment of this prophecy, He added His own commentary to say that it was the "outsiders" who would benefit from this. This, of course, enraged those in the synagogue who viewed the gentiles as less important in God's eyes than  the chosen people. Once again, Jesus was letting people know that God was indeed taking charge, but that it was going to look unlike anything they had pictured.

Wright also touches on the forgiveness issue by telling the story of the prostitute who washed his feet with her tears and anointed His feet with perfume in the house of Simon the Pharisee; and he closes the chapter with a section about Jesus' cousin John and his death at the hands of Herod. In response to John's question from prison about His identity (hinting that John may have wondered why Jesus wasn't delivering him since He was the expected Messiah), Jesus' explanation about who He was picked up a strand in the ancient Jewish expectation that went along with their dreams of the final battle and the rebuilding of the Temple and the return of their God to Zion. "When he tells John's messengers that the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, and so forth, he is quoting directly from Isaiah's vision of a 'return from exile' that would also be nothing short of a new creation." (Isa.35:5,6)


"Jesus was well aware that what he was doing didn't fit with what people were expecting. But he believed that he was indeed launching God's kingdom campaign...The campaign isn't about someone running for office as happens in our modern democracies. Jesus isn't going around trying to drum up support like today's politicians. He is much more like a rebel leader within a modern tyranny, setting up an alternative government, establishing his rule, making things happen in a new way. He chooses twelve of his closest followers and seems to set them apart as special associates. For anyone with eyes to see, this says clearly that he is reconstituting God's people, Israel, around himself. Israel hadn't had twelve tribes since the eighth century BC...but the prophets had spoken of the day when all the tribes would be gathered again. Jesus' choice of the twelve seems to indicate, symbolically, that this is how he wanted his work to be seen. This is a campaign. It's a rebel movement, a risky movement, a would-be royal movement under the nose of the present would-be 'king of the Jews,' Herod Antipas." 

Chapter 8 explores the stories that Jesus was telling and what they were about and how they helped the campaign move forward. Grace and peace to you!