Victim Redress

Introduction
Because our salvation required it, Jesus did not consider the cost to be too great. No suggestion that he could not afford it. It was just - right.

Caring for victims
Who really cares for 60,000 victim survivors?

Jesus' Infancy

What do the accounts from Luke and Matthew look like when compared? How do they overlap, etc? I have created a table based on the account from Luke. Some common suppositions and accepted images are unsupported...

Peace

Peace was a part of Jesus’ message and his mission. You may hear Jesus called the “Prince of Peace”.

Heaven

The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. (Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:47, NRSV).

Kingdom.2

Familiar old words to many. Note - Jesus wanted his friends to request that God's kingdom come.  For what were they asking? What had Jesus/the Gospels to say on the kingdom and its coming?

"Sinner's" & Sinner's Friend

The Gospels contain numerous references to the reputable being offended by Jesus’ dealings with the disreputable. The upright seem to have to found it easy categorise others as “sinners”. The Gospels' focus is on welcome to rejected people. Jesus was not deflected by labels.

Marriage v.2

Jesus said a bit on marriage and adultery and divorce. We read Gospel exchanges, when Jesus was being challenged by religious critics about his word. I would say they were attempting to show him up. I do not find Jesus setting out a systematic prescription on human sexuality, or addressing contemporary issues for 2017. That is not surprising

King (!!)

Herod I. Ruled in Judaea 37-4. BC. Authentic Herod? Bust location now? Judiasm Wikia says found in Jerusalem excavations - remarkably intact if so. Flattering? Definitely resembles Roman ruling class. (Unlike Jesus!)

Herod’s kingdom did not long outlast him intact. The kingdom of God is permanent and growing. That kingdom can not be viewed, handled, smelt, tasted nor heard; it can be neither created nor destroyed. The kingdom of God can not be measured but it is real. It can be seen(!), entered and found. Where Jesus is, the kingdom is. Jesus is the door to the kingdom.

Worship (edn 2)

 

 

 

Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” (Matthew 4:10, NRSV)

Religion (EDN 2)[updated]

🔕 ↓↓↓ 👎 🕀
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released the analysed data from the 2016 census. The results portray a decline in the "religion" category. The ABC has produced a neat graphical representation of some overall data. (More on the data story below). "Religion" is a Bible word (rare), a word with limited and specific use in the text, nowhere near as prominent in the Bible as it is in Australian culture or publications.

Copied from ABC website graphic: Each dot for 1% of population
www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-27/census-australia-as-100-people/8634318

Raised/Rose

By the time of Jesus, even if disputed, there was an expectation of resurrection in his community. One example comes from the account of Lazarus, where his mourning sister spoke with Jesus:
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 
Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.[a] Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 
She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,[b] the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (John 11: 23-27, NRSV) I think Martha was flummoxed by Jesus' astounding claim. She had a belief in a "last day" resurrection (noun; anastaseos) and in the person of Jesus. Lazarus' sisters knew well enough that, had he but arrived in time, Jesus could have saved their brother from his death-causing illness. That Jesus would, then and there, be resurrection and life for Lazarus was an unimagined blessing. Clearly Jesus was saying he himself would raise (verb; anistemi) Lazarus, and in fact Jesus will raise all who believe in him. There is an overlap between this miracle and Martha's "resurrection on the last day." (The chapter describes Jesus calling Lazarus out of his tomb, struggling with his funerary wrappings.)

Risen - ? - !

Pre-Jesus Jerusalem multi-use tomb being modelled by excavators - roof collapsed

In John’s account following the execution of Jesus on the Roman cross we read:
Early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. It was still dark. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the entrance. So she ran to Simon Peter and another disciple, the one Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb! We don’t know where they have put him!”
Mary (and others - “we”) saw an emptied tomb. (There was more to the story of the women. For example, John goes on to recount that this Mary was the first to speak with the risen Jesus.)

Dead

Jesus “Was crucified, dead, and buried..” - old words, long used. An even older statement is found in Paul’s writings:
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, NRSV).

The purpose of Jesus' coming was indicated from the outset. (See, for example, posts "Saviour"; "Lamb of God"). Jesus himself made it very plain well beforehand that his death was no tragic defeat or failure of strategy:
The reason my Father loves me is that I give up my life. But I will take it back again. No one takes it from me. I give it up myself. I have the authority to give it up. And I have the authority to take it back again. I received this command from my Father.”
The Jews who heard these words could not agree with one another. Many of them said, “He is controlled by a demon. He has gone crazy! Why should we listen to him?” (John 10: 17-20, NIRV) Too plain! What offended them so? Must have been that claim Jesus' made.

Lamb of God

Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away (does away with, or removes) the "sin of the world".

Mercy

From Matthew’s record of Jesus’ teaching (chapter 18: 23-35) comes a confronting story which is about responding to mercy (although the context has Peter asking about the quantity of forgiveness for “brothers"):
“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to collect all the money his servants owed him. As the king began to do it, a man who owed him 10,000 bags of gold was brought to him. The man was not able to pay. So his master gave an order. The man, his wife, his children, and all he owned had to be sold to pay back what he owed.
“Then the servant fell on his knees in front of him. ‘Give me time,’ he begged. ‘I’ll pay everything back.’ His master felt sorry for him. He forgave him what he owed and let him go.

Light

Jesus and the Light

The word “light” is used in the description of Jesus himself, his message and his role. Light here conveys the senses of the source of inner enlightenment and, by rolling back the darkness, of making visible what would otherwise not be “seen”.