A Riverside Chat with Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul and John

(The Total Story of Jesus)

Putting It All Together

The River of My Childhood. The telling of the Jesus-story is like the story of a river. The river is the river of my childhood. Flowing at the foothills of the Sierra Madre, its water gurgled blue and white on the shallow riverbed, and rested, a sleepy green, in deep lagoons in summer time. In monsoon and typhoon seasons, the river was an angry swirl of brown. A sure-fire formula for nirvana on hot summer days: brown young bodies plus prickly heat plus immersions into nature’s most pristine liquid. The bliss of that ritual of daily, nay, hourly, baptisms!

The River Today. Today the riverbed is still there, but the once robust river is gone. A body of water, no larger than a stream, still courses along, an anemic shadow of what it was in my childhood. No, it is not chemical pollution. It is not human rubbish. There is just less water from the mountain. Fewer trees on the mountain.

The Story of Jesus. The story of Jesus is like the story of a river. The Jesus-story as told by my Second Look catechism is a pale shadow of the robust First Look story as told by the New Testament writers.

My Second Look Story. If you have the time and patience, dear co-traveler, let me take you briefly through the paces of my passage from my Second Look catechism to the First Look story. Who knows, it might be the story of your passage too.

Although, of course, the Christmas story never ceased to enthrall me, it was Good Friday that ran my spiritual motor. Jesus died for me. The graces he gained, and received by me in baptism and confirmation, I must continue to keep and increase in confession and holy communion, until the day when, having avoided sin and the snares of the world, I attain heaven and beatific vision. I do not mean to hold up the mirror to anyone except myself. Nor do I intend a caricature (which it is not) of anyone except myself. It was my life, lived by me then and still appreciated today, in all seriousness, for what it was.

The next stage in my development was a ray of light that came from Easter Sunday. The Vatican II Church began to reclaim the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus did not just die. He also rose. The Jesus of my life began to resemble crucifixes in many churches: on the cross hung no longer the suffering Jesus but the glorious Christ. More joy was infused into my spiritual life. More of the virtue of hope. More positive – although, of course, the risen Christ was still made to do apologetics.

At about the same time, there appeared a complementary spark from another source. Personalist and existential theology shed light on the total human person. Not just soul, also body. Not just spiritual, also psychological. Not animal rationale but the inner child. My ‘I’ learned to relate to your ‘thou.’ Concomitantly my Jesus became a personalist and existential Jesus. An updating. An advance.

Two Shoves. Up to this point in my development, the Christ-event consisted in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Two contacts gave me a shove back to the Jesus of the First Look: (1) contact with the poor and (2) contact with biblical studies. These, like good teachers, gave me the push and the discipline.

Contact with the poor raised the question: Is there more to Jesus than the Jesus of paschal mystery and the Jesus of personalist theology?

Biblical studies showed me that there was and is an untold story of Jesus. He did not just die and rise. He had a life to live as well. There was that portion between his Jordan baptism and the cross.

Sure, as a Second Looker, I knew there was a ‘public life of Jesus’ and the ‘ministry of Jesus.’ But it did not have a life of its own. It was just a preparation for the cross. It did not deserve to be a story by itself. And in the Church’s liturgical calendar, it was merely ‘ordinary time.’

Biblical studies told me that it was a story. Sure, a more sophisticated theology began to talk about the ‘words and deeds’ of Jesus. But somehow, it was not the way Matthew, Mark and Luke said it. From these gospel testimonies we learn of a person who had a mission, not of dying, at least, not right away. It was a mission obsessed with a new earth, with food for the hungry, with land, with healing, with forgiveness of sin, with justice – things which mean a lot for my people in the Third World. It was a mission, clung to with passion, even in the teeth of the enemy and of death. But I will tarry here no longer. The biblical roadsigns we paused to ponder will have done a better job of telling the story.

I will permit myself one remark addressed to our liturgists and mass goers. After the consecration, we acclaim: ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.’ I wonder, before we allow him to die, could we let him live and say his piece? After all, the records say that before his death, ‘Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God.’

