He seemed to have power over nature. At his word he commanded the very forces of nature to do his bidding. There was that time when Israel was in drought, and they asked him to pray for rain. He agreed. He drew a circle on the ground and prayed for rain. A few drops came from the sky. He prayed again, asking for rain enough to fill their cisterns. The rain poured with vehemence. He payed again for the rain to back off, lest flooding destroy their fields, homes, and belongings. He prayed for a benevolent rain. Of course, you know about whom I am referring. Rabbi Honi the Circle-maker.
A Rabbi's son was very ill. They sent word to the healer to pray for the boy. He went to an upper room, where he prayed. After some time, he emerged, telling the messengers that the boy's fever was gone. They noted the exact time and returned to the Rabbi, only to discover that the boy became well at the very moment the healer announced it. Of course, you know about whom I am referring. Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa, the most celebrated miracle worker in rabbinic Judaism.
On another occasion, villagers informed him that a venemous lizard was biting people as they prayed. He asked to be shown the hole where the lizard lived. He put his heel over the hole. The lizard came and bit his heel, and the lizard died. From that moment on a saying emerged: Woe to the man who is bitten by a lizard. Woe to the lizard that bites Ben Dosa! Over the years, this story would change significantly. Ben Dosa would be referred to as a rabbi, and the lizard would bite him as he was praying
Jesus, of course, was well known for miracle-working and his words of wisdom. He commanded a storm to cease. He declared people healed from a considerable distance and they were healed at the very moment Jesus spoke the healing words. In Mel Gibson's movie, Jesus even steps on the head of a snake in the Garden of Gethsemane! What are the odds!
What you need to know is that there were people living before and after Jesus who could perform some incredible feats or miraculous proportions, much like the ones Jesus performed. What is also worth noting is that many of these miracle workers also spoke words of great wisdom. About some of them it was said that Wisdom descended upon them.
All of the above were lower class. Peasants or below on the social ladder. All of them performed "magic" and spoke words of wisdom beyond their pay grade.
All of the above posed a challenge - simply by their existence - to organized religion, which was led by men with a significant amount of higher education and were among the upper class by virtue of their office.
Honi the Circle-maker and Hanina ben Dosa experienced a posthumous transformation witnessed in written history. The earliest record of their works shows that they were considered magicians who also spoke wisdom. Their teaching was right in line with Jewish teaching. Their magic - what we would call miracles - were obviously supernatural. At first, this was all that was said of them in their stories.
But over time, this posed a problem for organized religion. Is it okay for such men to profess and prove God's power in and through their lives, even though they were not formally educated, and therefore lacked an authorized title from the religious leadership? Of course not! How could God be officially behind men who had not been endorsed by God's Temple authorities?
An old friend of mine, who went to church as a child but completely rejected church in college and beyond, let me know that he was an ordained minister. This is not one of those I came to Jesus later and now I'm a pastor stories. He let me know that he got ordained through an Internet site - for free - so that he could perform his friend's wedding (who returned the favor). My agnostic friend has the same title I do: Reverend.
I have two other friends who both have a huge heart for God and people, have had their lives radically transformed by God, and are in the trenches with people, helping them encounter the life change that comes with Christ. Both of them wanted some sort of official endorsement for what God was doing in and through them. They each researched various organizations offering on line ordination, and they both received ordination through those sites, for a small fee.
Both of these make folks like me uncomfortable. If you have been ordained through the historical process that most denominations adhere to, it takes a lot more than checking box and clicking a mouse. For many traditions, a Bachelor's degree is not enough. You have to earn a Masters of Divinity degree, which requires around 100 credits to complete - three years, full time - plus internship requirements at a local church. Once you've earned your Masters and had your thesis signed off, then it's off to ordination council, which is comprised of professional peers whose job it is to see if you have any major holes in your foundation: theology and life. You have to write a separate paper for this group - usually highly academic, formal, and long. They also pose complex ministry situations to you, to see if you can handle it. Once you pass the committee, you then go before a large group of your peers - anyone who wants to come - and they grill you for another few hours to see if you have what it takes, after which they vote on whether or not you are worthy or ready to be ordained. Hard work. Vetting. Deep meaning. High cost. This is why most classically trained, ordained ministers today do not treat even their well-meaning Internet-ordained brothers and sisters with equal respect. Except for recent years when sexual misconduct has made the headlines, "clergy" have been in the top ten most respected professions in the US. The clergy, even today, are honored (at least in theory).
The same dynamic existed in Jesus' day. Rabbi's were highly trained, well dressed, and were part of the Upper Class. And they wanted to keep it that way. This is why Jesus so freely criticized the religious officials of his day - they earned it!
This created a problem in antiquity, because everybody - including the religious leaders - knew that these "wise-talking magicians" were being used by God. So, in order to assimilate them into proper history, they were gradually promoted. Usually long after their death. Wherever magical acts took place, they were reframed as acts of prayer. And magicians were given the title Rabbi.
Jesus was less than a peasant. Yet he was referred to as Rabbi according to the stories we have from antiquity. Could it be that, as was the case for Honi the Circle-maker and Hanina ben Rosa, that he was given the title Rabbi posthumously? If that's true, was Jesus really a rabbi, or should we be skeptical, wondering if he got his credentials from some website?
If this was the case, it would not mean that we should then question the validity of everything the Bible says. Actually, it would mean that the Bible is quite authentic in practicing the methods of ancient Jewish writing. Surprisingly, this may actually serve to validate the Bible, not take away from it.
If this was the case, it would also serve to illuminate just how powerful Jesus' message and ministry was. In light of the multitude of rebellious, cynical self-proclaimed messiah figures that lived during the period when Rome occupied Israel, the fact that Jesus made the history books is telling, to say the least. Nobody in the first century would blink at Jesus being called Rabbi, because he was known as one in and through whom God was clearly working.
I have friends in ministry who have spent very little time acquiring a formal education yet are clear conduits of the Spirit of God. People are moved by their message to following God in life-changing ways. Through their prayers God has done amazing things - healings that are inexplicable apart from God. I guess God doesn't predicate his power based on how far we've gone with our education...
It's not that we should abandon learning, of course. Jesus spent three years investing in the disciples for their education. Paul was one of the most highly trained men of his generation. But at the end of the day, we believe not because of titles but because of what we recognize God doing in and through people.
So far, then, we have a Jesus who was a reject based on his occupation, a rebel based on what he said and who endorsed him, and now we see him as a rabbi who earned the title the really hard way - only by the fruit of his life, and only recognized after his death.
This Jesus was a leader who drew a crowd and asked them to follow him. To follow him meant to trust his way over every other way. The payoff was that in living differently, people began living regardless of the oppressive life they lived.
May you pause and consider the invitation being extended to you - an invitation to live - given by a reject, a rebel, and a rabbi.
2 comments:
The New Testament records Jesus speaking and teaching in the temple. Would non-rabbis be allowed to do this or was his teaching there more informal than official rabbinical teaching?
We have conflicting pictures of Jesus as rabbi and not a rabbi. I think he was one of many who would speak outside the actual Temple - in its courts - with crowds coming to hear him. Matthew in particular quotes Pharisees (probably Sadducees in fact) as not being trained. This is significant since Matthew was writing to an audience with Jewish sensitivities.
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