A comment I frequently hear/see is that “Jesus of Nazareth” wasn’t much interested in doctrinal orthodox, especially when it comes to our doctrine of God and the Trinity. It tends to come from those quarters where people want to place an emphasis on following Jesus’ example and teaching, especially when it comes to social agendas.
I guess that in one sense, those making the comments have a point. It is certainly true that Jesus had little time for those who seemed to know the letter of the law and detail of scripture well but actually miss the spirit and purpose of what it was saying. Neither Jesus nor those through whom Scripture was revealed are much concerned with academic theological debates, all of Scripture has a practical edge to it.
However, if you think that Jesus had little interest in doctrinal orthodoxy, then I suspect you too may have missed the point of much of what he has to say. Notice two things, first that the frequent allegation raised against Jesus is that he was speaking and acting blasphemously and so, frequently, Jesus takes time to defend himself against this charge.
Secondly, notice that, especially in John’s Gospel, a primary concern is for us to be able to know and speak about The Son accurately in order that we may also speal accurately about The Father and The Spirit. Especially in John 5, 10 and 14-17, we see Jesus taking great care to describe who God is and what God is like providing the foundation for Trinitarian orthodoxy.
If we think that Jesus wasn’t much interested in such things, then it suggests that we have missed out on exactly who Jesus is. Such bold claims tend to come in support of a 21st century social/political interpretation of Jesus as a man/teacher/leader. If we say that Jesus didn’t care much about orthodoxy, then we are failing to recognise that he is God/ You see, given that Jesus is God, it would be peculiar for him not to be concerned about how he is seen, heard, described and worshipped. Indeed, failure to recognise God accurately is idolatry and central to sin. To not be bothered about those things is not to be bothered about the very reason why Jesus had to come.
Jesus did care about what we believed about him because, as we frequently observe on Faithroots, what we believe affects how we live. With that in mind, I’m going to be resharing as articles, the e-book “Who is God” over the next few weeks.
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