Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §19.3
impact of Jesus' mission — the Jesus tradition itself. For, if I am right, the Jesus
tradition was itself the very mode by which the impact made by Jesus on those he
first called to discipleship was made communicable, a bond which united those
who shared it, at the very core and formative of their corporate identity as
'Christ-ians', an occasion for celebration in their gatherings, an epitome of Jesus'
mission and teaching, a means of instruction, apologetic, and evangelism in their
interaction with others. There is no indication whatsoever that any of the Jesus
tradition was experienced as in tension with the fuller appreciation of Jesus' significance
which came with the revelation of his resurrection or with the gospel's
focus on the cross (as in Paul). The Gospels themselves show no such signs of
tension, with their story of a teaching and healing mission climaxing in death and
resurrection. And the suggestions that various groupings of traditional material
(Q 1 , the tradition behind the Gospel of Thomas) would have been perceived as in
tension with a gospel expressed only in terms of cross and resurrection actually
have very little to commend them and depend to too great an extent on tendentious
theses looking for evidence to support them. A fundamental fact of the Jesus
tradition in its lasting form is that it was preserved precisely by those who
preached Jesus' death and resurrection, precisely as gospel.
Not least of importance to be recognized at this point is the continuity of
impression made regarding Jesus himself. For it is evident from the tradition that
Jesus was heard as speaking from God, as a spokesman for God, for some at least
as the eschatological representative of God. Nor does it appear that this conviction
arose only with Easter hindsight. For it is enshrined in the Jesus tradition in
not-yet-Christian terms and is expressed in terms which Easter faith broke
through. As with the issue of Jesus' messianic status, it is hard to see how Easter
faith could create such a weighty christological affirmation from the start, had
the pre-Easter impact of Jesus not already been measured in terms of divine authority
and power. The tradition indicates that Jesus' authority and role caused
his disciples puzzlement and confusion. But the function of the Jesus tradition at
this point is to retell these pre-Easter impressions, now clarified by the climax of
the Jesus story and by the context of Easter faith in which the retelling took place
within the communities of discipleship and faith. In short, it is not only the impression
of Jesus' words and actions which is imprinted in the Jesus tradition, but
also the impression of who Jesus was. And the unexpectedness of Jesus' 'resurrection'
in the event only deepened the impact already made by Jesus in his pre-
Easter mission.
We should simply add that the Jesus tradition's recollections of Jesus'
teachings and manner of living and socializing evidently continued to serve the
early Christian groupings as a model for any or all responsible living in community,
as part of society. As Jesus himself lived in the light of the coming kingdom,
so the Jesus tradition continued to serve as a resource and inspiration for all car-
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