Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Jesus, an Old Assumption, and 15 Minutes of Fame

Every so often, someone gets their '15 minutes of fame' by saying that Jesus was a wannabe king: the leader of a failed coup. At least once there was a book to go with that assertion.

It's not exactly a new idea. About two millennia back, some folks thought Jesus was a political leader who would lead Israel as a king. Jesus had other plans:
"When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, 'This is truly the Prophet, 9 the one who is to come into the world.'

"Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain alone. "
(John 6:14-15)
A couple thousand years later, the Church still needs to point out that Jesus isn't just a famous man:
"Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who shared their hope recognized in Jesus the fundamental attributes of the messianic 'Son of David,' promised by God to Israel.38 Jesus accepted his rightful title of Messiah, though with some reserve because it was understood by some of his contemporaries in too human a sense, as essentially political.39"
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 439)
After Jesus was executed and buried, some of the 11 surviving disciples had a hard time accepting the fact that Jesus had stopped being dead. (John 20:25-28) After a series of meetings, they started believing that Jesus was "really, physically, eat-a-baked-fish, put-your-hand-in-my-side, alive.2" (March 11, 2012)

At a final briefing, my Lord gave the orders that we've been following ever since, and that's another topic. (Matthew 28:16-20)

Up to the point where Jesus was publicly executed, assuming that he was some sort of rabble-rousing political leader was a bit plausible. After Jesus stopped being dead: not so much.

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