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Hsexperience of God was central and decisive in Jesus\' life. The itinerant prophet of God\'s reign, the healer of the sick and defender of the poor, the poet of mercy and teacher of love, the creator of a new movement in service to the reign of God,is not a dilettante attracted by different interes...

Hsexperience of God was central and decisive in Jesus\' life. The itinerant prophet of God\'s reign, the healer of the sick and defender of the poor, the poet of mercy and teacher of love, the creator of a new movement in service to the reign of God,is not a dilettante attracted by different interests, but a person profoundly integrated by one core experience: God, the Father of all. It is God who inspires his message, integrates his intense activity, and polarizes his energies. God is at the center of this life. Jesus\' message and activity can only be explained in terms of this radical, lived experience of God. To forget that is to lose the authenticity and deepest meaning of Jesus\' life. Without it the figure of Jesus is distorted, his message devalued, his actions severed from the meaning he gave them¹. But what is Jesus\' experience of God? Who is God for him? How does he re- late to God\'s mystery? How does he listen and trust in God\'s goodness? How does he live it? There are no easy answers to these questions. Jesus is very discreet about his inner life. But he speaks and acts in such a way that we can at least partly dis- cern his experience from his words and actions². One thing is evident right away. Jesus does not propose a doctrine of God. He never explains his idea of God. For Jesus, God is not a theory. God is an experience that transforms him, and shows him a fuller, more loving, happier life for every- one. He never tries to replace the traditional doctrine of God with a new one. His God is the God of Israel: the one Lord, creator of the heavens and the earth, savior of his beloved people, the nearby God of the Covenant in whom the Israelites be- lieve. He has no debates with any Jewish group about God\'s goodness, his close- ness to the people, or his liberating action. They all believe in the same God. The difference is that the religious leaders identify God with their religious system, and not with the happiness and the life of the people. For them the first and most important thing is to worship God by observing the law, respecting the sabbath, and honoring the temple worship. In contrast, Jesus identifies God Modern scholarship has unfortunately failed to explore Jesus\' religious experience in depth. Seek- ing to avoid tangential discussions of his psychology, or confessional debates over his nature as Son of God, many scholars have neglected one indisputable historical fact: Jesus\' activity was motivated by his experience of God, and he invited this hearers and followers to believe and ac cept God with the same trust he had. Jesus\' relationship with God caused a deep impression in his followers. Naturally, our historical approximation of Jesus cannot possibly prejudge what Church doctrine affirms and christology studies with regard to Jesus\' filial and messianic consciousness, nor about the unique relationship of the incarnate Son of God with the Father in his unrepeatable singularity, nor about the legitima elegitimacy or illegitimacy meaning of that f faith. Such questions simply of attributing faith to lesus Christ, and the he outside the efield of historical research. Chapter 11 Approximation with life. For him the first and most important thing is for God\'s sons and daugh ters to benefit from a life of justice and dignity. The most religious sectorsfeed called by God to nurture the religion of the temple and the observance of the law. In contrast, Jesus feels sent to promote the justice and mercy of God. What surprises them is not Jesus\' new doctrines about God, but his different way of engaging in life. He does not criticize the idea of God that is taught in Is rael, but he rebels against the dehumanizing effects of the way religion is organ ized. What they find most scandalous is that Jesus calmly invokes God in con- demning or transgressing the religion that officially represents God, whenever that religion becomes an oppressive force rather than a principle of life. His ex- perience of God compels him to liberate the people from the fears and enslave ments that keep them from feeling and experiencing God as Jesus does, as a friend of life and of happiness for his sons and daughters. 1 292 Rooted in the faith of his people Jesus was born into a nation of believers. Like all boys and girls in Nazareth, he learned his beliefs from his family and in sabbath meetings at the synagogue. Later, in Jerusalem, he would come to know the religious joy of this people, who throughout their history had felt accompanied by God as the friend they wor- shiped and praised at the great festivals. Can we get a sense of what Jesus was learning from the religious traditions that nourished the spirituality of Israel? What was most important to him in that learning process?. God is Israel\'s friend. The Jewish historical traditions simply narrate, recall, and celebrate God\'s relationship with his people. God has been their ally from the beginning. When the Israelites were Pharaoh\'s slaves, God heard their cries had compassion on the small nation oppressed by the powerful Egyptian Em- pire, liberated them from slavery and led them to the land he had chosen so that they might live in freedom. That is the central theme that Jesus learned from his people\'s faith. It is not