Jesus Hiked

APRIL 2019. On the second day of our 65-kilometer walk on the Jesus Trail in Galilee, I began feeling dizzy and faint. Berry, my hiking partner, told me to drink more water. That helped, and we were able to make our way from Nazareth to our next stop in Cana, site of a wedding Jesus attended.

But the Jesus Trail continued, often on narrow stony paths speckled with animal droppings, up and down hillsides, across streams of springtime water where thistles grew over our heads, through meadows of waist-high grasses, and finally up and over Mount Arbel leading down to the Sea of Galilee. Our destination was Capernaum, site of Jesus’ headquarters during his ministry.

Exhausted at the end of our hike and with blistered feet, I turned to Mark’s gospel. Already in 1:21, Jesus “went to Capernaum”; the next morning he “went to a deserted place to pray” (verse 35). Then he “went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message” (verse 39). I will never read the words, “Jesus went” the same way again. Not by horse, carriage, automobile, train, or plane. Not communicating by telegram, radio, phone, email, YouTube, or Zoom. Just trudging by dusty, sandaled feet, bereft of Nikes!

‘Lords of the world’

SINCE THAT HIKE, I have been pondering the Incarnation. Was it necessary for the Infinite One to go that far down? To be born a lower-class, brown-skinned, black-haired Middle Eastern Jew whose only means of transport was by scratched and calloused feet? To live under an enemy occupation determined to keep its subjects poor and politically powerless? Apparently, it was!

The Roman imperial system dominated a vast area, of which Israel (composed of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee) was only a tiny part. It was hierarchical and dominated by an emperor from an aristocracy that composed about 2 percent of the Roman population. To maintain control over such a huge area, the Romans made alliances with elites of the various provinces they controlled. King Herod the Great and later his sons were Rome’s clients within Israel — as were Caiaphas and other priests running the Jerusalem temple system.

Military might, not democracy, ruled the land. Under threat of war, Rome maintained control through a system of taxes and tributes. Wealth continually flowed upward. The peasant farmers and artisans comprising most of the population were taxed between 30 and 70 percent of their income. (For example, each fish caught in the Sea of Galilee was taxed.) Forced and enslaved labor provided the elite with cheap labor for major building projects. Slaves existed at multiple social levels, enabling elite households to increase their wealth and influence. The bottom 5 to 10 percent included the expendables — the unskilled, the beggars and criminals, the sick and physically deformed.

Besides military might and economic dominance, another powerful force held the empire together: theology. No separation existed between religion and politics. Rome ruled the world because the gods decreed it. Writing in the Aeneid, the Roman poet Virgil describes the founding of Rome as ordained by Jupiter so the Romans could be “lords of the world.”

How human was Jesus?

FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE 2,000 years later, is it possible to imagine Jesus in his historical context? Can I, a middle-class American citizen who drives a car, uses a cellphone, hikes in comfortable shoes, and votes in (hopefully) democratic elections identify with the human Jesus?

Christians affirm that God indeed became incarnate in Jesus. But sometimes that belief gets limited to “Jesus Christ was God. He died for my sins and rose again, so if I believe in him, I can go to heaven.” Others read the gospel accounts as if the main character were some magical miracle worker whose feet barely touched the ground and who was never seriously tempted to give up in tough situations.

But that misses the point. God becomes human to show us humans how to live — even in a culture as repressive and socially stratified as the Roman Empire. Just as God’s son “learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), he is our model for how to live in our culture.

How does this fully human person promote spiritual and social renewal in the face of a corrupt and oppressive political system? Merging background material with imagination and a few selected incidents in the gospels can give us a more human view of the challenges Jesus confronted.

In the beginning

ROMAN TYRANNY HAD upended the lives of Jesus’ parents even before he was born. Joseph’s original home was in Bethlehem near Jerusalem, but he likely had moved north to Nazareth in hopes of more economic opportunities (Luke 1:26-27). But now Emperor Augustus had ordered everyone to register at their birthplace for the purpose of paying taxes (Luke 2:1-5). So, Joseph and Mary were forced to walk 70 miles to Bethlehem on roads similar to those I used in Galilee. While they were there, Mary gave birth in a structure where animals were kept for the night.

Herod’s murderous actions in Bethlehem drove Joseph, Mary, and the baby fleeing on foot to Egypt as refugees. There is no record of how they survived economically, perhaps seeking out a Jewish community in Egypt. Herod’s death in 4 B.C.E. brought the little family back to Judea, but news of Herod’s son Archelaus on the throne drove them north to Nazareth in Galilee — on foot.

As soon as he was old enough, Jesus would have learned his father’s trade as a tekton. Usually translated as “carpenter,” this term likely included stone masonry as well. He would have developed strong muscles for the rough, heavy work involved.

Jesus was not an only child. Mark 6:3 names four brothers — James, Joses, Judas, and Simon, along with unnamed “sisters,” implying at least seven children in that family. Jesus surely helped with child care and taught social and survival skills to his younger siblings. No wonder he felt at such ease with children during his ministry and asked adults to copy their humility and faith. (See Mark 10:13-16; Matthew 18:1-5)

Since land in Israel was owned by the Romans and their aristocratic clients, how did Jesus’ parents feed their large family? Perhaps the children helped with sharecropping, whereby they got to keep a small portion of the harvests from wealthy landowners. Many of Jesus’ parables, such as those in Mark 4:1-34, indicate an intimate knowledge of farming practices.

Adolescent visions

LUKE'S GOSPEL PROVIDES a peek into Jesus’ life between infancy and adulthood. Luke 2:41-52 recounts Jesus’ first trip to Jerusalem, walking with his parents in a crowd of Galilean Jews to celebrate Passover. At age 12, he was now approaching formal adulthood.

