An Atheistic Bible Study Of The Gospels Jesus Asked If He Is God

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An event covered in Matthew 11; 2-18 and Luke 7; 18-35 The arrest of John the Baptist was kept very low key. His later execution gets more coverage though. Jesus hears about the arrest in a one line observation on his return from the Wilderness. Jesus then goes about establishing his own ministry, beginning to gain some success by the Sermon On The Mount period, possibly thanks to the evangelism of his Apostles. From prison, John gets two of his visiting followers to go to ask Jesus if he the one, the expected Messiah and living incarnation of God. This is a change of heart for John, as after he baptised Jesus he saw the vision of the doves around Jesus and seemed certain that Jesus was divine. He even instructed his followers to follow Jesus instead. John now seems to have doubts. He needs to get followers who are still loyal to him to check up on Jesus. Has he heard negative feedback about the activity of Jesus during his early ministry? Is he just trying to establish a channel of direct contact with Jesus from prison? The two followers ask Jesus directly if he is the one. Jesus tells them that the miracles he is performing, healings and mass feedings, etc are self-evident proof of the answers they seek. In other words, yes, he is claiming outright messiahdom. As the agents depart to report their findings to the Baptist, Jesus starts immediately addressing the multitude (a whole lot of people listening to him, but without specifying numbers). He talks to them of John The Baptist, indicating that John’s two chosen and assigned followers have interrupted this discourse to ask him about his divinity in front of his audience. Jesus asks everyone what they hoped to find on their journeys to the Wilderness, a rite of passage then for most Jewish men, not just for Jesus. He tells them what he believes they saw was very different to what they expected to discover. If they expected to see a strong man of leadership, they saw instead a reed blown by the wind. This refers to John The Baptist, not a Messiah as hoped by his followers, but a man driven by fate and destiny and forces he cannot control, namely both God and the political faction who would imprison him. Jesus then adds that while they saw John as a typical prophet, he was much more than that, and he compares him directly to Elijah, prophesising that a greater king than himself is coming. Jesus is presenting himself as that greater king. Jesus carefully praises John, knowing that he has strong support among his own following, but also shows why the people should see him, Jesus as greater than John, who was weak enough to be a victim of circumstances rather than the engineer of destinies they hoped he would be. Jesus adds criticism that many failed to see John as a true prophet because they dismissed him as a man possessed by demons, just as they often still rejected the divinity of the very messiah addressing them for loving wine, rich foods and associating with tax-collectors and sinners. Jesus hints that those opposing him will pay for their stance come Judgement Day. Luke’s version is quite similar to that in Matthew though he adds that the men most critical of Jesus and John are Pharisees and lawyers. Jesus is now developing a strong anti-authoritarian stance, and at times, he sounds subversive and even revolutionary. He comes across as a proto-Leninist here. Arthur Chappell