a naïve faith, God acts in the history of Israel, but no one We don\'t know with any certainty which biblical texts Jesus read or heard, which religious derstand the available to him, or which psaminal texts Jesus read or heard, whichy by more didahye biblical background from which he writes most often Buting, so as to underta more dearly his Jewish heritage and the personal interpreting and acuenced hung \[8:42 pm, 14/09/2024\] sr. Thumpa St Peters: Gol confuses him with a human leader or king. God is transcendent. orexperience God directly, but he pens in history has its dis transcendent. No one can see acts at the deepest level of events. What hap s own causes and protagonists. Everyone knows that, but Godis acting inople. The isnilife, moved by his desire for the freedom that, bur piness of his people. The Israelites describe that action «suggestively and hap pety of symbols. God\'s action is like the wind»; no one can see it, but they feel its effects. It is also like the action of a sword»; no one sees it leave the persons mouth, but we see its power when the word is carried outs From childhood Jesus carried with him the image of this saving God who cans about his people\'s happiness, a God close by, moved by tenderness toward those who suffer. His own name was a reminder: Yeshua, «Yahweh saves». This conviction fills his heart with joy: God wants the best for his sons and daughters. But Jesus is not so interested in what God has done in the past. He doesn\'t talk about the liberation from Egypt, or about the exodus of his people to the prom- ised land; he barely mentions Israel\'s standing as the chosen people, or its covenant with Yahweh. Jesus feels God acting now, in the present. God\'s creative action is not something from the past: as he walks the Galilean paths he can sense God encouraging life, feeding the birds of the sky and dressing the field lilies in bright colors. And God\'s saving action is not something that only the ancestors Stapp could contemplate: Jesus senses the presence of his Spirit when he heals the sick and liberates those who are possessed by «evil spirits». Moses and the great lead- ers of the people, in other times, were not the only ones to hear God\'s Word; Jesus rejoices that the most simple, ignorant people are now hearing the revelation of the Father. d ther at Jeu ty of rrateneal ther c primin ed fron but no Jesus was also coming to know the message of the prophets of Israel. Their word was listened to attentively in the synagogues, and then translated and commented on in Aramaic so that everyone could understand. The prophets were the sentinels who had always warned the people of their sin. The «people of God was called to mirror God\'s justice and compassionate care for the op- This is why Jews were strictly forbidden to use any images to represent God physically. In Israel\'s religious tradition God is described as «Spirit» or ruaj, which literally means air, breath, or wind In the book of Genesis God creates the world with his word: «Then God said, \"Let there be light\": and there was light» (1:3). Jesus mentions the Covenant only in Mark 14:24, and his message does not clearly discuss God\'s election of Israel. Jesus\' emphasis on God\'s action in the present, and his lack of interest in the past, clearly distin guh him from his contemporaries (Schlosser). pressed reflect what God had done for them when you were a slave in Egypt The prophets were very clear on this: the people of God were destroying the Covenant midst and comenitting a talways remain indifferent. The prophets proclaimed people. God will nota estimenton Israel anditsleaders in each cased the flesh from the good the evil, who tear the skin off my people, and the flesh from their bones\... will hide his face from them at that time, because they have acted wickedly This judgment is not the reaction of an angry or vengeful God, but an expres sion of his love for the victims. His anger against the wicked is the other side of his compassion for the oppressed; the dramatic threats of the prophets only fe veal more forcefully God\'s commitment to see his will carried out, in a world where God\'s justice reigns. That is all God asks of human beings: «to do justice, and to love kindness, and walk humbly with your God\". Jener An Historical Approximation 294 That is how Jesus always understands it. God for him is the great defender of victims, the one who impels him to live with the poor and welcome the excluded He invokes that God to fight against injustice, condemn the landowners, and even threaten the temple religion: a cult so devoid of justice and compassion de serves to be destroyed. God is love for the suffering, and for that very reason, he is judgment against everything that dehumanizes and makes them suffer. But Jesus is motivated more by God\'s saving love than by his judgment. He is fascinated by God\'s unfathomable forgiveness, totally undeserved by human beings. He could hear this message from the prophets who comforted the people after their exile to Babylon in the year 587 B.C. The Israelites had been humili- ated by their enemies, and needed to remember God\'s goodness. The prophet Jeremiah encouraged them to trust in his forgiveness. Here is the message he heard from God\'s heart: «I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sit no mores 12. Surely Jesus also heard that!. An anonymous prophet, a disciple of Isaiah, eloquently expressed God\'s unconditional love beyond all condemna tion and punishment: «In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from Deut 24:17-22 Mic 3:2,4. This prophet came from