Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

Thus the petition for an eschatological gathering is among Israel’s fixed prayer formulae. In the time of Jesus the petition had long been in circulation. So it was almost a matter of course for him to adopt the idea of “gathering.” He did not need to think directly of gathering out of the Diaspora, because the idea had already acquired its own quality. It stood for the eschatological union, rescue, and redemption of Israel. But Jesus not only made verbal use of the idea; in his own matter-of-fact way he brought into being exactly what the idea meant.

John the Baptizer

The Baptizer must have given Jesus a critical impetus. It is true that John preached the immediately approaching judgment, but this expectation of the judgment soon to come did not make the gathering of Israel somehow superfluous. On the contrary: it made it all the more urgent. Precisely because the time still remaining for Israel is so limited, the Baptizer had to bring the people together and equip them for what was about to happen. The one who judges with fire will then bring this gathering process to an end: he will fill the granary with wheat and burn the chaff in unquenchable fire (Matt 3:12).

We have already seen² that the Baptizer addresses not humanity in general or all sinners throughout the world but the people of God. The baptism he confers is not intended to inaugurate a special community or to rescue individuals as such from judgment (though it is meant to do that too); it is an “eschatological sacrament” for Israel.³

What is important for the Baptizer is that there must always be true children of Abraham, always the true Israel (Matt 3:9). The repentance and baptism now offered by God is the last chance for Israel to become this people of God, for Israel is now in the deepest crisis of its history. It can repent and allow itself to be gathered like wheat, or it can refuse to repent. In that case there will be a separation, just as the chaff is separated from the wheat (Matt 3:12). So for the Baptizer, as far as Israel is concerned, there is gathering and there is separation. Jesus, in his own way, will accomplish both.

“Whoever Does Not Gather with Me”

Jesus too wanted nothing else but to gather Israel in the face of the reign of God now coming to pass. But his point of view is different: the impulse is not the impending judgment but the joy of the reign of God. Judgment is not suppressed or ignored; it remains in the background. If Israel refuses, it will bring judgment on itself. So Jesus can say: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matt 12:30 // Luke 11:23). This saying of Jesus has rightly been dubbed a “call to decision.”⁴ There can be no neutrality toward Jesus, only for or against. Whoever does not decide for him has already decided against him.

But what makes this saying of Jesus even weightier is that it is not just about a decision for or against Jesus. Since this is about the eschatological gathering of Israel, the choice for or against Jesus is also a decision for or against the salvation of Israel.⁵ Anyone who does not gather with Jesus now, in this crucial eschatological situation, stands in the way of the salvation and redemption of the people of God.

Besides this radical call to decision there is another saying in which Jesus also speaks of the gathering of Israel. It must have been uttered in a late phase of his work because he is already looking back at a good many refusals: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matt 23:37 // Luke 13:34). On the surface this means that Jesus often wanted to gather the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, to make it the center of the eschatological Israel. But that would presume that he had appeared in Jerusalem a number of times. We cannot exclude that, although it contradicts the way things are presented in the Synoptic Gospels.⁶ But we can also understand Jesus’ words differently if we suppose that Jerusalem stands for all Israel.