\n<\/p>\n
A few years ago, 10 perhaps, I was at an academic conference that featured a debate of sorts on the resurrection of Christ between N. T. Wright and John Dominic Crossan, a well-known scholar of early Christianity.<\/p>\n
I say \u201cdebate of sorts\u201d because I think the evening was billed to be a dual between the forces of light and the forces of darkness (Crossan being the latter), but I remember very little heat.<\/p>\n
What I do remember is two things Crossan said.<\/p>\n
First, Crossan talked for a few minutes about Matthew 27:52-53<\/a>\u2014that truly odd passage about tombs of saints opening up at Jesus\u2019 resurrection, and the formally dead but now apparently alive saints walking about Jerusalem as if it\u2019s just what you do under the circumstances.<\/p>\n I never really thought about that before then\u2014probably because I kept stuffing the idea into the back of my mind. But that day, something about Crossan\u2019s clarity struck me, and I knew enough about Jewish midrash (a creative handling of Scripture), and Matthew\u2019s love for it, to see what was going on: this didn\u2019t happen, but is part of Matthew\u2019s crafting of the Jesus story to symbolize that God\u2019s kingdom has invaded the empire.<\/p>\n Second, Crossan said something that I\u2019m sure is tucked away in a book of his somewhere, but being Christmas and all<\/a>, and behind in my shopping and grading, I don\u2019t feel like finding it.<\/p>\n But I remember it\u2014at least the general flow\u2014and it\u2019s stuck with me all these years, has helped me see Jesus differently, and is something I think about especially around this time of year when stupid versions of Jesus seem to be the order of the day (like saying he was white).<\/p>\n Anyway, Crossan said that if you took someone who knew nothing of Jesus, but did understand that religious-political powder keg of 1st century Palestine\u2014tensions between various Jewish groups with different ideas about God and how to live in their own land under Roman rule, and tensions between Jewish and Greco-Roman customs, now centuries old\u2014and then handed that person the Gospel of Mark, that person wouldn\u2019t be far into it before asking, \u201cWho is this Jesus?\u201d and \u201cWhen is he going to be killed?\u201d<\/p>\n I like being reminded of this Rebel Jesus, the one Jackson Browne wrote about <\/a>(and if you don\u2019t own \u201cThe Bells of Dublin\u201d you should be banned from Christmas).<\/p>\n Forgetting<\/p>\n the Jesus who behaves, and remembering instead<\/p>\n the rebel Jesus that\u2019s where I\u2019d rather be this Christmas.<\/p>\n [This post first appeared in December 2013. Check out my books<\/a> on this website on what the Bible is and how to read it well.]<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
who looks like he would fit right in at church,
who acts as expected,
colors between the lines, and
never wanders off the beach blanket,<\/p>\n
the countercultural, sometimes snarky, sometimes funny,
uncompromisingly in-your-face-against-hypocritical-gatekeepers,
ueber-compassionate toward outsiders,
challenger of the status quo,
total mensch Jesus,<\/p>\n