Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§14.5 The Character of Discipleship
was still the primary goal, 178 even if that will could not be discerned simply by
reference to the Torah. 179
Moreover, it would appear that on issues of law and halakhah which had
become test cases of obedience and loyalty to the covenant, Jesus declined to go
down that road. His standing before God did not depend on particular interpretations
and applications of Torah. His Jewishness did not require a pattern of observance
which marked him off as separate from the dissident or the disobedient.
We should not be surprised, then, that the fundamental concerns Jesus enunciated
and defended gave stimulus and scope to his subsequent followers to press
still further at various points into a rationale for conduct which no longer remained
within the boundaries clearly marked out by the law.
Finally, if it remains likely that Jesus' own emphases were determined in
large part by his eschatological perspective, 180 we should also note that this factor
has not left many distinctive marks on the tradition at this point. What is commended
in all this is not a pattern of conduct necessary for entry into the kingdom,
nor an 'interim ethic' (Schweitzer) required only for the interval before the
coming of the kingdom, but (by implication) a quality of kingdom life, the character
of living appropriate for those who look for the kingdom's coming and who
seek to live already in its light.
14.5. Love as Motivation
Bound up with the emphases just documented is a particular feature whose importance
deserves separate mention. It is the fact that Jesus was remembered as
giving particular prominence to the Torah injunction to 'love your neighbour as
yourself and as pressing home its full implications. The tradition at this point is
clear.
178. Mark 3.35/Matt. 12.50; Mark 14.36 pars.; Matt. 6.10; 7.21; 21.31; Luke 12.47. See
Schnackenburg, Sittliche Botschaft 77-79.
179. In Jesus' Call to Discipleship I suggested a distinction between principles that are
applied in the light of circumstances and rules that are to be obeyed whatever the circumstances
(84). But the shift in kingdom perspective implied in Matt. 11.11-12/Luke 16.16 is not reducible
to neat epigrams, even if the rhetorical character of the latter text also needs to be recalled
(§12.5c[4]).
180. Merklein, e.g., summarizes Jesus' moral teaching as 'eschatologically qualified instruction
(Weisung)' rather than as 'intensified' or 'radicalized' Torah teaching {Jesu Botschaft
101-102).
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