The Closure. So then biblical studies taught me to piece together the Kingdom-proclamation, the death and the resurrection. Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom, he died, he rose. That is not yet the total Jesus-story, biblical studies hastened to say. There still remains the closure. The Kingdom, begun in the first coming, is consummated in the second. ‘He will come again’ has ceased to mean simply ‘to judge the living and the dead.’ It is no longer a moment of fearful judgment. It is a salvific event. It is a moment of salvation. It is the time when you look up, for ‘your redemption is at hand.’ The Kingdom of God is fully at hand!

Not just the seer of old, but all of us, with uncovered eyes, will see the new heaven and the new earth. God will dwell among us on this earth. Creation will have ceased groaning. The cosmic Christ will have united all things in heaven and on earth and God will have become all in all.

The Total Story of Jesus. The story of Jesus is complete, or at least the core of it. The total story of Jesus includes (1) the proclamation of the Kingdom, (2) his death, (3) his resurrection, and (4) his coming again. The one thread that binds all four is the Kingdom of God.

In his lifetime he proclaimed the Kingdom. He died for the Kingdom; atonement for sin is a Kingdom blessing. His resurrection is a vindication of his life and death for the Kingdom. As the risen one, he is the first fruits of the Kingdom. His indwelling in our hearts is the seed of our own future resurrection in the final Kingdom. His coming again is the consummation of the Kingdom.

The core:
 

Blessings of Salvation. Accordingly, the blessings of salvation are not limited to sanctifying grace in this world and beatific vision in heaven. Rather, we should say: In this world, sight to the blind, healing to the leper, health to the lame, life to the dead, rice to the hungry, land to the poor, justice to the worker, forgiveness of sin, the Spirit in the hearts of people. In short, LIFE. In the final Kingdom: a new world, a new history where God will be all in all. In short, FULLNESS OF LIFE.

Introductory Portion. What about our perennial favorite, Christmas? Well, in the total picture, Christmas or infancy is part of the introduction. Preceding that is John’s account of the pre-existence of the eternal Word that became flesh. Still part of the introduction would be the baptism of Jesus and his temptation in the desert. The introduction:

Hats Off. Hats off to biblical studies. These, together with the poor, as I had earlier mentioned, were my tutors.

Hats off likewise to the poor.

In my experience, these two – biblical studies and the poor—always go together. One cannot be without the other. Jesus research without contact with the poor runs the risk of missing out. This is so, not only because we happen to be in and of the Third World. This is so, if you pardon the possible irreverence, because of the nature of the beast. The core-Jesus and his message are so steeped in the ‘anawim that in order to discover it, we too have to be in touch with the lives of our poor. I make this claim for Jesus research. It can be made for theological studies as whole. But this is not the place to explore this.

More Wonders. Wonders never cease! I thought I was done with teachers on Jesus when more presented themselves: indigenous nature religions, eastern spirituality and contemporary physics. They opened the New Testament and showed me those pages where the risen Lord is not only the indwelling Spirit but also the Cosmic Christ. One need not however go this route. With or without these three teachers, the Cosmic Christ and the indwelling Spirit are in the New Testament, waiting for moments of recognition and re-acquaintance. In fact, with the New Testament open or closed, at any moment, like this present one, we can connect with that Energy which fills the infinitely personal and the infinitely cosmic spaces in the universe.

It Is Not Difficult. We can all re-discover the total Jesus. It is not all that difficult. I hope that our journey together says as much. The river of my childhood is not likely to ever come back. But the Jesus of the First Look is always available, waiting to be re-discovered. How to go about it? Books? Seminars? Lectures? Perhaps, perhaps not.

I recommend still another river. At least to start. That river is the life and struggle of the poor. Jesus is there. He always has been. The waters of that river are there to cleanse, to bathe, to refresh, to nourish the seeker. In addition, trace the Source of that river. It is a Silent Spring ’way up the mountain, near the heavens. I recommend that too. That goes without saying. Drink to intoxication.

Salamat Po. Thank you for traveling and exploring with me. I hope your Third Look eye-glasses served you well. Indeed, I hope they have become permanent fixtures. Like implanted lenses. Nay, more, new retinas. You can use them for reading not only the Scriptures but life in general. You will not always be comfortable with the view, but it will be a priceless view, and it will be Jesus’ view.

Carlos H. Abesamis

Be Still and Know…