Coming into Jerusalem, Jesus knew that He was to fulfill God’s plan and save all from sin. As He entered the city, Jesus was publicly greeted by numerous pilgrims waving palms. This part of the Paschal Mystery is called “Passion.” Although they rejoiced once He entered Jerusalem, Jesus knew that he would soon disappoint and lose his followers. Endo wrote in his own words, “tragedy portrays the passion and death of heroes” (102 ALOJ). But in Act Three of the Bible, it portrays the death of more than merely a hero. Judas, one of Jesus’ closest followers who tried killing of his attachment with him in the past, decided to sell him out for silver coins. Judas’ betrayal is “drawn from the words of Psalm 41:”, “ Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, …show more content…
Jesus knew he would be betrayed after his Passover meal, so he told his disciples to drink the cup in order to “redeem” themselves in the future . In other words, the wine/blood was a symbol of redemption. Because his followers were not “fulfilled” in him, Jesus was alone at the time he was arrested. As He went to go pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, He “trusted” that his disciples would keep on the lookout, but they failed to do that. Another symbol is that Jesus was arrested and taken during the night time, which represents isolation. And He was isolated due to him “disappointing” his followers. Although He was betrayed several times, Jesus continued to show full extent of love for all. That’s why he gave his disciples the wine. And that leads us into his “Death.” Jesus still only had one primary goal, and that was to save all sins. One can infer that Jesus knew that the disciples would struggle in becoming ideal followers of him. Endo explains by claiming that “a person begins to be a follower of Jesus only by accepting the risk of becoming himself one of the powerless people in this visible world” (145 ALOJ). For example, in the film Of Gods and Men, Br. Amedee acted as a disciple of
Upon reading the poem "Saint Judas" by James Wright, the reader quickly realizes that the poem deals with Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus' twelve apostles. The author describes Judas as "going out to kill himself,"(line 1) when he sees a man being beaten by "a pack of hoodlums"(2). Judas quickly runs to help the man, forgetting "how [his] day began"(4). He leaves his rope behind and, ignoring the soldiers around him, runs to help. Finally, he remembers the circumstances that surround his suicidal intentions and realizes that he is "banished from heaven"(9) and "without hope"(13) He runs to the man anyway and holds him "for nothing in [his] arms"(14)
Mary watched her child as Jesus traveled the country , and taught others about Christ. She had a sense of discernment that authorities and others were intimidating by his teachings. The Jewish authorities were in a difficult situation. They were trying to maintain a balance to the stable nature in their community , but saw Jesus as a threat. The situation grew worse overtime , and led the community to prosecute Jesus in the city of Jerusalem. He was taken into custory , presented a trial , and nailed to the cross.
Mark's Gospel and Nature of Discipleship In Mark's Gospel, there are many accounts of Jesus' disciples and Apostles which are helpful to Christians as examples of the nature of discipleship. In this part of my coursework essay I hope to address questions involving what Mark's Gospel tells us about Jesus' disciples and Apostles, as well as defining the principle of what being a disciple entails, and defining also who the apostles were. This is because by learning about past disciples and the Apostles, a modern disciple of the Church can learn about the nature of discipleship. A disciple is somebody who is inspired enough by somebody to learn about them, listen to their ideas and follow them and their way of life.
Judas had told some of his close relatives and some of his Sadducean friends that, while he believed that Jesus had good intentions and an idealist, but he did not think that he would make a good “King”. The Priests gave Judas a group of armed guards to take with him to the Garden of Gethsemane. The Garden of Gethsemane is where Jesus and the Apostles went to pray after the Last Supper. The plan for Judas was to identify Jesus. The way that they agreed to identify Jesus was to have Judas go to Jesus and give him a kiss. After the kiss, Judas was to call Jesus “Master”.
So what happened to Judas? Well my opinion is that only God knows, but this is what I personally believe (there are many other theories of how Judas died, but it is such an unimportant topic when placed to the gospel as a whole, but know that the Bible is ERROR-FREE and any conclusion must be biblically based).
The Gospel of Matthew is an eyewitness story written for an audience of believers, under great stress, and persecution. Matthew develops a theological plot incorporating genealogy, speeches, parables, inter and intra textual references, common vocabulary, and fulfillment quotations, with a tension that builds as we are invited into the story. The crucifixion and resurrection bring us to a Christological climax that symbolically points beyond its conclusion to God’s Kingdom, bringing atonement, salvation and the ushering in the Eschaton. The extraordinary events surrounding the crucifixion act as commentary, adding important details concerning the death of Jesus.1
Modern Day Disciples Following Jesus today is harder than it used to be, but modern day. disciples do not exist. Christians try to see Jesus in other people and they follow Jesus' example and teachings. An everyday Christian would try to see the good in everybody, try to forgive others when hurt or unhappy and apologise for things that they do wrong.
