Kim Gentes

What Wright does with this book is bring us more clearly into the world of the historical first century Jew who became the central character of human history, namely Jesus Christ. Instead of interpreting the Jesus from our modern or post-modern contexts, Wright takes us into the world of prophetic Messianic writings, temple symbols and worship, political and nationalistic pursuits that enraptured the Jewish culture during the time of Jesus of Nazareth.  In "The Challenge of Jesus" Wright explains Jesus as the a person primarily driven through vocation, to fulfill his calls as Israel's Messiah, the hope and son of David and ultimately the light of the world. Wright sees Jesus as fully aware of his mission to be the Messianic figure that not only fulfills the prophetic writings, but actually displaces many of the essential symbols of his Jewish heritage (Sabbath, Temple, Torah and more). In this act of becoming the king of the Jews through claim, he seeks to become the replacement for the main functions of the Jewish Temple as well, taking on himself the activity of forgiveness of sins, worship, community and celebration.  Likewise Jesus articulates in himself a replacement for the Sabbath and the Torah wherein Jesus becomes the embodied Word of God and the sabbath rest for man.

Wright attempts to communicate that Jesus certainly thought of himself as messiah and vocationally as the son of Abba, doing His will on earth, though he doesn't go so far as to say Jesus knows himself to be God omniscient under human skin.  And this is good, because it requires us to spin 180 degrees around and back up 2000 years into the question and see it from the historical perspective looking forward from the first century on, rather than backward from the 21st century looking back two millennium.  Our aspect, though strange at first, takes on much brighter inspection on the life of Jesus and the often misunderstood meanderings of the first  century church. What Wright proposes is a thoroughly eschatological viewpoint of the Christ story and of early church history- one in which the hopes of Israel are so completely fulfilled in Jesus that its abrupt and contrasting arrival is violently opposed by many of the  effected parties who would have their positions and power challenged if what Jesus said was true: the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, the Romans, the Teachers of the Law, the revolutionary Zionists and almost any power-based organization.  But through the death and resurrection of Jesus, He becomes the vindicated Messiah and the long waited Savior of Israel.  But He does so by surprising them in doing this as both completely man and as God-in-the-flesh, dwelling among humans as the new fully human way to live.

Of minor complaint in reading this book is that Wright does a disservice in his work that puts off the reader to consider the writer perhaps less interested in the text than the reader is. He reflects, not once or twice but literally a dozen or more times on the fact that he will not take much time or space to support a theory or two in depth. Presumably he has better things to do than fill the book with back-story, recounted data and textual references, but the student and reader isn't convinced. In the end, this constant reminding that he does serves to weaken the text left intact in the manuscript. I'd even much rather he said that he deals with this all in detail in another volume. He says this occasionally, though not enough to convince the reader that they are either a novice who will get those details if they keep going or an idiot if they haven't read all the historical documents he takes us for having needed to fully explain his point. I recognize that this book is an attempt to articulate the content of "Jesus and the Victory of God" (his scholarly account of this same topic), but Wright would have kept the thing clear if he didn't try to constantly complain about having to right such a "boiled down" version - he should have made his point a couple of times then stopped.

What conclusively and profoundly is pointed out by Wright in this book is the concept of Jesus fitting well into the narrative of Jewish history- what he calls the “meta-narrative”. This particular label provides a stark rendering of how to conceive of the life of Jesus inside the great story. Not just a story for his time, but for the ancient peoples and for us today, as for those yet to come.  Jesus did not “hi-jack” the story line of humanity, interjecting a bit of God to help us get along. In Wrights “Challenge”, Jesus becomes the pivotal character, at the pivotal time, on the pivotal issues. All of which helps us understand much better how to orient ourselves to the truth about God, humanity and our particular part in it.  How we fit in is becomes a more clear rendering within of the meta-narrative. It forces us to consider starting at and with Jesus perspective and point in time rather than a selfish modern (or post-modern) rant effusing arrogantly over top of past generations, by interpreting our place and time as having more particular influence upon a clear reading of the meanings of Jesus, His life, the gospel story, the New Testament and even the entire human history.

One important sub-plot of this meta-narrative was the theme of Exodus, which reverberated through Jewish tradition. Jesus came to fulfill, in the Jewish, story the exodus out of the captivity of sin into the promises land.  This was likely the prime story recounted and in the mind of his hearers.  But since Jesus did not fulfill this with Israel as a political or military triumph, leaders and people as a whole missed the point of Jesus “revolution”. Nevertheless, Jesus acts were the true exodus, not just for Israel, but the whole world, bringing about the engagement of the Kingdom of God on earth. The King was here, and the activity of walking people out of Egypt via the exodus into their land of forgiveness of sin was here.  The fulfillment of Christ across this story was the thoroughly Jewish rendering of God’s salvation come to earth.

Amazon Book Link: http://amzn.to/HwNNeV

Review by Kim Gentes

Reading and reviewing NT Wright's "Jesus and the Victory of God" is a monolithic task, as the book is both lengthy and highly academic. Its success is not in its volume of pages, however, but in its thorough treatment of Jesus and his work as historical fact leading to theological reality.

The portrait of Jesus of Galilee as the first century Jew who is both prophet/messiah is so profoundly unlike our 20th/21st Century thinking, that it is a shock treatment into the historical Jesus. It re-levels our Christian beliefs and theology from our arrogant "looking back on history" to a profound looking from the 1rst century forward, through the eyes of Judaism and its traditions and worldview. When we wake up from the shock, we find we are in a world that is thoroughly Jewish, thoroughly 1rst century, living as a conquered nation of Israel with its neck under the heel of the tyrannical Roman Empire.

Amongst a brood of  1st century revolutionary Zionists, Pharisees and "Jews-still-in-exile" within their own country, Jesus appears and draws on this climactic time, announcing in himself the arrival the kingdom-of-god message in which he comes to reconstitute the Temple, the Torah, and the Wisdom into his very person, reissuing their true essence into himself.  At the same time, he redefines the true people of God not as a swipe against Israel but as a reinstatement of the core of its vocation and character- to be the light of the world.

Once the core of who Jesus is, what he intended, and what he actually did is redefined, the entire synoptic readings need complete reinterpreting, and Wright provides that as well, exploring the parables, symbols, actions and praxis of Jesus as both a means and expression to his brilliant thesis.

Product Link on Amazon: Jesus and the Victory of God

Review by Kim Gentes