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So far we've been talking about Christ in heaven, that eschatological picture of the early church. But, of course, the early church knew that Jesus walked on earth, and they did want to tell that story. Originally, this was told orally, of course. This was a Christian community and, for probably several decades afterward, most of these stories circulated orally. Some of them were written down. Eventually, probably in the 70s and 80s A.D., as the people who knew Jesus originally start to die out, we get these things written down in connected narratives. And these get into the New Testament. They are called the Four Gospels. There are four books of the New Testament called Gospels which tell the story of the life of Jesus, also his death, and then very briefly, his resurrection.
The Son of Man has to suffer many things at the hands of the scribes and the Pharisees and the chief priest, and he is going to get killed. He is going to rise again on the third day. That's the prediction.
Peter doesn't like it. He really doesn't like that. I think he wasn't quite listening when he got to the resurrection part. He really was hearing this part about suffering and dying, and that didn't fit his picture of who the Messiah was. After all, the Messiah is the king, the successor to David. He's going to restore the kingdom to Israel. Implicitly, the idea is he's going to kick those Romans out of there. The Jews are no longer going to be under Roman subjection. We're going to have a king who's a Jewish king, and we're going to be free from oppression. That's the kind of Messiah we want, someone who will free us from oppression.
What Peter can't really wrap his mind around is that this is a Messiah who's going to suffer. He's not ready for that, and he tries to tell Jesus, don't do this. He rebukes Jesus says the Gospels. He basically tries to persuade Jesus not to be that kind of Messiah, a Messiah who suffers. That's not the kind of Messiah that anybody wants. In a sense, it's not even what Jesus wanted. At one point in the Gospels, he asks for God to change his mind about this. If it be your will, take this cup away from me, he says, he prays. But no, it's God's will that Jesus go on. Nobody wants a suffering Messiah. Even the suffering Messiah would prefer not to be a suffering Messiah. It's very tempting to be the Messiah who kicks out the Romans and rules. Jesus is aware of this temptation, and so when he replies to Peter, what he says is shocking. "Get behind me, Satan," he says to his leading disciple, his friend Peter. "Get behind me, Satan." He identifies Peter as someone who speaks for the tempter.
Jesus goes down to Judea, which is where Jerusalem is. As you know, Jesus comes from Galilee from the north. He spends a lot of time in the north, but then he comes down to Judea, and he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. You might not think that someone riding in on a donkey looks like a king, but in fact, that's a very royal thing to do in the Jewish setting. It goes back to a passage in the book of Zachariah, which is being alluded to by the Gospel writers. When King David, or David's descendent, the son of David, wins a battle and frees his people from their enemies and comes back to Jerusalem, he rides back on a donkey, because horses, in those days, didn't have stirrups. So horses were not really good to ride on. If you were riding for normal peaceful purposes you rode on a donkey. Horses were for pulling chariots. So if you're in the middle of a battle and you're a king, you're going to ride in your chariot pulled by a warhorse. But when you've won the battle, when you've defeated the enemy, when you've freed your people from oppression, you ride back to Jerusalem on a donkey, an animal that signals peace, and, therefore, triumph.
Pilate asks Jesus, are you the King of the Jews. Jesus says you are saying it. Well, that's what gets him crucified. He doesn't renounce being King of the Jews. And when he's crucified, Pilate puts a superscription on the cross, and guess what it says? King of the Jews. That's what he's being crucified for. In the Gospel of John, people come along and say, but Pilate, you should say he is being crucified because he said he was king of the Jews. And Pilate says, this is not in the synoptics, but the Gospel of John, but I think it's the point in the synoptics as well, "I've written what I've written." It's as if, you know, in your face guys. Here's your king. I'm the Roman governor. Here's your Jewish king, the King of Jews. Here he is on a Roman cross. So it is. He's the King of the Jews, the only king you got. Pilate meant it as an abrasive and nasty sort of thing. But, of course, all the Gospel writers think, ironically, that Pilate got it right.
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History of the New Testament I The Great Coursesby TheGreatCourses1,918 views
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