a peasant family as Jesus did, and railed against the social abuses and injustices that were being committed against the poor in Samaria and Jerusalem (738-693 B.C.) Mic 6:8. Jer 3:34. This prophet, born around 650 B.C. in the village of Anatoth near Jerusalem, proclaimed God\'s imminent punishment to his people, but after the disaster he encouraged them to \[8:48 pm, 14/09/2024\] sr. Thumpa St Peters: you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you\... my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and I my covenant of peace shall not be removed, sys the Lord, who has compassion on you13, We will never know exactly what impact words like these had in Jesus\' heart; but his separation from the Baptist\'s threatening message, his lack of reference to God\'s anger, and his unconditional captance of sinners suggest that they helped to nourish his experience of God as a forgiving Father. Jesus was also nourished by Israel\'s wisdom tradition. These wise mens were not prophets, but they offered the people their reflection on life, humanity, sen shle behavior and happiness. Their contribution was seen as enriching the Torah God is always on the horizon of this literature as the creator of human beings and the world; his Wisdom presides over all creation and is the source of wise behavior for human beings. This wisdom tradition was probably a greater influence on Jesus than is usually assumed¹³, Jesus sees the world as coming from God\'s Wisdom. It is God who cares for life, who feeds the birds of the sky and the lilies of the field. God is not only the Savior of Israel. He is present in all creation, blessing the children and making the crops grow. Jesus enjoys reflect- ing on the goodness of that God; everyone should emulate his activity and be good as he is good. We don\'t know if Jesus was familiar with the Book of Wis- dom. He would have rejoiced to discover its beautiful vision of God as a friend of life 16. Jesus probably nourished his experience of God, especially in praying the psalms. He knew some of them by heart, since the Jews repeated them every day on waking and going to bed, or blessing their meals; they recited others at sab- bath prayers, or sang them on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and in celebrations at the temple. We don\'t know which were his favorite psalms, but we can imagine how deeply and intensely he prayed some of them. The poet of God\'s mercy must have found this psalm of thanksgiving especially meaningful: Isa 54:8-10. This prophet is the author of what we now call the Book of Consolation» (Isa 40-55), written in the last years of exile, shortly before Cyrus conquered Babylon in the year 539. This wisdom literature developed especially after the return from exile, between 500 and 50 B.C. Some books, like the Proverbs, offer an optimistic view of life. Others, like Qohelet (Ecclesiastes), are marked dby pessimism. The book of Job raises the problem of a just. tand good God in view of the suffering of the innocent. Despite the important work of Ben Witherington 11, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and others, scholars have not given much attention to this aspect. Wis 1:26. This book was probably compiled in Alexandria between 100 and 50 B.C. Chapter 1 295 \[8:50 pm, 14/09/2024\] sr. Thumpa St Peters: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and has compassion over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, The prophet who unconditionally accepted sinners must have been encour aged by this psalm: Jesus An Historical Approximation The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He The hot always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with usac. cording to our sins\... As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him 18, 20 The defender of the poor and humiliated must have sung these words with 296 special joy: O Lord, who is like you? You deliver the weak from those too strong for them, the weak and needy from those who despoil them 19 He must have identified passionately with this prayer for the poor: Do not forget the life of your poor forever. Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence. Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame, let the poor and needy praise your name 20. And this psalm, which seems to anticipate Jesus\' beatitudes, must have echoed in his soul: Happy are those whose hope is in the Lord their God\... who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry21, It was in this deeply religious environment that Jesus nourished his experi- ence of God. 17 PS145:8-10. P5103:8-10,13 Ps35:10. 20 P\$74:19-21. 1 P5146:5-7. \[8:51 pm, 14/09/2024\] sr. Thumpa St Peters: A decisive experience fut lesus does more than recall and relive the spiritual journey of Israel. He seeks God in his own existence, and like the prophets of other times, he opens his heart ohto the desert and liste people and himself in that particule opens his He goes into the desert and listens to the Baptist; he seeks solitude in secmend places, he spends long hours in silence. The God who speaks without human words becomes the center of his life, and the source of his whole being. The Christian sources all agree that Jesus\' prophetic activity began with an intense and powerful experience of God. At the time of his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus goes through some kind of experience that decisively transforms his life. He does not stay long with the Baptist. Neither does he return to work as a craftsman in the village of Nazareth. Moved by an overpowering inner impulse, he