Unit 1, Assignment 1 - "Who is Jesus: Mystic and Social Reformer" (due Nov. 9)

Before you start reading and completing this assignment, take a moment to offer a prayer.

"God of steadfast love, I ask that you will help me to keep a focussed mind as I participate in the process leading to my Confirmation. As I begin this assignment now, help me to be aware of the presence of your Holy Spirit in this place where I work. Help me to recognize your strength and guidance. Help me to imitate Jesus that I may become more and more like him. Bless my family and friends, and thank you for the freedom to learn about and worship you. In Jesus' name I pray." Amen.


Jesus before and after the first Easter

The Biblical scholar Marcus Borg distinguishes between the "post-Easter" Jesus and the "pre-Easter" Jesus. The "pre-Easter" Jesus is the man who was a figure of history before his death. The "post-Easter" Jesus is the Jesus of Christian traditon and experience.

Speaking about the "post-Easter" Jesus, Borg says, "Beginning with Easter, the early [Christian] movement continued to experience Jesus as a living reality after his death, but in a radically new way. After Easter, his followers experienced him as a spiritual reality, no longer as a person of flesh and blood, limited in time and space, as Jesus of Nazareth had been. Rather, Jesus as the risen living Christ could be experienced anywhere and everywehre. Increasingly he was spoken of as having all the qualities of God. Prayers were addressed to Jesus as God in Christian worship. In short, his early followers experienced the risen Christ and addressed the risen Christ as the functional equivalent of God, as 'one with God.'"

This is the way Christians have experienced Jesus ever since. The living risen Christ of the New Testament has been an experienced reality (and not just an article of belief) from the days of the first Easter to the present. Thus, in the experience, worship and devotion of Christians throughout the centuries, the post-Easter Jesus is real.

The focus of this assignment is on two aspects of the life of Jesus before Easter: his role as a "spirit person" (or mystic) and his role as a "social prophet." Additionally, Jesus was a "teacher of wisdom" and a "movement founder."

Jesus as "mystic"

A mystic is a person in touch with the spirit of God. Here are some examples from the New Testament of how Jesus showed he was a mystic...

The writer of the Mark's gospel reports: "And just as [Jesus] was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him." (Mark 1:10, NRSV)

Luke's gospel says: "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness." (Luke 4:1, NRSV)

Luke also emphasizes the role of prayer in Jesus' life, saying Jesus entered into times of deep contemplative / meditative prayer, often going into the hills to pray or praying all night (Luke 3:21, 5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 9:28ff). These long hours of prayer in solitude in which the mind is stilled and the heart is directed toward God, was part of the Jewish tradition in which Jesus lived.

It is important to note that Jesus, and subsequent followers of Jesus throuoghout history who have been "in touch with the Holy Spirit," have a different understanding of reality from the dominant image of reality in our modern world. The modern worldview, derived from the Enlightenment, sees reality in material terms. The experience of mystics, and Jesus in particular, suggests there is more to reality than this. At a level beyond what our senses can perceive there is a non-material level of reality charged with energy and power.

Thus, Jesus sp0ke with "authority," which is best understood as flowing out of his own spiritual authority. It was not the authority of one who simply recites ancient tradition, but rather, of one who spekas from the mouth of the Spirit.


Jesus as "social reformer"

Two key words enable us to glimpse what was most central to Jesus: Spirit and compassion.

Compassion is a particularly important word in the gospels. The stories told about Jesus speak of him as having compassion and of his being moved with compassion. For Jesus, compassion was the central quality of God and the central moral quality of a life centred on God.

It is only when we appreciate Jesus' emphasis on compassion that we realize how radical his message and vision were. To put it boldly: compassion for Jesus was political. He directly and repeatedly challenged the religious social structures of his world that place anything ahead of the "politics of compassion."

Jesus was often in conflict with his critics about purity laws and issues. The purity system in the Jewish social world was also political because it fostered a cultural map which indicated a place for everything and everything in its place. According to its own rules, the purity system included some people while excluding others. One's purity status depended to some extent on birth: priests and Levites came first, followed by "Israelites," followed by "converts to Judaism," etc.

One of the most characteristic activities by which Jesus challenged the purity system was through his "table fellowship." The purity system governed not only what could and could not (pork, shellfish, etc.) be eaten, but also with whom one might eat. Jesus frequently ate with outcasts, tax collectors and sinners.

Ultimately, the meals of Jesus are the ancestor of the Christian eucharist. The centrality of this holy meal goes back to the table fellowship. This ritual which we have inherited has its roots in a socially prophetic movement that included women,untouchables, the poor, the maimed, the marginalized, as well as some people of stature who found Jesus vision of compassion attractive.


Assignment (to be completed on your own Blog):

Please click on "Comment" at the end of this post and describe in 25-50 words what you hope to experience as a result of these confirmation classes.

Please complete three of the following questions:

• The four gospels in the New Testament each give a description of what happened on the first Easter morning. Read Mark 16:1-8. Why do you think the women were so afraid (v. 8)?

• Click here to find a definition of "mysticism" and post it to your Blog.

• Can you remember a time when you have felt especially "in touch" with the Spirit? Describe.

• Choose ONE the following quotes and respond to it in 50-75 words:

1. Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too." (Frederick Buechner, Christian author)
2. "If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it." (Lucy Larcom, American poet, 1826-1893)
3. "If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." (Dalai Lama)
4. The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another." (Thomas Merton, Christian mystic and author)

• For further reading on mysticism, click here.
• For further reading on the Pre-Easter and Post-Easter Jesus, you can check out from St. Mary's parish library: Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time,
by Marcus Borg. Harpur: San Francisco, 1994.