BALMORES, VENICE A. NOVEMBER 29, 2013
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HUMAN SAVIOR IMAGES OF JESUS
Jewish Mystic / Spirit Person: One of those figures in human history who had frequent and vivid experiences of the sacred. Jesus, too, was a spirit person, according to the Gospels, he had visions including one at his baptism in which, like Ezekiel, he “saw heaven opened before him and he saw the Spirit coming down on him like a dove”. Jesus also used spiritual practices like fasting and long hours of prayer typical for spirit persons. His intimate communion with God is indicated by his use of the word Abba. He called God Abba, a term signifying closeness and familiarity. It is equivalent to the words papa, daddy, or itay, or tatang.
Jewish Healer: The historical evidence that Jesus performed paranormal healings is very strong; he must have been a remarkable healer. Jesus both healed and exorcised. Not all spirit persons become healers and exorcists, but some do and Jesus was among them. His contemporaries and he himself viewed these abilities as the result of the Spirit’s power working through Him. The Gospels refer to healings and exorcisms and healings. In addition to possessions by evil spirits, the conditions treated included fever, paralysis, withered hand, bent back, haemorrhage, deafness and dumbness, blindness, dropsy, coma, and skin disease.
Jewish Wisdom Teacher: He taught a subversive and alternative wisdom. Jesus was regularly addressed as a teacher during his lifetime by followers, opponents, and curious inquirers. Subsequent generations of Christians saw Him also as a teacher and more than a teacher. Some thought that He was primarily a teacher of right belief needed for salvation. Others emphasize that he was a teacher of right morals. But He was not primarily a teacher of either true belief or good behaviour. Rather, He was a teacher of a way of transformation. He did not stress believing or being good as the primary thing. Instead, He invited people to a new way of life.
Jewish Social Prophet: Jesus stands in the tradition of the great social prophets of ancient Israel who challenged social systems. Jesus fits very well into the tradition of the classical prophets of Israel. The classical prophets are those who have books named after them. There are fifteen classical prophets. We usually equate the word “prophecy” with the prediction of a future unknowable to “ordinary” people. So we think immediately of people like Madam Auring or Aling Rosa, or those self-styled “prophets of doom” who foretell the nearing end of the world. But this is not how prophecy is understood in the Bible. The prophets of Israel were seen primarily as God’s messengers. Indeed, the name of the last of them, Malachi, literally means “my messenger”.
Jewish Movement Founder / Initiator: A movement came into existence around him which embodied his alternative wisdom. How do we describe the movement initiated by Jesus? It was, first of all, intended for Israel. Like the other Jewish movements, it saw itself as a way for Israel, a way out of the crisis facing the Jewish society. One of the most certain facts about Jesus; ministry points to the concern with Israel: the choice of the twelve. “Twelve“ is symbolic. It is the number of the twelve tribes of Israel. That Jesus chose twelve rather than eleven or thirteen is no accident. Jesus saw the twelve as representing the “new” or “true” Israel. Jesus shared with them his mission to Israel: “Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of Israel” (Mt 10:5-6). The Most probable reason for this restriction is that Jesus was primarily concerned about renewing his own deteriorating society.