Chapter 3 - Jesus of Nazareth

Summary

Jesus is called many things in the Bible, including high priest, king of the Jews, messiah, and the son of God. Yet it is clear that Jesus thought of himself primarily as a prophet. Jesus often compared himself to the Hebrew prophets and fully expected to share their fate. Jesus’s ministry encapsulates the whole history of Hebrew prophecy: Like Moses, he brings the law from the mountaintop to his people; like Elijah, he heals the sick and raises the dead; and like Jeremiah, he excoriates the corruption of the Temple cult. Jesus confronted the political leaders of his day, namely Herod and Pilate, just as he confronted the priests and Pharisees. Jesus pioneered a kind of nonviolent resistance to Roman oppression that would inspire future prophets, including Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King. The visions of peace and justice among the Hebrew prophets are recapitulated in Jesus’s proclamation of the Kingdom of God, meant to be a standing rebuke to the politics of his day.