Jesus and the two criminals are the main characters in the story but a mass of people, soldiers and leaders of the church are also present. Luke is the only synoptic account to focus a lot of attention on the other crucified criminals and Jesus. I believe this is Luke’s attempt to show Jesus’ mercy and forgiveness for all humankind, even criminals. It is also interesting to note that Luke is the only one to draw attention to masses of people. Mark and Matthew mention that “those who passed by derided him” (Mark 15:29 and Matthew 27:39), but Luke really calls attention to them using a pretty dramatic writing technique: “And the people stood by, watching”. You can almost sense the disgust and shock of the writer at the passiveness of the people.
One aspect of his teaching that brought adverse attention to him was his repeated assertion that he was the Son of God sent to the Earth to redeem humankind. This was in direct violation of Jewish law. For this he was condemned to die. Betrayed by one of his apostles, Judas, Jesus did not resist his imprisonment he saw it as the fulfillment of his purpose.
...; “A man named Simon, who was from Cyrene, was coming in from the country just then, and they forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha. They offered him wine drugged him with myrth, but he refused it. Then they nailed him to the cross.” (Mark 15:21-24) Jesus was nailed to the cross early in the morning and the Roman soldiers nailed a sign above Jesus’ head that translated meant, “The King of The Jews.” All those who passed Jesus mocked him and verbally abused him. Then, around three o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus screamed out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Then Jesus yelled out again and took his last breath.
All three parts, in some fashion, present the religious play of the passion of the Christ by coming together as a community and rehearsing to perform the show. It is the performance of the passion as well as the double casting that links the three parts together. The play within a play creates a static backdrop for the action and conflict between characters to occur, as well as a link to religion and history dating all the way back to the Middle Ages. The passion has historically been a show that could be easily manipulated for the wills of the people to show a particular point. The original words were derived from the liturgy of the church and spoken aloud during services. Main points included the events taking place on Good Friday (the day of the crucifixion) like Judas’ betrayal, Jesus’s trial and sentence before Pontius, the carrying of the cross, and dying on the hill side. Jesus’s self-sacrifice for the sake of the sins of the world is the core value of the Christian faith, thus making it a storyline to survive the ages and surpass international boundaries. However, the versions of the passion seen in Ruhl’s play did not come to fruition until many years after the original liturgy. As popularity for the spoken passion grew, members of the church thought the death of Jesus would be more appreciated by the people if the context of Christ’s teachings was also presented. The self-sacrifice
The gospels explain Jesus’ life and death including His identity but also his activities, works, leadership and his suffering. Jesus is seen as a manifestation of God’s relationship with humans. An important fact about Jesus is the humility and modesty associated with his birth, upbringing and death. The fact that such a person ...
...t Judas is one of the apostles; it says that he is Jesus’s favorite! Unlike the other disciples, Judas understands Jesus’s true message and that all of his flesh and bones are lies. Jesus tells Judas, "You will sacrifice the man that clothes me” (Gospel of Judas). When Jesus says this he means that Judas is going to have him killed, which actually will liberate him because he will finally be free from the material work therefore liberating the real Christ inside of him. This is what is so interesting about the Gospel of Judas, Christ is actually ecstatic that he is going to die and he thanks Judas; this turns Judas’s actions from treacherous to favorable. Because this is from a Gnostic source Churches refuse to acknowledge it, though it does bring up a point that Judas may have really been helping Jesus get out of a world that he was not meant to live in anymore.
Senior, Donald. 1998. "The Gospel of Matthew and the Passion of Jesus : Theological and Pastoral Perspectives." Word & World 18, no. 4: 372-379. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, EBSCOhost (accessed March 13, 2014).
When Jesus called His disciples, His invitation was simple. He invited them to follow Him. The same is true today. In Matthew 28, Jesus gave His last charge to His disciples, and the charge was simple. He called his followers to go and make disciples. Much effort has been placed by Christians to fulfill this charge, commonly referred to as the Great Commission. Jesus chose to fulfill the implementation of the New Covenant through 12 men who He called, appointed, and commissioned, and he only had a few short years to prepare them for the task (Willson, 1990). His methods were unconventional and were revolutionary for that time. His disciples were to be trained extensively by Jesus, living with Him for three years prior to His ascension. He taught about servant leadership and its meaning for both the leader and follower Matt. 20:25-28). From the beginning, Jesus put in place a careful plan, and an examination of His actions in the Gospels showed that Jesus left behind the pattern to be replicated. His methods, which included the incorporation of three different levels of discipleship, included His interaction with Peter, His closest three (Peter, James, and John), and finally the group of 12. This paper identified and analyzed the three levels of discipleship Jesus modeled, these discipleship methods were then measured against modern leadership theories, and Jesus’s level of involvement and interaction with his disciples were critiqued in light of these modern theories in an effort to determine the effectiveness of this approach.