Living Jesus: Learning the Heart of the Gospel

218 Pages·2000·2.542 MB·English

by  Luke Timothy Johnson

LIVINJ(jE SUS
Learning the Heart of the Gospel
LUKE TIMOTHY JOHNSON
HarperSanFrancisco
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers
Bible quotations, unless otherwise noted, are translated by the author. Some citations are
from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Divi­
sion of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.,
used by permission, and indicated parenthetically as (RSV).
LIVING JESUS: Learning the Heart of the Gospel. Copyright © 1999 by Luke Timothy John­
son. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may
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FIRST EDITION
Library ofC ongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson, Luke Timothy.
Living Jesus : learning the heart of the Gospel I Luke Timothy
Johnson. -1st ed.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-06-064282-3 (cloth)
ISBN 0-06-064283-1 (pbk.)
1. Jesus Christ-Resurrection. 2. Bible. N. T. Gospels-History
and Criticism. 3. Jesus Christ-Biography-History and criticism.
4. Jesus Christ-Historicity. 5. Jesus Christ-History of
doctrines-20th century. I. Title.
BT48i.J64 1998
232'.s-dc21 98-22647
CIP
99 oo 01 02 03 RRD(H) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
To Joy
Partner, Lover, Friend

Contents
Preface ix
PART ONE: The Truth That Is in Jesus 1
I. He Is the Living One 3
2. Learning Jesus Through Tradition 23
3. He Bodies Forth Whose Glory Is Past Change 39
4. The Process of Learning Jesus 57
5. The Living Jesus and the Revelatory Text 77
6. Paul's Witness to Jesus 99
·
PART TWO: Jesus in the Gospels 117
7. One Person in Four Portraits 119
8. Jesus in Mark's Gospel 129
9. Jesus in Matthew's Gospel 145
10. Jesus in Luke-Acts 159
1 i. Jesus in John's Gospel 177
12. The Continuing Mystery 195
Index 205

Preface
In this book I venture to think through the implications of a strong belief
that the real Jesus is the living, resurrected Jesus and that being a Chris­
tian means modeling one's life on that Jesus as best we can. In that sense it
is a less polemical and more constructive sequel to my recent publication,
The Real Jesus. The earlier book took on the cultural phenomenon of Jesus
in the nightly news. This one reflects on the mystery of the person of Jesus
as good news.
I have written this book for people who, like me, find much of what is
called spirituality too far removed from traditional Christian faith, and
much of what is written about Jesus too little concerned with the transfor­
mation of human freedom. Calling anything a spirituality these days is an
invitation to misunderstanding, since there are so many varieties afloat.
Readers should not look here for a how-to manual for psychic renewal or
reassurance. Nor should they expect a rendering of Jesus that enables a
casting off of ecclesiastical manacles. Spirituality here means not the culti­
vation of the human spirit, but the response of human freedom to the Holy
Spirit of God. For Christians, this encounter involves the person of Jesus,
not as a historical figure of the past, but as resurrected Lord in the present.
But how can such an encounter with Jesus be conceived? Is there a
place between a historicism that wants to keep Jesus locked in his past and
a mysticism that threatens to vaporize the particularity of Jesus altogether?
I try to locate that place in a process of intersubjective learning within the
community of faith-a process in which the diverse portrayals of Jesus in
the writings of the New Testament play a positive rather than a negative
role. This book does not pretend to enact such a process but instead seeks
to encourage an appreciation for its several dimensions.
LUKE TIMOTHY JOHNSON
CANDLER SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY
EMORY UNIVERSITY
APRIL I, i998

PART 1
The Truth That Is in Jesus