Encounters with Jesus: The Man in His Place and Time

Chapter 3

3 JESUS FACE TO FACE Encounters On an Equal Footing As he passed through the Land of Israel, Jesus met an extraordinary variety of persons. Those with whom he entered into dialogue were not some occasional part of the scenery, but were his objective. A cultural analysis of his interlocutors shows that these are not mere extras put on the stage by the evangelists in order to present the teaching and the supernatural character of their protagonist.1 We see that meeting people is the programmatic goal of Jesus’ incessant moving around from place to place. Whenever a large number of persons meet and interact, the social dynamics that are created in these encounters always go beyond the intentions of the one who seeks them. And this is what happens in the case of Jesus. The reactions of the persons who swarmed around him, the formation of groups that was a result of his physical presence in a place—these were situations over which Jesus himself had only a limited control and that could have far-reaching and largely autonomous developments. Although it is difficult today to reconstruct these repercussions , we should not forget that they played a central role in the life story of Jesus, both in the spread of what he preached and in the events that led to his death. Nor should we forget that his intentions could be very different from those of his interlocutors. A history of earliest Christianity cannot overlook this perspective. A theological reading of these early years often tends to take autonomous developments that were neither sought nor controlled by Jesus himself, and to transform these into events that are alleged to have happened under the direct guidance of divine providence. Jesus exercised influence on his world by means of relationships that unfolded in a lively 41 42 Encounters with Jesus environment that was exposed to a great variety of stimuli. He virtually never employed strategies or mechanisms that would set the seal on the “correct” version of his words and perpetuate them, or that would direct popular reactions in one way rather than another. All he did was to launch a message that shook people. As the Gospels present it, his message takes on a different form depending on each specific situation that Jesus encountered. This is why it is impossible for us to really know the effects his preaching had. Undoubtedly, one of these effects was his arrest and his violent death. But this was not the only possible outcome, and we do not know how the various repercussions of his activity intermeshed to produce this outcome, the dramatic end. Jesus made contact with persons on whom his destiny depended. Similarly , their personal destinies often depended on him. These included followers , members of his family, people he met in occasional encounters, the authorities, and many others from a great variety of social milieus. Dependence on others—material, but also mental and emotional—is one of the fundamental aspects of human existence. Dependence on other individuals involves both learning and teaching; a person is trained for combat and learns how to reach objectives or to give up the idea of reaching them. Relationships are established, open or hidden, and sometimes long-lasting; and constructive processes are mobilized. ItisimpossibletopaintacompletepictureoftherelationshipsthatJesus had with others because the Gospels do not give us sufficient information, and we have no other documents that would supply greater detail and permit us to perceive the real impact that Jesus had on people. Nevertheless, we can offer a description of the variety of persons with whom he had contact. Jesus related on an equal footing to ordinary persons who spoke to him and gathered around him, rather than to established groups. In order to grasp the meaning of Jesus’ “face-to-face” meetings with people, it is essential to bear in mind both his welcoming attitude and the types of people whom he sought to meet, as well as those who would determine his fate. Jesus took his message everywhere, addressing persons individually.2 His approach varied in keeping with the variety of his interlocutors. There were mutual influences and repercussions between Jesus and the persons with whom he came into contact. The Encounter with the Baptizer Jesus’ encounters must be seen in the context of a tormented situation of social uprooting, where many prophetic figures and resistance movements were at work. No socio-cultural approach can give an [3.145.2.184] Project MUSE (2024-04-23 07:40...