Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§17.5 Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato
portrayal of vicarious suffering to elucidate Jesus' own self-understanding may
have distracted attention from and even obscured the other images in regard to
which a better case can be made.
There are no other references within the Jesus tradition which are likely to
change that conclusion. 255 The upshot is that a convincing case cannot be made
that Jesus saw himself as the suffering Servant. That is not to deny that he might
have reflected on the Servant passages, as he evidently did on other Scriptures.
Indeed, the more Isaiah 53 was already seen to be part of the more extensive motif
of the suffering righteous, the more likely it is that Jesus did reflect on what
the Servant passages might contribute to his understanding of his own role. The
point, however, is that the Jesus tradition does not allow us to draw that as a firm
conclusion. That may simply be a reminder of the inadequacy of our critical
tools. But the Jesus tradition itself has to be determinative for us, and even a
modest tradition-historical analysis of the key passages raises substantive doubts.
So, what meaning did Jesus give to the death which he evidently anticipated
with increasing certainty (and angst) as his mission neared its climax? The
tradition indicates a number of positive answers. (1) He would suffer as part of
God's will, as others, the faithful and righteous, had before him. Perhaps he cherished
the hope, like the Maccabean martyrs, that his death would mark the final
end to Israel's suffering. (2) As 'the one' chosen to call Israel to return and to
somehow reconstitute Israel in the mounting eschatological crisis he probably
expected to suffer as the saints of the Most High suffered at the time of the
Maccabees. Possibly, in contrast to Daniel's 'one like a son of man' he saw his
destiny characterized more in terms of service than of being served. (3) Sooner
or later, he probably concluded that he himself would have to endure the eschatological
tribulation (the cup of suffering, the fiery baptism) predicted by the Baptist
— perhaps on behalf of his disciples/renewed Israel. 256 (4) If God was indeed
255. Other suggested references in Jeremias, Proclamation 286-87, and review in
Hooker, Jesus and the Servant 62-102. The use of paradidonai ('hand over') in the LXX of Isa.
53.6, 12 has naturally attracted attention in view of the prominence of the term in the Passion
predictions (Mark 9.31 pars.; 10.33 pars.) and the Passion narratives (Mark 14.10-11, 18, 21,
41-42, 44; 15.1, 10, 15). Given the probable allusion to Isa. 42.1 in the words from heaven at
the Jordan (Mark 1.11 pars.), Cullmann claims boldly that Jesus 'became conscious at the moment
of his baptism that he had to take upon himself the ebed Yahweh role' (Christology 66-
67), but the words are not remembered as a saying of Jesus and cannot be taken as a direct indication
of Jesus' own self-understanding (see above, §11.5b). On the other hand, Jesus seems to
have drawn on Isa. 61.1-2 to express the priorities of his mission (§ 15.6c), but there are no indications
that the eschatological prophet of Isaiah 61 was identified with the Servant of Isaiah 53.
256. But we should recall that Jesus also expected his disciples to experience great suffering
(the eschatological tribulation, §14.3e). The difficulty we have in correlating these expectations
is no reason for doubting that Jesus could have held both (see §12.6e above).
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