Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

We can only do justice to the New Testament if we insist that God spoke himself fully in Jesus. Jesus is the definitive presence of God in the world. Who sees him, sees the Father (John 14:9). He is “the Son” in a sense that cannot be said of any human being. Ultimately the unconditional “today” Jesus proclaims is grounded in his unrestricted participation in the eternal “today” of God.

Those who subtract from Jesus’ present eschatology are therefore in great danger of minimizing the mystery of Jesus’ person. It is no accident that it is John’s gospel, which contains the statement “I and the Father are one” (10:30)—note: it does not say “I and the Father are identical,” but “I and the Father are one”—that represents the clearest and most unconditional present eschatology in the New Testament. Thus the “not yet” of the reign of God is brought about not by God’s hesitation but by the hesitance of human beings to turn their lives around. People prefer not to let God get too close. They would rather dance at their own weddings than at the one to which God is inviting them.

Honorable Excuses

So Jesus had to tell in a parable (Luke 14:15-24) how a man prepared a banquet, taking care to provide a fine meal and doing everything to make his guests happy. Finally it was ready—and the guests did not come, even though they had long since been invited. Instead, one excuse after another arrived: I have bought a farm, please excuse me. I have bought five yoke of oxen, please excuse me. I have just gotten married; alas, I cannot come.

The parable is neither about the salvation of individuals nor about joy beyond this world. It is about God’s feast with his people, which is to happen now, in the hour of Jesus’ appearing. That feast is as much in question today as it was then. Those invited continue to find new excuses to shield themselves from the God who is near and from the gathering of the people of God.

For the most part the excuses are honorable. They almost always end with: “I would like to. But at the moment it is not possible!” But Jesus’ “today” says: you have no more time, because the world is burning down. You have to act now, for you have encountered God’s cause. You have to put your whole existence in play, right now—now, because you have received God’s invitation.

Not a Kantian Ethics of Duty

But—when we put it this way, we see immediately that this “you must!” cannot stand in isolation, or it will fall short of Jesus’ proclamation. In such a case Jesus would be nothing but the holiest of all moralists. Jesus’ aim, with his “today,” is not primarily duty, the imperative, the moral “must,” but the jubilee over the feast that is offered, the joy at the treasure and the pearl we can find already.

The parable of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price (Matt 13:44-46) will be treated at length later in this book (cf. chap. 14). Here I want only to point out the uncompromising present eschatology of the parable. It does not say: “It is with the reign of God as with a treasure someone found. He buried it again, went home rejoicing, and lived afterward with the happy thought that the treasure existed and at some time in the future he would hold it in his hand.” No, the parable tells how the man obtains the treasure, on the spot: “in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matt 13:44).

So the hidden treasure of the reign of God is already dug up, and the pearl of great value has already been acquired. The feast is ready to begin, and everything depends now only on whether those invited will come.

Theological Avoidance Maneuvers

This chapter has been about Jesus’ proclamation of the reign of God. The focus was quite clearly on the present aspect of the reign of God as proclaimed by Jesus. There is a reason for that: it is just this present aspect in Jesus’ preaching that is repeatedly softened, both in theology and in teaching and preaching.