JOE TUNON

STORY 11: Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)

Adopting the Essene practice of baptism, John the Baptist breaks the prophetic silence, and starts preaching the message of repentance, preparing the way for his cousin Jesus to take over. Jesus proclaims that the Kingdom of God is at hand. To the Jews waiting for a political and military messiah to deliver them from the Romans, it sounds great… but Jesus starts saying things like “turn the other cheek”, and “Love your enemies”! (Huh?) And he hangs out with people known to be sinners and outcasts. Jesus is basically turning the tables (literally at one point) on all of their expectations, and lashes out at the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus sums up the whole law of Moses in two simple laws “Love God with all your heart and soul” and “Love your neighbor as yourself”. But Jesus takes things way further, claiming that he is here to not to abolish but to “fulfill” the laws of Moses. And when he speaks in parables some of them are clearly aimed at the Pharisees and Sadducees. And he doesn't just perform miracles, but he even claims to forgive people’s sins, something only God can do. And when Jesus refers to God as Abba ("Dad"), and affirms to the Jewish high court of the Sanhedrin that he is in fact the Messiah, the son of God, such "blasphemy" is the final nail in the coffin, or specifically the final nails on the cross, since the Jews then plot with the Romans to kill Jesus, and we all know the preferred form of Roman execution. Having foreseen this, Jesus arranges a last supper with his 12 apostles, calling the bread and wine his body and blood about to be poured out for many, knowing that one of them is about to betray him. He promises them that he will share a meal with them again in Heaven, where his Father had prepared a place for them. He is then handed over and crucified between two thieves, with a sign hung above his head that sarcastically but prophetically read “King of the Jews”. After asking his Father to forgive them "for they know not what they do", one of thieves hanging next to him asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. Jesus assures him that he will be with him that day in paradise, breathes his last, and dies. A couple of days later, the single biggest piece of news in all of human history breaks: Jesus is seen, risen from the dead, first by the women, then by the 12 apostles. He commissions them to go and tell the good news. He returns to his Father, and promises them he would be with them until the end of the age…