The Puzzle of Christianity. Peter Vardy
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Название: The Puzzle of Christianity
Автор: Peter Vardy
Издательство: HarperCollins
isbn: 9780008204259
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Peter was impulsive but had a genuinely good heart. He felt himself totally committed to Jesus and would have done anything for Him. However, the Gospels are realistic. When Jesus was about to face arrest and His coming death, and Peter vehemently declared his love and undying loyalty, Jesus gently told him that, before the cock crowed to indicate that the night was over, Peter would deny Him three times. After Jesus’ arrest Peter followed Jesus to the High Priest’s house where He was taken, but Peter was recognised and was accused of being one of Jesus’ disciples. Peter denied it in the strongest terms (John 18:15–27). This happened twice more and, after the third denial, the cock crew. Peter felt bitterly ashamed and angry with himself. This close friend of Jesus was weak and fully capable of failure, yet this was the man whom Jesus chose to lead the Church that would carry on His work after His death. This is part of a theme running through both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures: that God chooses those who are outsiders and who are despised in worldly terms, not the powerful and successful.
One of the controversial passages in the Gospels specifically concerns Peter. Peter was formerly called Simon and is renamed Peter by Jesus. The Greek word petros means ‘stone’ or ‘rock’ and Jesus uses a play on words to say, ‘you are Peter, and on this rock [petros] I will build my church’ (Matthew 16:18). Peter is given the keys of the kingdom of heaven and is told that the forces of evil will not prevail against the Church. Catholics hold that all authority is given by Jesus to the Church thus founded and that Peter and his successors are placed at its head: ‘whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’ (Matthew 16:19). This is central to the Catholic understanding that Peter was the first leader of the Christian Church – the first Pope – and that successors to Peter would have authority over the Church on earth and in heaven. Still today the papal seal has the symbol of crossed keys, indicating that the keys of the kingdom belong to the Pope and Catholic priests can release or forgive people for sins committed on earth. Protestants tend to play this passage down or even consider that it may have been inserted before the Gospels were produced in their final form and are, therefore, less willing to give authority to the Church. This is an issue to which we will need to return.
Figure 4: The papal crest of Pope Francis, showing the crossed keys of St Peter which appear on every papal crest. The letters ‘IHS’ are the first three letters of the Greek word for ‘Christ’. The motto below the crest reads ‘miserando atque eligendo’ (‘by showing mercy and by choosing’).
Jesus’ death was not, however, simply the death of another innocent human life. It is also seen as a sacrifice. The idea of a sacrifice is not one that is widely accepted in the modern world. A sacrifice occurs when a person gives up something of value which they treasure for a higher cause. Sometimes a person is held to have sacrificed their life in a battle by allowing themselves to be killed to save the lives of comrades. In all religions, sacrifice has been an important idea, ranging from the willingness of an individual to sacrifice their own self-interest to help others, to the sacrifice of something they value in order to achieve self-discipline. Jesus, Christians hold, sacrificed His own life out of love to bring people back to God: to eliminate the cumulative centuries of sin and disobedience and to allow a new start.
The real power of God, Christians hold, is shown on the cross in Jesus dying, alone and abandoned, out of love for all human beings. So Jesus lays down His life, willingly and by His own choice, for His friends. What is more, He specifically says that His friends are all those who listen to what He taught and take His words seriously: who try to love God and love their neighbours with all their heart and mind and soul (John 15:10–15). Christians, therefore, see Jesus laying down His own life and suffering an agonising and terrible death in order to bring people to God, to redeem them from the cumulative effects of sin. It is for this reason that Christians refer to Jesus as their Saviour, the one who saves them from the effects of sin and disobedience and brings them home to God their Father. Jesus is not just the Saviour of all Christians. Jesus died for His friends and, in so doing, atoned for their sins. The punishment that is justly due to all human beings who have failed and who have sinned is cancelled because of Jesus’ acts of suffering. Jesus, when He dies, pays the price of sin for all believers. The fairness of the universe is maintained.
The Resurrection and the Initial Spread of Christianity
The New Testament consists of the four Gospels, a number of letters written by St Paul and others, a final book called Revelation and the Acts of the Apostles. The Acts of the Apostles (often referred to simply as ‘Acts’) is generally agreed to have been written or compiled by the author of Luke’s Gospel and is a second part of this work. It contains some of the earliest records of what happened immediately after Jesus’ death.
In Chapter 3 we saw that Jesus was crucified by the Romans. After His death, His body was placed in a cave hewn out of rock, with a large stone rolled across its entrance. His death is commemorated on the day that Christians call ‘Good Friday’ (see here) at about three o’clock in the afternoon and His body would have been placed in the tomb the same day. In the heat of Palestine, it was essential that bodies were buried quickly. Jesus’ friends and disciples were in despair and also full of fear that the Jewish authorities might hunt them down next. They were dispirited and demoralised. Their friend and leader, for whom they had given up everything, was dead and all His promises seemed to have come to nothing.
On the Sunday morning, either one or two women (the accounts differ) went down to the tomb. These were Jesus’ closest friends and they went there to mourn. They found that the huge stone had been rolled away and that the tomb was empty – the body had gone. The grave clothes, in which Jesus’ body would have been wrapped, were neatly placed in a corner. One Gospel account records that two angels were in the tomb (John 20:11–13). The fear and consternation felt by the women are not hard to imagine. One of them saw someone she took to be a gardener and, thinking that he had taken Jesus’ body somewhere else, she asked him where the body had gone. The supposed gardener simply uttered her name, ‘Mary,’ and she instantly recognised that it was Jesus (John 20:14–18). She ran to throw her arms round Him in amazement and joy, but He said no: He had not yet ascended to His Father and her Father, to His God and her God. Mary was instructed to go and tell the disciples what had happened. In another Gospel account it is Peter who comes down after Mary and therefore sees what has happened (Luke 24:9–12).
Mary Magdalene is a pivotal figure in the Gospel accounts who, with others, supported Jesus financially and was with Him constantly throughout His ministry:
After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
(Luke 8:1–3)