Saturday, December 19, 2015

The Nature of Jesus' Priesthood in his Public Ministry

                                                           It is easier for us to see how Jesus exercised his priesthood in the public ministry after he was baptized by John the Baptist as it is recorded in the Bible.In the river Jordan John protested that the proper order or the hierarchy was not kept by the candidate before him for baptism as it was he who ought to be baptized  by Jesus (Matthew, 3: 13-15). Jesus did not attempt to argue and convince John about the new order he wanted to inaugurate by submission before him like a servant , although it was he who was the real master and John the servant. In the new order of priesthood Jesus was invested with , order and hierarchy were to be subservient to the dignity of each and every man and woman to liberate whom from slavery Jesus was ready to sacrifice himself. This idea of servant-hood and victim-hood portrayed in the Synoptic Gospels is very well brought out by the Gospel of John with the imagery of the Lamb of God. John the Baptist was sent by God to bear witness to Jesus and at the very first sight of Jesus coming to him he declared that that was the Lamb of God (John, 1: 29). How did John recognize Jesus  without any previous acquaintance with him? John himself tells us how he recognized Jesus as the one who was to baptize in the Holy Spirit as he had been given a sign by the one who sent him to baptize in water (John, 1: 32-34). Besides, John must have been aware of the prophecy of Prophet Isaiah about the lamb that is dumb before its shearers, (Isaiah 53: 7). We shall ignore here the inconclusive arguments among the biblical scholars about the role of John the Evangelist in this and similar passages as well as the opinion that the roles played by the two groups, one supporting the Baptist and the other Jesus, might have influenced the passage. This is not to deny the fact that John the Evangelist or the author who wrote the fourth Gospel in his name laid the foundation of the whole Gospel in the very first chapter dealing with the identity of Jesus Christ.
                                                          We shall now consider how the miracles, called signs in John's Gospel, performed by Jesus aided his priestly ministry. As a rule, Jesus was reluctant to perform miracles as he knew that very often they would only hinder his mission of proclaiming the Kingdom of God announcing it as good news to the people. An instance of this kind of a complete misunderstanding is recorded in John's Gospel 6: 15 where the crowd is said to have wanted to take Jesus by force to make him a king after they were fed with the multiplied  five loaves and two fish. This instance shows that miracles were neither a requirement nor an aid for the fulfillment of the mission of Jesus as they were very often misunderstood by the people. Why did Jesus perform so many miracles, if they were a hindrance to his true mission? In one word we may answer this problem by saying that the compassion of Jesus for the plight of the people he came to save, so to say, forced him to go out of his way to address the immediate needs of the people he encountered. At the same time, they were meant to serve the higher purpose of revelation of mysteries of the kingdom Jesus came to announce and establish. In order to steer clear of misunderstandings and not to deviate from his true mission, Jesus had to very often order the beneficiaries of such acts of compassion not to publicize what he had done for them. The very first miracle performed by Jesus at Cana-in-Galilee by changing water into wine in order to save the family in wedding celebration from embarrassment is an example of his reluctance noted by us  (John, 2: 1-11). Although it was due to an intervention by Mary, his mother, Jesus made a few things clear pertaining to his priestly ministry.The family in question would not have known that Jesus would be able to solve their problem because till then he was not known as a miracle  worker. Noticing the terrible embarrassment on such a joyous occasion, Mary took the initiative to quietly solve the problem through Jesus as if it was her own problem. Here we see how Mary was able to exercise her priestly ministry in conjunction with that of her son through her compassionate action. We have a lesson here for all  those who are trouble-makers at functions for celebrating moments of joy in that they act against the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ.  
                                                       Although Jesus had to save the situation at that wedding, it was actually too early for him to be out in the public eye with miracles before people were prepared to grasp their significance. Thus he had to take precautions so that the people were not able to distort the true meaning of what he was going to do. Jesus, so to say, sounded a negative note to his mother's request that would have dissipated the attention of the people surrounding him about what he was going to do. He also told his mother that actually she did not know what she was asking for since a miracle is the first step to the cross at the foot of which she had to stand. Jesus also distanced himself from her addressing her 'woman' a title bestowed on her from the cross making her a close partner in the salvation he wrought harking back to the woman in the Garden of Eden story. Detachment from family connections was necessary for Jesus to bring out the true significance of his miracle and that too was expressed in his answer to Mary. Besides, Jesus quietly changed the water into wine by just his command to the servants to draw water from the well and take it to the steward. He did not make a spectacle out of it by insisting, for instance, that he had to bless the water before taking it to the steward as his word was powerful enough to do what was intended. This was how Jesus exercised his priestly ministry of compassion even in a very awkward situation without a show of having done something spectacular. (To be continued in the next Post).               

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