Who Was Jesus and What Does It Mean to Follow Him?

By Nancy Elizabeth Bedford

Evanston, IL 60202
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Herald Press
• Release date: Feb 23, 2021
• ISBN: 9781513806211

Book preview

Introduction to The Jesus Way Series from Herald Press

The Jesus Way is good news for all people, of all times, in all places. Jesus Christ is before all things, and in him all things hold together; in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (Colossians 1:17, 19). The Jesus Way happens when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

But what does it mean to walk the Jesus Way? How can we who claim the name of Christ reflect the image of God in the twenty-first century? What does it mean to live out and proclaim the good news of reconciliation in Christ?

The Jesus Way: Small Books of Radical Faith offers concise, practical theology that helps readers encounter big questions about God’s work in the world. Grounded in a Christ-centered reading of Scripture and a commitment to reconciliation, the series aims to enliven the service and embolden the witness of people who follow Jesus. The volumes in the series are written by a diverse community of internationally renowned pastors, scholars, and practitioners committed to the way of Jesus.

The Jesus Way series is rooted in Anabaptism, a Christian tradition that prioritizes following Jesus, loving enemies, and creating faithful communities. During the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s, early Anabaptists who began meeting for worship emphasized discipleship in addition to belief, baptized adults instead of infants, and pledged their allegiance to God over loyalty to the state. Early Anabaptists were martyred for their radical faith, and they went to their deaths without violently resisting their accusers.

Today more than two million Anabaptist Christians worship in more than one hundred countries around the globe. They include Mennonites, Amish, Brethren in Christ, and Hutterites. Many other Christians committed to Anabaptist beliefs and practices remain in church communities in other traditions.

Following Jesus means turning from sin, renouncing violence, seeking justice, believing in the reconciling power of God, and living in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Jesus Way liberates us from conformity to the world and heals broken places. It shines light on evil and restores all things.

Join Christ-followers around the world as we seek the Jesus Way.

Introduction

The title of this book asks two questions: Who was Jesus? and What does it mean to follow him? If we take both questions seriously, we will soon find that they are so tightly woven together that we cannot separate them. We come to know Jesus by following him in our lives, as Anabaptist theologian Hans Denck (ca. 1495–1527) put it.¹ (Key terms appear in bold throughout the book and are defined in the glossary.) We cannot ultimately figure out much about who Jesus was without committing at some level to trust him enough to follow him on his way. By following in the steps of Jesus (1 Peter 2:21) with the help of the Holy Spirit, alongside other people from the past and present who are on a similar quest, we can come to know not just something of who Jesus was in the past, but also who he is now and will be in the future.

In a well-known scene depicted in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke,² Jesus asks his disciples what other people are saying about him. They answer that, according to the rumors circulating, many people think he is a prophet. He then puts them on the spot and asks them directly, "But who do you say that I am? (Mark 8:29, emphasis added). Peter manages to reply, saying, You are the Messiah (or the Christ). A similar situation transpires in the gospel of John, in a conversation between Jesus and Martha of Bethany. Jesus asks her whether she believes that he is the resurrection and the life. Martha answers that she does: I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world" (John 11:27). Both Peter and Martha—like the other disciples—are beginning to walk alongside Jesus, slowly getting to know him better, while simultaneously trying to figure out what he means to them and to the wider world. They use language and images familiar to them from the Hebrew Bible, their cultural contexts, and the teachings of Jesus himself to begin to articulate who he is and what it means to follow in his footsteps. In this book, we will likewise attempt to walk alongside Jesus, get to know him, and figure out some meaningful ways to express who he is and what it might mean concretely to follow him in our lives.³

1

Jesus of Nazareth

When our oldest daughter, Valeria, was three or four years old, she engaged in a running commentary on all that she encountered, as do many children at that age. At that time, we lived in Buenos Aires. She often accompanied me, holding my hand, as we walked around our neighborhood, running errands. She loved discovering artwork hidden in plain sight, in small courtyards or in niches at the side of an entryway. Look at the baby with his mommy! she would exclaim upon seeing an image of Mary holding the infant Jesus. It is God and his mother! Sometimes we would enter the Catholic Basilica of San José, for a moment of tranquility and to escape the heat. She was particularly interested in a statue of Jesus, lying as if asleep (and indeed, dead) after the crucifixion, still wearing his crown of thorns. She would often ask me what had happened to him. Don’t worry! she would tell him before leaving. God is going to make you alive again! I was intrigued by the vivid way she synthesized and expressed what she had absorbed to that point about Jesus: his humanity and divinity, his accessibility to a child, his death on the cross, and the hope unleashed by his resurrection. Like the earliest Christians, on the basis of personal experience and the traditions that had been handed down to her, she was beginning to piece together some of who Jesus is, and what it means to engage with him.

The earliest writings of the New Testament—the letters of the apostle Paul to emerging church communities—presuppose that their readers already know the contours of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul is writing to respond to concrete problems, not to retell the whole story. At the time