Presently, we are studying the Jesus of N.T. Wright’s book, Simply Jesus, and we’re concluding the sixth chapter of his work. Dr. Wright concludes, and I agree, that Jesus deliberately chose the Passover season to emphasize that God had returned to his people, and he is King over all the nations of the world. Keeping in mind that Israel had been celebrating the Passover season for over a thousand years by the time of the first century AD, they would have recognized certain things about the Exodus in Moses’ day that would need to be fulfilled in Jesus’ day, if Jesus’ Gospel would be believed vis-à-vis about the Kingdom of God being present with God, having returned, was now King over his people once more.
With the celebration of the Passover, the Jews, according to Dr, Wright, would have recognized seven things about the first Exodus, which they would have looked for in a second one, if that should ever occur again. Moreover, looking at Jesus’ words in this context would help the modern reader cast off his Western twenty-first century spectacles and replace them with Jewish first century AD ones. In doing so, the original Exodus gave the Jews a worldview containing:
- a wicked tyrant
- a chosen leader
- the victory of God
- a rescue through sacrifice
- a new vocation and way of life
- the Presence of God
- the promised/inherited land
So, in the context of Jesus deliberately choosing the Passover season, as a kind of outline for his Gospel that God had returned to Israel, and he, Jesus, is not only their King, but he was King over all the nations of the world, how should we recognize these seven things in the Gospel of the Kingdom of God?
It is simple to realize that the tyrant in Moses’ day was Pharaoh. Certainly, the Jews viewed Caesar as the tyrant in Jesus’ day, but was he the real wicked tyrant enslaving God’s people? Who judged Jesus? Who threatened Pilate into crucifying Jesus? Who was the authority behind every persecution of God’s people prior to AD 70, including the Nero persecution? It was Annas, the high priest, the power behind Caiaphas, his son-in-law, and each of his five sons who held that office, and add to this one grandson, the son of Theophilus. Either he or one of his subordinate relatives reigned in the office of high priest for about half the time, between the banishment of Archelaus and the rule of Roman prefects to the Jewish-Roman War in 66 AD.
No doubt, all would agree that Moses was the chosen leader during the original Exodus, and Jesus was the Leader in his day. God gained the victory over Pharaoh in the destruction of his armies in the Red Sea, thus, emphasizing the fact that God reigns. In Jesus day the victory was gained in his resurrection in the context of both Rome and the Jewish authorities coming against the Lord’s anointed (Psalm 2; cp. Acts 4:27). Thus, God reigns in that he has the power to overrule the decisions of the authorities of this world, even when their judgment is death.
Salvation in Moses’ day was gained through the sacrifice of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:29-32), but in Jesus’ day it was his own crucifixion that saves (John 12:31-33; 1Timothy 2:6). In the time of Moses, God commanded his people to live differently from the gentiles. He gave them his Law, by which they were to live (Exodus 20:1-17), but the people didn’t want God to speak to them, but to speak through another, and they’d hear him (Exodus 20:18-21). Therefore, the Lord answered their request by sending Jesus (Deuteronomy 18:15-19), and, although they were eager to listen, when he spoke in parables (Luke 5:1; 19:48), when he spoke clearly, they rejected him (John 6:60, 66; 12:34; Luke 19:42).
In the original Exodus, it was apparent that God’s Presence went with his people. He appeared to them in a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22). During the first century AD, Jesus led his disciples throughout his public ministry, and afterward, they were led by his Spirit, which fell upon them suddenly in a mighty wind and in tongues of fire (Acts 2:1-4; Romans 8:14). Finally, the original Exodus culminated in Israel’s entry into the Promised Land. However, in the first century AD, for those who are Christ’s, inheritance isn’t a physical matter. Our “land” is Christ, himself. Our inheritance is **in** him (Ephesians 1:10-11). In him we have our redemption and forgiveness of sins, according to the wealth of his grace toward us, and he has become our wisdom and insight into the performance of his will (Ephesians 1:7-9; 1Corinthians 1:19-24).
Whatever we may think of ancient Israel during the first Exodus up to and including Jesus’ day, and whatever we may think of believers in Jesus during and after the first century AD, including what we might ultimately conclude about their behavior, and how that should be seen in the fulfillment of the promise of God, God’s people, whether Jew or Christian, certainly did not become perfect in their walk with God overnight.
Smoodock's Blog 