You know when you’re doing a crossword, and there is one particular long word that you’re stuck on, which, if you cracked it, would help you solve lots of smaller words? Well, reading Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright is like cracking that long word.
His sweeping portrait of Jesus is full of historical and theological depth, and opens up a fresh way of understanding certain passages that have long been held to mean one thing. Example:
The only way I have ever heard this passage interpreted is that the one we are to “fear” is God. Man can kill the body, but God can kill both body and soul, so fear him!
I’ve always accepted this interpretation, but reluctantly, because the very next verses talk about God the Father who remembers the dime-a-dozen sparrows and who cares for us so much more. Therefore, we should “fear not”.
So which is it: fear God because he can kill, or don’t fear because God deeply cares?
Wright makes the point that for Jesus (as seen in the wilderness and in other scenarios throughout his ministry) the real enemy is the satan, the evil one. It is he who has gripped the nation of Israel, and it is he who must be defeated. Therefore if anyone or anything is to be feared, it is he who exerts malevolent power over body and soul.
But, his power is trumped by the power of the Creator, whose goodness toward sparrows is infinitely exceeded by his goodness toward human beings. Of course as Wright points out,
I don’t know about you, but I think that makes a lot more sense.
Get behind me, misinterpreted passage!
His sweeping portrait of Jesus is full of historical and theological depth, and opens up a fresh way of understanding certain passages that have long been held to mean one thing. Example:
“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna. Yes, I tell you, fear him! Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” - Luke 12:4-7
The only way I have ever heard this passage interpreted is that the one we are to “fear” is God. Man can kill the body, but God can kill both body and soul, so fear him!
I’ve always accepted this interpretation, but reluctantly, because the very next verses talk about God the Father who remembers the dime-a-dozen sparrows and who cares for us so much more. Therefore, we should “fear not”.
So which is it: fear God because he can kill, or don’t fear because God deeply cares?
Wright makes the point that for Jesus (as seen in the wilderness and in other scenarios throughout his ministry) the real enemy is the satan, the evil one. It is he who has gripped the nation of Israel, and it is he who must be defeated. Therefore if anyone or anything is to be feared, it is he who exerts malevolent power over body and soul.
But, his power is trumped by the power of the Creator, whose goodness toward sparrows is infinitely exceeded by his goodness toward human beings. Of course as Wright points out,
Jesus did not, to be sure, perceive Israel’s god as a kindly liberal grandfather who would never hurt a fly, let alone send anyone to Gehenna. But again and again, not least in the very next verse of this paragraph, Israel’s god is portrayed as the creator and sustainer, one who can be trusted in all circumstance, not the one who waits with a large stick to beat anyone who steps out of line.
I don’t know about you, but I think that makes a lot more sense.
Get behind me, misinterpreted passage!
Fear God because He can kill OR don't fear Him because He cares.Can it not be both? After all, out of the same mouth proceeds the words "come you blessed of my Father" AND "depart from me you cursed".
ReplyDeleteBut perhaps the real dichotomy here is less that between "fear God" or "don't fear him",and more to do with "fear God " and "don't fear man." After all, in verses 8-12 (of Luke 12) Jesus talks of not worrying when confronted by men and magistrates because of Him.
Also does satan really have the authority/power to cast us into hell? The Matthew 25 passage above seems to indicate that this is the preserve of God.
Good point.
ReplyDeleteI think what N.T. Wright is getting at is that Jesus is contrasting his kingdom vision with that of the pharisees. Jesus sees himself as doing things by the spirit of god, and reverses the charges of satan-powered ministry onto his contempories, whom he calls an "evil generation".
Therefore, he is warning his disciples that to go down the road of the pharisees is actually to go down the road of not mere human power, but down the road of "evil" power which ends up destroying body and spirit.
So on the surface, it appears that humans opposition should be feared, but beneath that is something much more fearful. Wright sees Jesus as drawing attention to that. In other words, he is telling them to beware that the light in them is not darkness (Lk. 11:35).
As for the extent of satan's authority, I can't really answer that. I do know that Jesus prays that we be delivered from evil, and that we be kept from the evil one, both of which hint at possible authority/power over our lives; authority/power to drag us down with it, not just to a physical death but to something worse.
Of course final (and just) judgment is the preserve of God alone, but I do like Wright's focus on there being an evil presence which is the real enemy. That's definitely not something we hear very much of these days.
After all, who is the enemy of a disciple's soul? God? To read this passage the standard way seems to imply that it is, but surely not.