A Sojourner's Quest

PA RT I I I : L I V I NG I N T H E WAY / 1 9 5

the Spirit of God was once again active in Israel (cf. Matt. 12.28; Luke 4.16-21). God was once again visiting his people and proclaiming his will. One reason people came to hear Jesus was that many were convinced that God was speaking through Jesus of Nazareth and that what he was saying was indeed the Word of God (Luke 5.1; 11.28; Mark 4.14-20). . . . No doubt an additional factor that enters the picture involves the personality of Jesus, for the personality of Jesus gave life and vitality to his message. It was the Word made flesh (John 1.14) which was the medium through which and by which the Word of God came. People loved to listen to Jesus because of the kind of person he was. Publicans, sinners, children, the crowds – all found in Jesus one whom they enjoyed being near. It was therefore not only what he taught but also who he was that attracted people to hear him. . . . The what of his message and the who , i.e., the “personality” and “authority” of the messenger, all played a part in making Jesus an exciting teacher. The Gospels are normative, I think for us as Christians not just in their production, in what they have created, but in the way they are written. A Gospel goes back, as it were, to the twenties. It writes Jesus from the 20s into the 70s, the 80s, the 90s. A Gospel always takes the historical Jesus and laminates him together with the Christ we believe in–the two of them together. John rewrites the 20s as Mark had done before him. The historical Jesus remains crucial for Christianity because we must in each generation of the Church redo our historical work and redo our theological work. We can’t skip it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * John Dominic Crossan is an original member and former co-chair of the Jesus Seminar as well as chairman of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature. He earned a doctorate in divinity from Maynooth College, Ireland. His postdoctoral studies have been in biblical research at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome, and in archeological research at the Ecole Biblique, Jerusalem. Crossan has taught at several seminaries in the Chicago area and was professor of religious studies at DePaul University for twenty-six years. He has written over a dozen books on the historical Jesus. ~ Robert H. Stein. The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teachings . Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1978. pp.7-8. The Challenge of the Biblical Stories John Dominic Crossan*