Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

CHAPTER 16
How Did Jesus See His Own Role ?
We have already begun to explore this question in asking how Jesus is remembered
as responding to the categories his contemporaries would most likely have
fitted him into; the division between chapters 15 and 16 is as much a matter of
convenience as of substance. Two further categories are suggested by the Jesus
tradition itself, son of God and son of man, and these will be the principal focus of
this chapter. But it also makes sense to begin by drawing together the threads of
chapter 15 insofar as they provide an answer to the question posed in chapter 16.
In all this it remains important to bear in mind my primary focus on the impact
made by Jesus. But in this case it is necessary to hazard the next step, the
difficult task of attempting to trace out, by reference to the 'shape' of the impact
made by Jesus, the 'shape' of what made that impact (§15.1) — that is, what Jesus
may have said or indicated about his own perception regarding his own role
which has resulted in such features of the Jesus tradition.
16.1. Eschatological Agent
It is probably necessary to describe what we can discern of Jesus' own assessment
of his role in some such vague terms ('eschatological agent'), because none
of the categories just reviewed seems to have been entirely acceptable to him. To
recap briefly and baldly.
Royal Messiah/Son of David (§§15.2-4) was acategory full of eschatological
significance. But was it a significance Jesus could embrace for his own mission?
Evidently not. The tradition indicates that, as a role-description, it was
more trouble than it was worth, liable to cause more misunderstanding than to
bring clarification. As a messianic title it could not be ignored: it was too fundamental
to Jewish hope and expectation. But as a role-description it pointed in the
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