Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS' SELF-UNDERSTANDING §15.6
tribute such a politically sensitive saying to Jesus, had it not come to him in tradition
(from some eyewitness? — Luke 1.2). The reference to Jesus' impending
death naturally raises suspicions that the saying has been formulated with hindsight
('third day', perish in Jerusalem). 217 But here too it is very distinctive. The
reference is to Jesus' characteristic healing ministry, 218 not to the most striking
miracles also attributed to him in the Gospels. And though the language is
Lukan, 219 it would be unwise to ignore Schweitzer's old argument that the dogmatic
note (dei) echoes Jesus' own sense of the divine necessity determining his
course. 220 In any case, here again the thought is of Jesus (only) as 'a prophet', in
the line of rejected prophets. 221
More striking, however, are the indications that Jesus very likely drew on
the programmatic prophecy of Isa. 61.1-3 to inform his own mission. We have already
given details of the several allusions and need only recall them here. He
probably referred disciples of the Baptist to this passage in Matt. 11.5/Luke 7.22
(§12.5c[l]) and framed two or three beatitudes with Isa. 61.1-3 in mind (§13.4).
Whether it is justified to deduce from such remembered sayings that Jesus
thereby intended his disciples to think of him as 'the (eschatological) prophet'
may well be another question. 222 But that he, like Qumran, found the Isaiah
prophecy instructive and inspirational for his mission is very likely. 223
Beyond this the evidence is less explicit but worth reviewing briefly in that
it fills out the picture quite appreciably. Can we, for example, speak of a sense of
prophetic commissioning on the part of Jesus, since Jesus is recalled as occasionally
saying 'I came', or that he 'was sent' (that is, by God)? The most important
examples of the former are 'I came to call sinners' (Mark 2.17 pars.); 'I came to
cast. . .' (Matt. 10.34; Luke 12.49); 'the Son of Man came to serve' (Mark 10.45
par.). 224 The most important of the latter cases are Mark 9.37/Luke 9.48: 'Who-
217. See further below, §17.4c(2).
218. See below, §15.7b-e.
219. See again Fitzmyer, Luke 1.168-69, 179-80.
220. See above, §4.5b.
221. On Matt. 23.29-36/Luke 11.47-51 see below, §15.8 n. 427, and on Matt. 23.37-39/
Luke 13.34-35 see below, §17.3a.
222. 'An implicit messianic claim'; 'some sort of transcendent claim, whether or not we
call it messianic' (Witherington, Christology 165-66); 'Jesus saw himself called to be the
"Coming One" as the messianic evangelist and helper (Nothelfer) of the "poor" (Isa. 61.1-2)'
(Stuhlmacher, Biblische Theologie 1.66).
223. For earlier discussion see my Jesus and the Spirit 53-62.
224. See also Mark 1.38/(Luke 4.43: 'I was sent'); Matt. 11.18-19/Luke 7.33-34; Matt.
5.17; Luke 19.10. 'There are no possible grounds for objecting to the idea that Jesus could have
spoken in the first person about himself and his coming; that need be no more than what befits
his prophetic self-consciousness' (Bultmann, History 153); O. Michel, '"Ich komme" (Jos.
Bell. III.400)', TZ 24 (1968) 123-24, already pointed to the parallel in Josephus, War 3.400,
662