begins to travel the Galilean paths, proclaiming to everyone the irruption of the reign of God. 297 We read in the earliest gospel: «And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, \"You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased\" 22. This narrative was reworked in the Christian community, but there is no reason to doubt the historicity of Jesus\' experience. The scene in- dudes clearly mythic elements: the heavens are «torn apart», the Spirit of God descends gently on Jesus «like a dove», and immediately «a voice came from heaven». Writers use these elements to suggest a «theophany» or communica- tion with God, beyond everyday experience. Thus the tradition has preserved the memory of Jesus\' decisive experience that is hard to express, but key to our understanding of his activity and message23. The experience takes place at a very special moment. Jesus has gone to the Jordan to seek God, and has humbly joined others from his people in receiving John\'s baptism. Jesus comes before God. His attitude is one of total availability. That is when, according to the narrative, «he saw the heavens torn apart». The We can read the story of this experience in Mark 1:10-11; Matt 3:16-17; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:32-34 It also appears in the \[apocryphal\] Gospel of the Hebrews, Justin, and Clement of Alexandria. The historicity of this experience is supported by Scobie, Ernst, Jeremias, Hollenbach, Meier, Barret, and others. Even the Jesus Seminar group affirms that Jesus probably went through some kind of very powerful religious experience» in the context of his baptism. Chapter \[8:52 pm, 14/09/2024\] sr. Thumpa St Peters: mysterious and unfathomable God is going to speak to him; the Father is erter. ing into dialogues with Jesus. Coming out of the Jordan waters, this seeker of God is given a double experience. He discovers himself as a beloved Son: God God is gert At the same time he feels filled with God\'s Spirit. These are rely aspects of a single experience that would mark Jesus forever 24, Nothing expresses his experience better than the placed to orde You my Son, the Beloved». It is very different from what happened to Moses thirtem centuries earlier on Mount Horeb, when he trembled to approach the burning bush, taking off his shoes so as not to defile the sacred ground 25. God does not tell Jesus «I am Who I am», but «You are my Son». God does not reveal himself as inef fable Mystery, but as a Father close by who speaks to Jesus to reveal Jesus\' mysteryan a Son. God is saying, «You are mine, you are my son. Your whole being springs from me. I am your Father». The narrative shows the intimate, joyful nature of this reve 298 lation. This is how Jesus hears it: «You are my beloved son, I am pleased with you love you deeply. I rejoice to have you as my Son. I am happy26, Jesus responds with one word: Abba. From now on that is the name he will use when he communicates with God. That word says it all: his total trust in God and his unconditional avail ability. We have good reason to affirm that Jesus perceived God as especially close and accessible, and that he related to him with a very special filial intimacy Jesus: An Historical Approximation Jesus\' whole life exudes this trust28. He gives his life over completely to God Everything he does is marked by this genuine, pure, spontaneous attitude of trust in his Father. He seeks God\'s will without reservation, calculation, or strategy. He does not rely on the temple religion or on the doctrine of the scribes; his power and his security do not come from the Scriptures and traditions of Israel. They come from the Father. His trust frees him from religious customs, tradi tions and models; his faithfulness to the Father leads him to act creatively, inno vatively, and boldly. His is an absolute faith. That is why he grieves over the lit tle faith of his followers, and rejoices over the great trust of a pagan woman It would be a mistake to try to analyze what happened to Jesus in his consciousness. All we can is evoke what the narrative suggests, and follow the historical trajectory of this foundational experience. Exod 3:1-14. 25 The text probably intends to convey God\'s joy over the goodness of his creatures (Gen 2 which reaches its full intensity with Jesus. 27. This is how J. Schlosser describes it. Jewish writers see Jesus\' trust as a sign of the emuna which marks the great believers of Istad (Flusser, Vermes). Mathers contrasts the little faith of the disciples (16:8; 17:20) with the great faith of sense pagans (8:10:15:18). \[8:54 pm, 14/09/2024\] sr. Thumpa St Peters: Jesus an unconditional submissiveness to his Father. He seeks only to do God\'s will. That comes first for him. Nothing and no one can distract him from that path. As a good son he seeks to be the joy of his Fa ther, as a faithful son he identifies with him and always emulates his way of acting sources have preserved the memory that Jesus was tempted. This scene was de weloped later by the community; its intention is not to reproduce an event from specific place and time in his life, but to evoke the climate of testing and diffi culty in which Jesus lived out his faithfulness to the Father\", These are not just moral temptations. They go deeper than that; the crisis tests Jesus fundamental atitude toward God. How will he live out his task, by seeking his own interest of faithfully listening to God\'s Word? How will he act, by dominating others or serving them? Will he seek glory for himself, or do God\'s will? The memory preserved by his followers leaves no room for doubt: