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Jesusâs Gospel
Virtually every New Testament scholar, whether liberal or conservative, Catholic or Protestant, agrees that the gospel Jesus announced and proclaimed was âthe kingdom of God.â This phrase (or Matthewâs equivalent, âthe kingdom of heaven,â which means exactly the same thing) appears 122 times in the first three Gospelsâmost of the time (92) on the lips of Jesus. Jesus points to the kingdom as the purpose of his coming (Luke 4:43). Both his preaching and his miraculous healings are signs of the kingdom (7:18â28). And Jesus sends out his disciples to announce the coming of the kingdom (Matt. 10:7â8; Luke 10:9).
At the core of Jesusâs teaching was the claim that the long-expected messianic time of peace, justice, forgiveness of sins, and restoration of Israel was actually breaking into history in his person and work. But Jesus puzzled and astonished his contemporaries. By his teaching and action, he offered an understanding of the nature and work of the Messiah that was strikingly different from that of popular expectation. He rejected the widespread messianic idea of a conquering military hero. When he publicly made messianic claims in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he rode not on a military generalâs proud warhorse but rather on a lowly donkey. And he taught his followers to love their enemies.
To understand the implications of Jesusâs messianic understanding for our topic, we must first explore the messianic expectations of his day, then examine the extent of messianic violence in Jesusâs time, and finally develop more fully Jesusâs teaching on the dawning kingdom of God. Only then will we be ready to understand Jesusâs more specific words and actions with regard to violence.
Messianic Expectations
In 587 BC Babylon conquered the kingdom of Judah, destroyed the capital city Jerusalem and its temple, and took Judah and its leaders into exile in Babylon. Those events fundamentally challenged the basic belief that God had given the land of Israel to Abrahamâs descendants forever and that the one God of the universe was uniquely present in the temple in Jerusalem. The peopleâs sinful failure to obey Godâs revealed law, their prophets explained, was the reason for national destruction and exile. But their prophets also held out the hope of a future return from exile and a restoration of their Godâs presence in a rebuilt temple.
There were modest movements of return from exile under Ezra and Nehemiah in the latter half of the fifth century BC. But no strong independent Jewish kingdom emerged. Many descendants of the ancient Israelites remained scattered throughout the Near East. And those who still lived in the ancient homeland suffered under the rule of oppressive empires. For a century after the Hasmonean revolt, which started in 167 BC, a small Jewish kingdom existed, but the Romans swept through Palestine in 63 BC. Living under the Romansâ ruthless rule, the Jews had little sense that the long-expected return from exile had truly happened.
The hope for a Davidic figure who would bring the nation freedom was largely absent for several hundred years after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC. But in the Hasmonean period a messianic hope for national restoration grounded in some earlier biblical texts emerged. Yale biblical scholar John J. Collins shows that by the end of the first century BC the idea of the Davidic Messiah as a warrior king who destroys Israelâs enemies and brings unending peace âconstitutes the common core of Jewish messianism around the turn of the era.â âThis expectation of a Davidic messiah had a clear basis in the Scriptures and became very widespread in various sectors of Judaism in the last century before the Common Era.â
That is not to suggest that there was one uniform messianic understanding in this period. A variety of messianic views existed. The Jewish historian Josephus (who is our best source outside of the New Testament for the events in Palestine in the first century AD) talks about various violent rebellious movements (some of which were messianic) in the period leading up to the Jewish War (AD 66â70). These violent movements, Josephus suggests, helped lead to that war. Josephus speaks of an âambiguous oracleâ in the Jewish sacred writings about someone from their country becoming a ruler of the world.
In the Jewish texts from the two hundred years before and after the birth of Jesus that speak of the Messiah, his central task is the liberation of Israel (often using military means) and the cleansing or restoration of the Jerusalem temple. There is no expectation that the Messiah will suffer. But the expectation of a military conqueror is certainly present: âHow beautiful is the king, the messiah, who will arise from those who are of the house of Judah! He girds up his loins and goes forth and orders the battle array against his enemies and slays the kings along with their overlords, and no king or overlord can stand before him; he reddens the mountains with the blood of their slain, his clothing is dipped in blood like a winepress.â Craig Keener says that âmost Jews expected a final war against the Gentiles to culminate this age and inaugurate their redemption.â
The texts describing the end of the old age and the arrival of the new messianic age often use powerful apocalyptic language and vivid cosmic imagery. Unfortunately, since the time of Albert Schweitzer at the beginning of the twentieth century, many scholars have thought these texts were talking about the end of the physical world. But more recent scholarship has shown that view to be fundamentally mistaken. In N. T. Wrightâs words:
The apocalyptic language âhad nothing to do with a supposed end of the space-time order and everything to do with the great climax to Israelâs history, the final liberation of Israel from her pagan enemies.â
Very often these texts predicted a violent war that would overthrow the pagans and usher in the age of peace. There are also many passages in the Old Testament that speak of a future leader and time that will bring universal peace. Especially striking are three from Isaiah.
Isaiah 9:5â7 speaks of a coming king who would bring peace and justice:
Every warriorâs boot used in battle
and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness ...