THE WAY UP IS THE WAY DOWN.
GALILEE IN THE GOSPELS
The Jesus of the gospels, with admitted diversity, is a Galilean religious sage. Likely this is because the person of Jesus was a lover of the Galilean countryside and peculiar embodiment of Torah and his teaching was full of these ideals. The parables, metaphors, and imagery employed by Jesus depicts rural and agrarian life. Jesus’ ideal of beauty comes from the flowers in the Galilean countryside as opposed to urban luxury. He next to never mentions the city in his teaching because he is from the idylic north of Israel— green pastures, deep floral hues in summertime, dark basalt stone, and varying topography. Jesus saw beauty in nature and simplicity and that humanity owes its immense value to the King who has given these gifts.
Think about how staggering it is that Jesus’ narrative is never set in the large, Hellenized towns of Galilee. About three-four miles from Nazareth was the dominant city of the region, Sephoris. Jesus is never in Sephoris and never mentions it in the gospels. Or take Tiberias, which Herod Antipas constructed on Lake. Jesus lived and taught right around Tiberias and the place does not exist in the gospels. Instead, we get Capernaum, Korazin, Bethsaida— small town Iowa! For persepective, Josephus never once mentions any of these ‘cities’ from the goepels. Jesus was a small town kid and the temple and its trappings must have been staggeringly offbeat during festival times.
GENTILES AND GALILEE
There are several times in the gospels where Jesus is harsh to Gentiles. He is not always loving, but rather, tells them he has come to save Jews alone, and a couple of times draws a comparision between the Gentiles and dogs or pigs. After all, the prodigal son is a story about a Jewish kid getting lost among the pagans and coming back again…not bringing a pagan friend back to learn better ways. One time a man from one of the decapolis cities (Roman cities in the Transjordan) asked to follow Jesus and he told him to “Go home to your own people…” (Mark 5.18-19; Luke 8.38-39). Jesus does not seem too fond of Gentiles at times.
In historical criticism, we believe the points which would be embarrassing to the author often carry a degree of truth. That is to say, these stories probably reflect the Galilean outlook that the Gentiles were heathens. This is not to say the Jesus never envisaged the Gentiles learning from the Jews and even from his disciples, but it is to say he saw his own mission as to the lost sheep of Israel who had no shepherd. Jesus’ own disciple, Peter, had trouble accepting table fellowship with Gentiles even after the wierd animal dream in Acts :D, and the students of Jesus in Palestine held skepticism and even contempt for Paul’s enduring belief that the death and ressurection of Jesus invited all Gentiles into God’s covenant.
And so…there is a little bit of patriotism in the rural Jesus from Galilee and that’s okay. If it helps you can see it as his humanity not his divinity. For those of you who don’t want to go there, you are wise, and you can just understand Jesus as super focused :D.
SO WHAT WAS JESUS?
Attempts were refuted and then reclaimed by Reza Azlan that Jesus was a Zealot, or part of a movement to forcefully overthrow Rome. It was Brian who joined the Zealots, however, not Jesus. Jesus’ teaching is actually uncomfortably pacifist, at least for most American Christians. However, it is an understandable idea, because Jesus was tried, condemned, and killed as a revolutionary. But this is where understanding the Galilee as a tinderbox will help you out. Authorities always watched the Galilee for uprisings because the region had a reputation for riot.
This is why John the Baptist had to be executed, and Jesus as well. Anyone gaining a following in Galilee could end up on the wrong side of Rome, and Jesus’ efforts to conceal his identity and make less of himself make sense in this context. He was trying to do something remarkably different, non-violent, and brilliant. And so Jesus did not with to be lumped into Messianic expectations tantamount to another violent attempt at a coup. John the Baptist and Jesus both had a charisma and eloquence which ended in trouble, and what is sad is that neither wanted violence. And so there they were, playing a deadly game of loving the people who want you dead.
According to the gospels, John saw his cousin as the “lamb who takes away the sins of the world.” A Passover lamb, remember? Jesus saw that he came not to be serve but to serve, and to be lifted up for the sins of many. That is what is so staggering and stunning about Jesus of Nazereth— his is an upside down power. The way down is actually the way up and it can create new worlds right here, right now.
THE WAY DOWN IS THE WAY UP.
Master Jesus took the way down for you. No matter how far down that has been, Jesus paid the price for you. the gospel, or the good news of Jesus, is that despite all of our problems and hidden sins and times we have hurt others and ourselves— Jesus died as a Passover lamb for our sins. He took the way down so that we could rise as family members adopted by the King of the House of the World. Because of Jesus there is nothing you have done, are doing, or will do that is lower than Jesus went on your behalf. He took the way down on purpose to live out his vision of Messiah.
If this is way of the master, so to for the learner. Be very careful if you follow this Jesus. Because it is not going to look like you think it will. Life in Jesus’ understanding of the Kingdom of God looks like death to ourselves for the sake of the world. This does not mean we are the doormats of the world. Instead, we are the empowered, clear eyed children of the King who choose to leverage our strength to serve. And so it is going to look like taking the way down on purpose, against what anyone expects or deems appropriate.
It is going to look like kindness and patience towards the exact person not showing us respect we know we deserve. It is going to look like forgiving and dying to ourselves in our marriages even when we are pretty sure we were definitely right :D It is going to look like looking the person who bothers you the most dead in the eye and saying something kind.
It is going to look being mocked and mistreated and turning the other cheek because you know you have a good father and a good home. It is going to look like serving and fighting for a child who has no idea how his or her attitude and decisions hurt mom and dad because you serve a King who serves his kids. It is going to look like standing down to honor your parents knowing full well it means not getting your way this time around— as a powerful sacrifice to the Master of the Universe.
It is going to look like unflinching peace and guerilla pacifism looking down the barrel of the loaded West. Moments where by vote, speach, influence, and effort we stand for all nations and all peoples— especially our enemies.
These are hard things— because you don’t have to take the way down. Unless you want to be a student. Unless you say you follow Jesus. You see, these are all moments that seem the opposite of what we want. And there’s a million of them. They seem like taking the way down. But if you follow Jesus— that is the path that leads to life. The way down is the way up. For the Master, for the learner.