Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

Therefore he does not enter Gentile cities with his proclamation. Very close to the places where Jesus worked lay any number of cities of the Hellenistic type with a predominantly Gentile population, or at least strong Gentile minorities—for example, Sepphoris, Scythopolis, Hippos, Gadara, Gerasa, Tiberias, and Caesarea Philippi. Jesus does not seem ever to have worked in any of these cities. It may be that he deliberately avoided them during his public activity. Instead, he goes up to Jerusalem, to the place that summarizes and represents Israel. Anyone who wanted to address all Israel had to do so in Jerusalem.

Naturally all of that is no accident. It would have been very easy for Jesus to appear among the Gentiles, and he might even have been highly successful. But Jesus concentrated on Israel.

The Pilgrimage of the Nations

Thus Jesus does not have an active mission to the Gentiles in view. He holds to the rule enunciated in Matthew 10:6: “Go [only] to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But how shall salvation reach the Gentiles? Israel’s theology had long since found a solution to that in the motif-complex of the “pilgrimage of the nations.”

This pilgrimage of the nations will take place in the future, “in days to come” (Isa 2:2) or “in the last days.” It is thus an eschatological event put in motion by God, because it exceeds all human expectations and abilities. Nevertheless, in this as in all things God acts through people, concrete history, and a concrete place, namely, Israel. The motif-complex of the pilgrimage of the nations says that God acts on the peoples of the world through the people of God, who in the last days will become a new society. The image for that new society is the eschatological city of Jerusalem, or simply Mount Zion. It draws the nations. It shines out above all the mountains of the world (Isa 2:2), for a city set high on a hill cannot remain hidden (Matt 5:14).

The reason why the peoples will be drawn to Zion is important: a fascination exceeding all others will emanate from eschatological Israel. This fascination can be described in various ways. Ultimately it is God himself who shines forth in the power of his actions and the peaceful quality of his social order.

What the nations experience on Zion, or in Israel, they will take for themselves, so that it will spread throughout the whole world—for example, nonviolence. They will beat their swords into plowshares (Isa 2:4).

It is true that the pilgrimage of the nations is an eschatological event, but Israel is called now, already, to make a way for what is to come. Characteristic of this appeal is the cry in Isaiah 2:5, immediately after the description of the future pilgrimage of the nations: “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!” To that extent the Old Testament itself is aware of a “self-realizing eschatology,” or the dialectic of “already and not yet.” The pilgrimage of the nations to Zion is being prepared already in Israel’s turning back.

Thus the vision of the pilgrimage of the nations answers the question of what God intends with the peoples of the world. Jesus’ concentration on the people of God takes place against a universal horizon. It is not an egoistic view fixed on Israel; it is about the nations. It is about the world.

However, Israel’s theology contains not only the motif-complex of the pilgrimage of the nations or the idea that the blessing of God that lies on Israel will extend from there to encompass other nations (cf., e.g., Isa 19:23-25). There are also quite different positions, such as the many threats uttered by the prophets against the nations.⁷ These announce destruction. There is also the idea of a hostile attack of the nations against the city of God, which will not succeed but will be broken against Zion.

In Isaiah 8:9-10 the Gentile peoples are even ridiculed. Let them come against Jerusalem, if they will! Let them arm themselves for the decisive battle! Let them, by all means, make plans and forge alliances! Nothing will help them: they will be shattered against Zion. When the first line of this threat reads “Smash!” it presupposes that the hostile armies are already devastating the land around Jerusalem.

Smash, you peoples! for you will be crushed.

Listen, all you far countries!

Arm yourselves! for you will be crushed.

Gird yourselves! for you will be shattered.

Make a plan! for it will be thwarted.

Forge an alliance: it will not come about.

For God is with us. (Isa 8:9-10)

⁸

Jesus knew his Bible, and obviously he also knew the ideas about the attack of the nations, their hostility to Israel, and their ultimate destruction. But it is striking that all that plays no role in his preaching. He does, of course, take it as given that there will be a judgment of the world, but in that judgment it will go better with Tyre and Sidon than with unbelieving Israel (Matt 11:21-22).