One thing is certain: “Our Lord is coming.” Every time we celebrate Advent we are reminded of this. Who exactly is it that the believers are expecting then? This is the second of four biblical points of view.
My Jesus is the promised Messiah and the only true teacher and master. I wrote a book about this.
I am a Christian who lived in the first century. I am a kind of teacher and know my way around the scriptures of my time, and am working on developing my own work like “a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old”. My home is not in Palestine, the setting of my narratives, but further north in the Roman province of Syria.
Believers in a dilemma
My writings are aimed at people in difficult circumstances: devout Jews, who were suddenly separated from their fellow believers on account of their own convictions of having found the Messiah.
On the one hand, they are staunchly Jewish. The Torah continues to be valid without changing a single jot. The kingdom of God is called the kingdom of heaven in order not to have to enunciate the name of the Most High. And “the scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.”
On the other hand, they are totally against it. Right at the beginning, John the Baptist insulted the Pharisees and Sadducees by calling them a brood of vipers. And Jesus Himself adds fuel to the fire by saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” He calls them whitewashed tombs, “which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness”.
The words of the prophet are fulfilled
My Jesus is the Messiah: anointed as the Lord of a new period, the Saviour, who liberates, gathers, and leads to peace, righteousness, and the good of all.
He is the promised Messiah. That is what I am trying to prove with the genealogical table going right back to the patriarch Abraham and King David. With the name “Immanuel”, as in the book of Isaiah. And with the reference, “for thus it is written”, which can be found by the dozen.
“Fulfilled” is therefore a key word in my book. “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.”
Christianity in practice
My Jesus is also the ultimate teacher: “But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.” That is why the words of Jesus are at least as important to me as His deeds and actions are.
And that is why I am packing His teachings, together with what I know about His actions and deeds, into five great discourses: the Sermon on the Mount (“Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them.”), the Mission Discourse directed to the disciples (“He who receives you receives Me.”), the Parabolic Discourse (“Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.”), the Discourse on the church (“For where two or three are gathered together in My name …”), and the Olivet Discourse (“Enter into the joy of your lord.”).
Actually, my Jesus had only been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. However, “you were not willing”. And therefore, almost at the end, it says: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
My Jesus is the promised Redeemer and true Master. I wrote a book about this. They call me Matthew, the Evangelist.