Was there ever a time when you recognised that you had changed? Perhaps you can identify when you transitioned from teenager to adult, or from working adult to one that has retired. That last one might be more evident, but what of that transformation from one sort of person to another?
In this week’s Gospel reading (Mark 8:27-38), we might see a pivotal moment relating to Jesus. With the Gospel according to Mark, we have the disciples completely clueless about this Jesus until Mark Chapter 8, and after this they start, please note, start to get their noggins around who is Jesus. Then again, each Gospel has its own perspective about Jesus. Take John’s Gospel for example; that is super-spiritual and metaphorical from the outset, but is written much later.
Mark’s interpretation
Jesus has gone off to Caesarea Phillipi, the place 30 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. It was also called Paneas, where the ancient Canaanites built a sanctuary to Baal and where, for Pagans, the cave of Pan was located. The Romans also built a shrine to Caesar.
Jesus asks the disciples, “who do people say that I am?” Initially they recite a list such as “John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets”, so these weren’t with them any more. [Recall that Elijah was not supposed dead, but carried upwards to Heaven – why upwards?] Then Jesus asks “who do you say that I am?”
Pre-Easter
If we read the Gospel as a whole, we might well see that the author(s) have portrayed different aspects of Jesus. Initially we see Jesus as:
- a Jewish mystic healer
- one filled with wisdom
- one dedicated to change social justice for all
Here, was the son of a tradesman who could captivate audiences with his radical stories which resonated with all who listened. He was a healer, albeit amongst many at the time. But his healing often reached the marginalised, those who weren’t part of community anymore, but could then be reintroduced, find relationships again, and hopefully earn a living (for their illness ostracised them from any form of income). He spoke of a different world.
Post-Easter
But then, and in particular after Chapter 8 and the crucifixion, we see a different Jesus, one that:
- is the Messiah for the people
- a spiritual embodiment of God
- one that was killed because he stood between continued imposed power and a very different social perspective
Pre-Easter Jesus | Post-Easter Jesus |
|---|---|
| 4 B.C.E. to 30 C.E. | 30 C.E. to present |
| Corporeal, human being of flesh and blood | Spiritual, non-material reality |
| Finite and mortal | Infinite, eternal |
| Human | Divine |
| A Jewish peasant | King of Kings and Lord of Lords |
| Figure of the past | Figure of the present |
| Jesus of Nazareth | Jesus Christ |
| Monotheistic Jew | Becomes the second person of the trinity, “God with a human face” |
| Galilean Jew of the first century | “The Face of God” (metaphor based on 2 Cor. 4:6 Beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ) |
We continue to see this transformation through the development of the church, although it may not get it right …at times.
And to us
So, do we really see Jesus being transformed, and can we see ourselves transformed over time?
I found the dialogue interesting
I think a change in someone can be either a real change or what appears to be a change to others. After Jesus started his teaching, he gradually revealed himself, although not to everyone but to his disciples and close ones. People, even his disciples, did not believe entirely what Jesus said about himself until after Easter. Does this mean Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection were needed for Jesus to reveal himself? And if this is so, was the reason for Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection not meant to take away our sins, but to reveal himself to us?
Spiritual transformation, as I understand, happens to human beings.
When the ecclesiastical emphasis of sins is removed from our perspective of the Cross, we begin to see a bigger wider picture. Was the cross, as with so many people back then, a simple consequence of retribution from the Roman Empire. Was the Resurrection a consequence of the need for something so special, different from any thing else?
Yes, that revelation, the penny dropping as it were, could well be connected to the cross and resurrection.
Spiritual transformation runs parallel to bodily transformation – just many do not contemplate that it can occur, if they wish.
I think, after Jesus’ resurrection, there was a gradual transformation in the disciples and others. The Holy Spirit was also involved in the process of this change. Things gradually became clearer to them of what Jesus had been saying. It was not just one or two of them, but every one of them was ready to face the consequences of proclaiming Jesus as Christ. They did not fear persecution, and very well knew how much they would need to suffer. So I do not think that it was a penny dropped. The transformation of Saul into the apostle Paul is one of the most dramatic events in the New Testament. And it set off a chain of events that would forever change the course of history. Hence, in my previous message, I talked about real change in someone versus what appears as a change to others. Jesus did not change, but people’s views of Jesus changed gradually after the event of resurrection.
One author, Marcus Borg, has written a lot in the transformation of Jesus : pre- and then post- Easter. A lot of what he writes makes a lot of sense. The disciples do go through a charge post Chapter 8 of Mark where they start to get the message. However even at the cross and lost the resurrection the disciples were mostly unaware of what was going to happen. What we don’t seem to know is what occurred between the resurrection and Paul’s revelation. The size of followers was still very small and spread across the area far and wide. Finding community was difficult. What Paul saw and then recorded was interesting – more so why he then spent 3 years in Arabia aka Jordan afterwards. Change is constant but often occurs in bursts.
My thoughts:
Christ came to this world not as God but as a human being like us. Probably, that is the reason for the change that was noticed after Jesus’ resurrection.
Under the conditions in those times, if anyone who is fully convinced of Jesus being Christ and thinks that God would want to spread this news to all, then perhaps they would need to spend time thinking wisely, analyzing the approach to be taken and fit enough for this task rather than react in a way that they themselves get killed even before their purpose in life is accomplished. So, Jesus did not start his teachings until he was 30 and that probably was the same with Paul. Between resurrection and Paul’s revelation, I think what happened was severe persecution.
Paul and Jesus’ disciples needed to be very careful when and how to reveal things. And they finally made it !!! So we, after 2000+ years, still pursue understanding of God through Jesus’ teachings and directions from the Holy Spirit.
I’m going to try and find a scholarly book which trys to equate the timelines of Jesus and Paul.
So reading John A.T. Robinson’s Redacting the New Testament albeit published in 1975, it makes a comment:
Paul makes a number of comments about trips to Jerusalem and even Arabia (Jordan) and to Syria but fails to give clear timescales. Robinson has sought to link various verses in Galatians, 1 Corinthians and Acts to establish a possible timeline for Paul’s conversion. He concludes (p37) that if the Crucifixion was in 30AD*, then Paul’s conversion was in 33AD. He also is not saying that Paul met with Jesus else he would claim differently about being an Apostle.
* recall that Jesus’s birth could be as early as 4BC…if that makes sense 😉