Jesus lives situations of 29- inner darkness, conflict and struggle throughout his life, but he remains faith- ful to his beloved Father. At the Jordan Jesus lives more than his experience of being God\'s beloved Son. At the same time he feels filled by God\'s Spirit. He has seen «the Spirit descend- ing on him from that open heaven. God\'s Spirit which creates and sustains life, which cures and nourishes every living creature, has come to fill him with its life- gring power. Jesus experiences it as the Spirit of grace and life. It comes down on him murmuring gently, «like a dove». It fills him with its power, not to judge, condemn, or destroy, but to cure, liberate from «evil spirits», and give life. Jesus feels the Spirit moving in him so forcefully that his awareness of its life- gring power leads him to cure sick people of their affliction; all he asks of them isfaith in the power of God acting in him and through him. Filled with the good The words obedience» and «obey never appear in Jesus\' sayings (Schlosser). His attitude toward the Father is not one of fulfilling his «laws», but identifying with him and seeking what will please him: abundant life for his sons and daughters. We can read the temptation narrative in Mark 2:12-13 and in the Q Source (Luke 14:1-13: Matt Most scholars interpret it as a theological reflection on the internal struggles lesus expe tetced throughout his life. According to the Q Source, Jesus is tempted in the desert after forty ays of fasting, thus reliving the temptations of idolatry that Israel faced as a result of hunger in the desert. This way of reading the past into the present was a literary genre well known to the Ines, which they called haggadah. These three quotations from Deuteronomy (83;6:13; 6:16), with which Jesus answers the tempter, ata way of expressing will. Campana che sping God\'s will was unknown in ancient Judaism Scholars have not explained stry satisfactorily. The author probably does not mean that the Spirit was shaped like a dove, at that it came down and rested gently on Jesus, as a dove would do (Jeremias). \[8:55 pm, 14/09/2024\] sr. Thumpa St Peters: Jesus An Historical Approximation Spirit of his Father, he is not at all afraid to confront the evil spirits in order to bring God\'s mercy to the people who are most defenseless and enslaved by evi Hesees the finger of Gods or as Matthew says, the Spirit of God», in these heal Ings. When he casts out demons it is the liberating Spirit of God acting in him and through him; his victory over Satan is the best sign that God seeks health and liberation for his children. Luke probably composed the description of Jesus in the Nazareth synagogue, as sanointed by God\'s Spirit to bring good news to the poor and to liberate the captives and oppressed; however it expresses very well what all the sources tell us, 3 Withdrawing to pray S 300 Jesus never forgot his experience by the Jordan. Through all his intense activity as an itinerant prophet, he always nurtured his communication with God in si- lence and solitude. The Christian sources have preserved the memory of a cus- tom that deeply impressed his followers: withdrawing for prayer. He was not satisfied with praying at the times prescribed for all pious Jews, but personally sought out intimate, silent encounters with his Father. This experience, often repeated and always new, is not an obligation added on to his daily work. It is what the heart of the Son longs for, the well he needs to drink from to nourish his being. Jesus was born into a people who knew how to pray. Israel was not going through a religious crisis like that of other peoples in the Empire. No one laughed at the people who prayed to God; no one parodied their prayers37. The pagans pray to their gods, but they don\'t know whom to trust; just to be sure, they build altars to them all, even «unknown gods»; they try to use different divinities by pronouncing 34 QSource (Luke 11:20 ; Matt 12:28). Luke 4:16-22. In citing a text from Isaiah, Luke intentionally uses the words which speak of the Spirit of grace and blessing for the poor and oppressed, omitting those which speak of the day of vengeance» (compare Isa 61:1-2 with Luke 4:18-19). There is no doubt in Luke\'s mind: Jesus has brought the year of the Lord\'s favor», not the day of vengeance». He is the bearer of God\'s sal vation, not God\'s wrath. Modern scholars view this custom of Jesus as an historical fact. Such laughter and parodies of prayer are famous in the comedies of Aristophanes (446-385 BC). or in Seneca\'s criticism to discourage faith in the gods. \[8:56 pm, 14/09/2024\] sr. Thumpa St Peters: names; they try to wear out the gods with prayer in order to win favors from them, if that doesn\'t work, they try threatening or scorning them\", The environment around Jesus in Israel is very different. All pious Jews begin and end the day by confessing their God and blessing his name. According to the historian Flavius Josephus, Twice a day, early in the morning and as the time approaches, they recall thankfully before done from the time the left Egypt. This custom of morning and evening is already well established in Jesus\' time, both in I Palestine and in prayer was the All the men were obliged to practice it from age thirteen on. lous probably never went a day in his life without praying in the morning at sunrise and in the evening before he went to sleep, Chapter 11 Both morning and evening prayer began with a recitation of the Shema, which anot exactly a prayer but a confession of faith. Curiously, the person praying does not speak to God but listens: \