Block 4 - Borg, Pages 146-157, 165-190

In pages 146-150, Borg discusses Jesus as a healer. Jesus clearly had a reputation as a healer. The modern question is: What do we make of this reputation? How do we explain it? Borg makes a good point when he says that Jesus most often healed by word. Sometimes he used touch, but most often it was his word that made the difference. This is reminiscent of the emphasis on the divine word as the means of divine activity, as in creation (Genesis 1). Here with Jesus' healings, the divine word is used to restore health. That is, Jesus was not a magician who used potions or magical incantations (which were known of during this time). Rather the emphasis on the spoken word is more reminiscent of the tradition of the Jewish prophets. Borg makes a good point about the connection between Jesus' answer to the disciples of John the Baptist about his ministry in which the lame walk and the blind see and etc. (Matthew 11:4-5), and the fact that this is a reference to Isaiah 61:1. Isaiah Chapter 61 is about the "age to come" when (as I it interpret it) God's spirit will be upon God's anointed one (Messiah) to right all the wrongs in the world. The portrayal of Jesus' healings in the Gospels fits this model of an anointed one righting wrongs. Borg seems to imply that he is inclined to think that this response to the disciples of John the Baptist (Matthew 11:4-5) is authentically from Jesus, meaning that Jesus believed his healings were a manifestation of the presence of the Kingdom of God in the ministry of Jesus.

With regard to Jesus' exorcisms, Borg points out that belief in the existence of demonic spirits and possession by such spirits was not unknown in the ancient world. Borg also makes the point that most modern scholars are inclined to view the conditions described as demonic possession as examples of what we could call mental illness or, in at least one case, an epileptic seizure (see Mark 9:14-29). Regardless of how one interprets such strange behavior today, there is no doubt that Jesus was believed to be someone who could expel these demons and make a person whole again, and that Jesus claimed to do this by divine power.

On pages 151-157, Borg discusses Jesus' use of parables as a means to convey his message. In this section Borg is more concerned with the form of the message as a parable than the content of Jesus' message (the content of Jesus' message is discussed in Borg's chapter 7). The word parable means comparison, of which Jesus encourages the hearer to make the comparison and draw out the implications. The length of a parable can be as short as one sentence stating a comparison (such as the parables about yeast, hidden treasure and an expensive pearl, Borg, page 152). Or the parable may a fictional story of several sentences (such as the prodigal son, the workers in the vineyard, the good Samaritan, etc, see Borg, page 152). Borg makes a good point by saying that the parables invite the hearer to make a judgment. A very good example is the conclusion of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32). In case you have never noticed this and thought you knew this parable, look at the ending and you will see it is left open-ended. We don't know how it will end. Which of course is an invitation to the hearer to provide the appropriate ending, which means that the parable is not a story in and of itself, but only in so far as it is able to evoke thoughtful consideration of a topic in the hearer does the parable do its job. Time and again the parables challenge their hearers to embrace a different way of thinking and acting on a particular topic.

Scholars like to refer to the short sayings of Jesus using the Greek word aphorism, which means a short, pithy statement containing a truth of general import (to borrow a dictionary definition). Generally speaking, an aphorism is similar to a proverb, except that a proverb expresses a distillation of conventional wisdom, while an aphorism is a saying that offers some fresh insight (Borg, page 155). This makes sense in the teachings of Jesus, in that often their intent is to overthrow conventional wisdom on a particular topic (see Borg's examples on page 156).

The section on eating meals together is not on the syllabus, but you might find it useful, as it opens a window on a significant aspect of Jesus' ministry, his fraternizing with all manner of people, both the outcasts of society and his followers and the Pharisees. Luke records more of these meals than any other Gospel. While it might seem strange, there are 3 places in Luke where Jesus is reported eating with Pharisees (Luke 7:36, 11:37, 14:1). While we cannot be exactly sure what Jesus' motives were in attending such a variety of meals across several social boundaries, the Gospels present these meals as offering God's acceptance to all people, with the expectation that repentance would be present on the part of the recipient. The story of Zacchaeus is one where a change of heart and lifestyle is the direct result of dining with Jesus (Luke 19:1-10).

In Chapter 7 (pages 165-190), Borg addresses the question of what do the teachings of Jesus tell us about his understanding of the character (and characteristics) of God? Borg enters this discussion from the perspective of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom. John Dominic Crossan is with him in taking this approach. In so doing, Borg refers to other teachers of religious wisdom throughout ancient history (page 166). But Borg makes a distinction between teaching conventional wisdom and challenging conventional wisdom, placing Jesus in the latter category. It seems to me that it makes much more sense to connect Jesus with those teachers of the Jewish scriptures (Old Testament) who challenged the conventional wisdom of their day, the Biblical Prophets. Of course, Job and Ecclesiastes also challenged the conventional wisdom in the Old Testament. However, I think a prophet like Elijah or Elisha would be a more fitting comparison, because it is precisely these two prophets who combined both a ministry of the spoken word with a reputation for performing miracles (serving as examples of God's special activity among humanity) (see Luke 4:16-30). So, I think Borg misses the mark on this point.

With his extended discussion of the parable of the Prodigal Son (page 169ff.), Borg uses this parable to highlight the character of God in the teaching of Jesus, and I think he does a good job with it. The parable itself is obviously about the extravagance of divine compassion. The example of the father in this parable would have run counter to social expectations of the behavior of a wealthy land owner, and Jesus uses this piece of fiction to make a point about the character of God.

Similarly with the passage in Matthew on "do not worry," Borg interprets this as a teaching on God's compassionate generosity (page 175). Continuing in a similar line of thought, Borg highlights those aspects of Jesus' teaching that promote imitation of acts of the same kind of compassion that God has shown to humanity. Perhaps the best example in the teaching of Jesus of the connection between God's compassion and the expectation of humans imitating it is found in the parable of the "Unmerciful Servant" (Matthew18:23-34) (page 177). The same holds true in the parable of the Sheep and Goats in Matthew 25:31-46) (page 179). In the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-15), Borg offers both the traditional interpretation of this parable as demonstrating the character of God's generosity, and a more radical interpretation of it as a subversion of the "domination system" (page 182). Maybe I am a bit old-fashioned, but I prefer the traditional interpretation.

In the section on God's passion for justice (pages 185-190), Borg makes a case for viewing Jesus' teachings on the Kingdom of God from the perspective of social justice, that is, they were addressed to the social ills of the day. Many scholars have made the case that Matthew dilutes Jesus' passion for social justice in his Beatitudes, as found in Borg's comparison of the Beatitudes in Luke (6:20-26) and the parallel tradition in Matthew (5:1-12). However, taking a different approach, Borg makes a case that even Matthew's version of the beatitudes begs to be interpreted as a call for social justice, contrary to the typical spiritualized interpretation of these sayings (page 190).