Herod’s magnificent temple must have awed this poor village boy. No doubt Jesus was an eager student of his people’s history and theology, as taught by local scribes and read from precious scrolls in Nazareth’s synagogue. Here was the reincarnation of King Solomon’s temple of 1,000 years earlier! He had to learn more about it!

We know about the parents’ frantic, three-day search for their son and Mary’s relieved but chiding reaction. Jesus’ spiritual-sounding response also conveys an adolescent immaturity that wonders why Mom and Dad should be so upset: “I must be in my Father’s house!” Since Luke assures us that Jesus was thereafter obedient to his parents (2:51), we can imagine those parent-child conversations while walking back to Nazareth.

The gospels’ silence about Jesus’ life between ages 12 and 30 implies to me that it was typical of a lower-class Jewish man living within his peasant family system. But as he eked out a living as a tekton under Roman occupation, he was avidly absorbing stories of God and the rocky history of his people.

Did he ever marry? Young Jewish men normally married between the ages of 18 and 20. Perhaps he did marry but lost his wife in childbirth or from one of the illnesses keeping life expectancy low. Perhaps that loss drove him to deeper study, meditation, and prayer with his Father until age 30 (Luke 3:23) — middle age in that culture. We’ll never know.

But then something happened to alter his life forever.

Nothing happens without John

ALL FOUR GOSPELS explain that the catalyst drawing Jesus out of obscurity in Nazareth was his cousin John. Despite a priestly parentage (Luke 1:5-25), John had fled into the desert and was reviving the ancient Hebrew prophetic tradition. He literally fulfilled Isaiah’s voice crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord!” (Luke 3:4; Isaiah 40:3-5) As people repented of their spiritual poverty, a dunking in the Jordan River symbolically washed them clean. As he drew huge crowds from all over Israel, John was preparing the Jewish people for “the one who was to come.”

Walking many miles from Galilee, Jesus approaches John at the Jordan and asks to be baptized (Matthew 3:13). What was Jesus thinking? If he were truly human, did he recall various imperfections in his own life that needed to be washed away? Over John’s objection, Jesus asks for baptism to “fulfill all righteousness” (3:15).

But the synoptic gospels are clear that what happened was not baptism for the forgiveness of sin. Rather, it was an anointing. We might call it an epiphany. At that moment, God’s Spirit came upon Jesus in a way he had never known before. From now on, his mind would be sharpened by a divine Wisdom.

The same gospels emphasize that God’s Spirit drove Jesus across the Jordan and into the desert where the devil tempted him relentlessly. That may be another way to say that his anointing gave him insight into the spiritual forces he would be confronting during his upcoming mission.

A chance to conquer Rome!

MATTHEW AND LUKE describe three of Jesus’s temptations — the kind that could come to any human person who feels called to be a leader. After fasting the proverbial “40 days” in the wilderness, Jesus is famished. The devil taunts him: “IF you are the Son of God, why not turn a few stones into bread? Satisfy your hunger!”

The devil then takes him to the pinnacle of the temple and quotes scripture about angelic protection so he can jump off and demonstrate his superiority over the chief priests. Finally, he is taken to a high mountain and shown “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Matthew 4:8; Luke 4:5). They could all be his! “Here, take this glittering sword, and go for it!” Before each offer, the knife is twisted: “IF you are the Son of God ... prove it!”

Given most Jews’ situation of poverty and oppression, such temptations would surely have pierced Jesus’ heart. A chance to save his people and bring glory to God and himself! How many politicians and would-be kings can we name today who would jump at an offer like this? Take it! Work out a deal with the devil later. But as Matthew and Luke describe these temptations, Jesus seems to easily reject the devil’s offers. Just quote scripture, and the tempter disappears!

But I don’t believe it happened that way. If Jesus were truly human — and now finds out that he is God’s son in a unique way — it must have been a desperate struggle. Luke 4:13 does add that the devil finally leaves Jesus alone — “until an opportune time.”

I’m sure there were many “opportune times” over the next few years. In fact, even though John’s gospel omits the synoptics’ temptation account, we find a parallel in John 6:1-15, after Jesus feeds 5,000 people. This unexpected meal was interpreted by the crowd as a sign that “this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world” (verse 14). As they are “about to come and take him by force to make him king” (verse 15), Jesus recognizes the familiar temptation to revolt against Israel’s Roman oppressors and establish his own kingdom. He could not risk hanging around with those fired-up rebels. Instead, “he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” Only through intimate prayer with his Father could Jesus resist the temptation of such an attractive political offer.

Invitation to deeper study

THE AUTHORS OF our canonical gospels have recorded many incidents during Jesus’ ministry, but we often miss their greatest impact. Writing for contemporaries, they assume knowledge of the cultural/political background. They also say little about internal emotions. Writing materials were expensive, and hand-copying was tedious: Be concise. Just include the facts!

Instead, we should invite readers today to learn as much as possible about life in first-century Galilee under Roman military occupation. Then we can reflect on the social, psychological, and political ramifications of each story from Jesus’ life. The more we embrace his full humanity, the more we can identify with him and adapt his teachings to our own cultural and political situations. We should ask questions like: How many healings or exorcisms were performed because of physical or mental illnesses brought on by poverty and injustice? What miracles happened when communities shared meals with “the least of these”? What might result if you offered to carry a Roman soldier’s heavy pack or stood firm against a slap on your right cheek?

The gospels are rich with possibilities of fresh insights as we learn more about Jesus’ cultural context and take his humanity seriously.