Lesson 24 - Looking for Jesus, His Day and Times

 Radical and Beyond

Grab your cameras as we go back to the first century and slip quietly into the house where Jesus is staying as a guest of one of his followers, probably a hated tax collector. We notice some really odd, and for the times, really shocking behavior.

Jesus has allowed his disciples to pick grain on the sabbath. The priests were shocked at this break in the rule for no work on the sabbath.

Jesus is not eating kosher. He is comfortable eating what is offered to him by those who follow, not all of them Jews.

He has not washed ritualistically as expected.

He is surrounded by not just his disciples, but also women, many of whom are not part of his family or his hosts’ family. 

What’s going on here?

 Jesus started out with a solid Jewish upbringing. We know he later hung out with his cousin John, the apocalyptic Prophet of Doom, preparing followers through baptisms, and then beheaded for his political views. Jesus clearly went from conservative childhood to radical young adult.

But now, he is beginning to create his own style, his own statement.

He has begun his own ministry, no longer a continuation of someone else’s. He has begun to break the rules. He no longer believes the rules are what is important, but instead the content of your heart.

And what’s with those women?  Jewish women are respected but have their place. And here they are doing for Jesus and his disciples what men just don’t do for themselves – they are cooking and serving meals to the men, as well as keeping their garments clean. And you just know they are sharing out loud their own thoughts and opinions, too.

 A note about these women: They are probably expected to be respectably home with their own families, and not out gallivanting through the country; they have chosen to follow Jesus. You have to believe the ultra conservative Jews, like the Sadducees and the Temple priests, see these women as having questionable morals. You just know they must have been called names, and you can guess what kind.

. . . So, take a lot of photos. We are now catching a good view of Jesus - the free spirit who is flaunting authority and the rules. . .And just begging for trouble.

Questions to Contemplate and Discuss

1.     When did you first begin to question the authority of your parents? And at school? And about your religion? And about politics? (Or have you never questioned those authorities?

2.     How do you interpret Jesus’ decision to be lax about the traditions of his religion?

How did the authorities react to rebellions and what correlation do you notice with Jesus’ life?