Friday, 14 May, 2004

The focus of these devotions is switching to Walter Wink’s book “The Human Being.”



I am concerned not so much with whether Jesus actually said something, but with whether it is true, regardless of who said it. If truth is our goal rather than historicity, then revelation is a far more appropriate category than facticity for weighing the impact of Jesus. If a statement is revelatory, if it provides insight about becoming more fully human, if it exposes the Domination System for what it is, then we may call it “true.” But we should not assume that something is true because Jesus said it. Rather, he would have said it because he thought it was true…

But the issue of historicity, while occasionally crucial, is far less significant than consistency with the original impulse of Jesus, whether articulated by him or by his followers later. That impulse was the spirit that drove Jesus to challenge his own religious tradition and those who were it protectors.



I must say I had to pause when Wink said “we should not assume something is true because Jesus said it.” But his next comment that Jesus would have said it because he thought it was true simply had my head nodding in agreement. Jesus would say what he thought was true. Didn’t he agree with the law and the prophets?!? Didn’t he also know and respect the teachings of the rabbis before him?!? Jesus did not go along with the party line or the religious notion of the day simply because of the status it may have held at the time. If it was not about truthfulness, liberation, and the revealing of the Reign of God for all, I would suppose he would not have had a thing to quote.



Connection: That “impulse”…that spirit that drove Jesus…is still the spirit alive this day. Where in the world is it moving you within the unfolding of God’s Reign?



In your light, O God, we see light and begin to look beyond our own lives and out into the gathering of your people in every place and time so that as we live today we may live with your eternal Reign in mind and in heart. Be for us the encouragement to walk with you. Amen.