Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§16.1 How Did Jesus See His Own Role ?
nothing quite like this son of an artisan, from the most modest of backgrounds,
who in sober and wholly rational speech claimed to speak for God as his representative
at the end of the present age, nothing quite like the unpretentious arrogance
of his regular introductory formula, 'Amen, I say to you'.
How far the logic of this line of exposition can be pushed is not at all
clear. The Jesus tradition strongly suggests that at the very least Jesus claimed
for his mission an extraordinary significance, of eschatological fulfilment in
the present and of final import for his hearers. At the very least we overhear in
the words of the remembered Jesus a claim for the divine significance of his
mission, as the (not just an) eschatological emissary of God. How much more
can be said is much less clear. In particular, how much the claim for the significance
of his mission was also a claim for the significance of himself remains an
open question. Can we draw a neat line between a mission which somehow
embodied the kingdom and Jesus himself as the embodiment of that mission? 3
The very fact that the Jesus tradition itself poses the issue (the issue of implied
Christology), and not just in its later embellishments, is a factor not to be ignored
or underestimated.
The problem can be posed thus. Since Jesus seems to have broken through
all the available categories to the extent that he did, it becomes almost impossible
to find suitable terms to describe his role or define his significance. 4 If the available
word-pictures and metaphors proved inadequate, what to do? In such a case
an obvious answer is to coin a new word-picture or metaphor or to take a different
one and fill it with new meaning. Did Jesus follow the same line of reasoning?
A final caution before we proceed. In all this I have spoken as though Jesus
had a clear idea of what his role was or should be. But that is an assumption
which cannot and should not be taken as given. Apart from anything else, I have
already concluded that Jesus' own conception of the kingdom of God, the principal
element in his preaching, was far from clear (§12.6). Why should it be any
different with the still less tangible topic of Jesus' self-assertion or selfevaluation?
We cannot even be sure that Jesus asked a question like 'Who am I?'
let alone that he thought it important to articulate some particular answer. So in
3. Stuhlmacher presses the case: 'Jesus' person, his conduct, and his word, are to be understood
as embodiment of God (Verleiblichung Gottes). Jesus was not only an eschatological
prophet sent by God, but he has borne witness to God's rule as the parable of God in person
(E. Jüngel and E. Schweizer)' (Biblische Theologie 1.74, 110). Cf. McKnight's heading: 'The
Kingdom Operative Only through Jesus' (New Vision 89).
4. Cf. M. de Jonge, Jesus, The Servant-Messiah (New Haven: Yale University, 1991) 66-
67, 80, who appositely cites Eduard Schweizer's description of Jesus as 'the man who fits no
formula' ('der Mann, der alle Schemen sprengt'), citing E. Schweizer, Jesus (London: SCM,
1971) 21-22. 'What must not be overlooked is the likelihood that Jesus himself is responsible
for the scholars' failure to classify him precisely' (Keck, Who Is Jesus? 52).
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