When Jesus began to proclaim his original saving message, it focused on the kingdom of God and the family of God. You enter the kingdom of God with the simple and humble faith of a little child, thereby becoming part of God’s family of faith. This is how you are born again to start the new life in the spirit. The child of God grows up to become like the Parent. This involves developing a strong and balanced character centered in God. And believe and rejoice! We can do this because the kingdom is within; this is the spirit of God, which enables us to seek, find, choose, and do the will of God. God within us leads us in the divine ways of relating. We are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the neighbor as ourselves. We are to be merciful as God is merciful. We are to go the second mile in service to others. We are to worship God Father in spirit and in truth. What is the truth? For starters, God is our Father, and we are his children. There is not only the family of faith. It is also true that we are all family—the brotherhood of man, the siblinghood of humankind. These two truths were the heart of Jesus’ original message.
Watch the 9:23 video or listen to the podcast episode. (This last link does not seem to work yet).
In addition to the joy and work of the original gospel, there was another cluster of teachings that centered on his being the divine Son of God. Jesus’ twelve apostles had seen a number of indications that pointed to his divine Sonship, especially the sermon at Capernaum when Jesus revealed himself as the bread of life that came down from heaven. Nevertheless, the apostles had not clearly realized it, although the time had come for them to know. The outworking would have tremendous implications for the gospel movement.
At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked the twelve, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
After Peter had spoken, Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.” Peter had just broken through the momentum of two thousand years of Jewish history, which had properly insisted—against the worship of nature gods—that the human and the divine were distinct and separate. The concept of a human and divine Messiah was so new that it had not registered in the minds of the apostles. The insight that Peter proclaimed had come straight from God.
Following Peter’s historic breakthrough, Jesus sternly ordered the twelve not to tell this to anyone.
Why should they not proclaim the truth of Jesus’ divine Sonship immediately to the crowds? If the Master’s real gospel was about being the Messiah and the Son of God, then it made no sense for him to tell the apostles not to proclaim it—unless Peter had voiced a truth, indeed, a new phase of the gospel, for which most of Jesus’ followers lacked the necessary preparation. And the twelve needed more work learning to live and teach the original message before they would have the proper foundation for teach this high truth wisely.
As a crisis leader, Jesus was juggling a number of concerns at the same time. The crisis needed to be addressed—in such a way that the original message would not be overshadowed by it. Jesus tried—to keep his gospel movement on track while adding to it this high truth. The cluster of truths surrounding the concept of Jesus as the Son of God were so striking that they could upstage the gospel that Jesus had labored to plant during the first part of his public career. If instead a message centered on Jesus as the Son of God were to take center stage, it would transform the religion of Jesus, the religion that he lived and taught, into a religion about Jesus. And that is exactly what happened.
Now the truth of Jesus’ divine Sonship is widely proclaimed. This priceless gift brings to Jesus’ followers two big challenges that are still with us today. The first is for happy and grateful believers who receive the new truth to faithfully trust in Jesus’ wisdom. Get the gospel movement back on track. Proclaim the original message by your lives and lips. And treat the high truth of divine Sonship as advanced revelation to be given, normally, to those who are already established in the many-sided, saving truth of the original message.
The second big challenge is for theological conservatives and liberals to enjoy spiritual unity with one another. I’m not talking about intellectual uniformity. Some believers accept the original gospel joyfully, but not the new teaching.
In order to have spiritual unity we must have a living connection with the divine spirit plus dedication to grow in living the will of God. On that basis, sooner or later, mutual respect and love will flourish. The truth of the original gospel has unsuspected power to lead to a moral and spiritual awakening that will usher in the next phase of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Image credit: the juggling comes from the 2019 Wikimedia Hackathon in Prague. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Juggling_at_Wikimedia_Hackathon_2019_01.jpg/512px-Juggling_at_Wikimedia_Hackathon_2019_01.jpg
