Saturday, January 18, 2020

Lesson 6 - Looking for Jesus - His Life and Times


Jesus, the Invisible


          Remember those follow the dot coloring book pages when you were a kid? You started with the first dot and carefully dragged your pencil to the second and then the third, probably with your tongue stuck out the corner of your mouth as you concentrated really hard. The outline of the mystery figure slowly unfolded. 

        Sometimes you missed a number and had to erase several lines before you could get back on track. And then, there it was! The mystery was solved, or sort of solved. You still had to figure out what the shape was supposed to be. But as you carefully studied the lines you could see the outline of the bear, or duck, or cat that was visible, though its shape was a little jagged around the edges you had drawn. The inside of the outline, however, was still enticingly empty, calling for you to color it in any way you wished.



          And so my journey into the ancient past to discover and shoot a few great snapshots of Jesus as he was back in the day is going to take a whole bunch more research. The jagged lines I am creating by studying the historical facts and feelings of the times have barely begun to create any outline at all. But undaunted, I will continue on with my research material piled high around me.



          As the title to this section suggests, the real man hidden under layers of history and histrionics may still be seen only in outline. His essence may remain invisible and I will probably have to color in the details based on my own personal analysis and assumptions. Certainly, that is what the early church found itself doing. Over the centuries many of the faithful have accepted the Gospels word for word as perfect and historically accurate and perhaps that even includes you, the reader. Well, unfortunately my own historical research based on the most modern work by highly respected divinity scholars begs for a major overhaul in my understanding of what the bible says and why it says it the way it does. Not to worry, though, because for myself my faith is not challenged -- I am instead joyfully discovering my spiritual journey is just expanding



          Now, the early church and its chaotic choices is too large a topic to be covered with a simple snapshot of the disciples, the oral traditions on which the gospels were based, and the fifty to a hundred year spread between Jesus and the first written words about him. So, I will leave that tantalizing research project for another day. (I will cover that in the next book, “Looking for the Early Church”) For now, I will head back into my accumulating articles and books and follow the trail to Jesus and see what other snapshots of his past I can capture and share with you.



Questions to Contemplate and Discuss



1.     This short section allows for a little breathing room before we delve down deeper as we Look for Jesus. I suggest, if you haven’t done so already, research some other books, papers, articles, commentaries and internet ‘wisdoms’.


2.     As you read other sources take note of where they are coming from – for instance, from the Traditional community, the Catholic or Protestant community, the New Age community, the science and archeology community.  How are their conclusions different and/or the same?


3.     Take note of how old the sources are. Are they recently interpreted, or are they commentaries hundreds of years old colored by that time period? How has modern research affected these materials?

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