Which Jesus?: Choosing Between Love and Power

By Tony Campolo

What if there were two men named Jesus in the city of Nazareth? One was Jesus Barabbas, son of Abbas. One was Jesus Barjoseph, son of Joseph.
One man was famous for his hatred and destruction. One was famous for his love and compassion. They lived, played, studied, and worked side by side, with one crucial difference: only one of them offered the way to salvation and eternal life.
In Which Jesus, Campolo follows the divergent paths of the two until they converge at the feet of Pilate. Comparing the lives of two distinctly different men, a portrait emerges of One who had power over life and death versus one who would live by the sword and die by the sword.
As Campolo draws the compelling distinction between true power and love and ill-gotten power and hate, Christians see that they have the ability today to do even greater works for the Kingdom than they ever believed possible. It's a simple question of choosing which Jesus to serve.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Apr 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781418519421

Tony Campolo

Dr. Tony Campolo es profesor emeritus de Sociología en el Eastern College de St. Davids, estado de Pennsylvania. Es También fundador y presidente de la Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, una organización educativa que ayuda a niños y adolescentes "en situación de riesgo", en las ciudades de Estados Unidos de América y en otros países en desarrollo. El Dr. Campolo tiene escritos más de 20 libros y es un orador popular tanto a nivel nacional como internacional. Él y su esposa, Margaret, residen en Pennsylvania.

Book preview

WHICH JESUS?

OTHER BOOKS BY TONY CAMPOLO

Carpe Diem

Following Jesus Without Embarrassing God

It’s Friday, but Sunday’s Comin’

Let Me Tell You a Story

20 Hot Potatoes Christians Are Afraid to Touch

You Can Make a Difference

WHICH JESUS?

TONY CAMPOLO

9780849944031_INT_0003_001

© 2002 Tony Campolo.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [e-mail].

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations used in this book are from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from The New King James Version © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

ISBN 978-1-4185-3238-3 (TP)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Campolo, Anthony.

    Which Jesus? / by Tony Campolo.

     p. cm.

  ISBN 978-0-8499-4403-1

   1. Love—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.

BV4639 .C26 2003

241'.4—dc21

2002154123

Printed in the United States of America

12 13 14 15 16 PHX 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

In memory of my nephew Raymond P. Scull,

who so much wanted to follow Jesus Barjoseph

in ministry to the poor and oppressed

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Getting into the Story

1. The Two Messiahs

2. The Way of Power vs. The Way of Love

3. Which Jesus Do You Want?

4. Love Can Do Amazing Things

5. Love’s Supremacy over Power

6. How to Experience the Miracle of Love

Epilogue: Are You Ready to Do Love?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Aspecial thanks to Valerie Hoffman, who typed the manuscript for this book. Also a round of applause to Jennifer Stair for the fine editing job that made it ready for publication. Much gratitude to Laura Kendall, who orchestrated getting this book into print. Most of all, thanks to my wife, Peggy, who spent endless hours improving my writing and helping me find the best way to say what I wanted to say.

INTRODUCTION

GETTING

INTO THE STORY

This is the story of two men named Jesus, each of whom claimed to be the Messiah. They were contemporaries, and their lives were so interwoven that it has been said that the destiny of each was wrapped up in the destiny of the other.

The Jesus who was born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, and who was crucified, risen, and is alive today, is the true Messiah. He is the one ordained to be the Savior of the world. He is the Jesus who came to save the world through sacrificial love.

The other Jesus of our story—Jesus Barabbas—also claimed to be a messiah, but his way of saving the people of Judah was by means of armed revolution. The kingdom Jesus Barabbas sought to establish was not to be created by love, but rather through the exercise of militaristic power. This Jesus offered the ancient Jews a vision of deliverance that promised freedom from the Roman authorities who dominated them. But his way of achieving that end would be through the sword.

I first heard about the possibility that Barabbas might have had Jesus as a first name during my seminary days. My professor of New Testament said that he thought it strange that when Pilate asked the crowd to choose which man they wanted to be set free during the Jews’ annual Passover celebration, he did not use Barabbas’s first name, which would have been the expected thing to do. Since Barabbas means son of Abbas, it would have been confusing to refer to him only by his surname, especially if his father had more than one son. Might it be, suggested my professor, that Barabbas’s first name was also Jesus, and Pilate was trying to differentiate between two men who bore the same first name?

I began to consider how ironic it would be if my professor were right. Over the years, I have tried to track down concrete evidence that Barabbas’s first name really was Jesus. I have come upon a number of hints and suggestions, but I have not yet found the convincing evidence that historians require. I can’t prove that the given name of the man we call Barabbas was Jesus, but I have come to believe that it was. And that belief has given rise to this little book.

By the way, the name Barabbas translates as son of God. That fact, in and of itself, doubles the irony of this story.

Let us look at the differences between these two messiahs as their stories unfold. I have woven their stories together using biblical facts, historical records, and yes, some imagination. But through it all, one question emerges: Which Jesus will you choose to be your Savior and to call the Lord of your life?

ONE

THE TWO MESSIAHS

God’s Son, Jesus, had a last name while growing up in Nazareth, insofar as people had last names back then. He went by the name of His surrogate father, Joseph. In Hebrew, His last name was Barjoseph, which means son of Joseph. But our Savior wasn’t