The Puzzle of Christianity

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

(Matthew 6:9–13)

The word ‘Amen’ is generally added at the end of Christian prayers and means ‘so be it’. It is used at the end of all prayers, even prayers said by the priest or leader of worship, and links those participating with the prayer. It is important to note that Christians ask to be forgiven by God in the same way they forgive others; in other words, if they do not forgive others, God will not forgive them.

If God is truly at the centre of a person’s life, then all the things that normally preoccupy people will assume lesser importance. When Jesus’ called His first disciples He called them to leave everything behind: friends, family and possessions. Disciples are required to put God centre stage in their lives and, if this is done, then money, reputation, sex, appearance and all those things that most people value so highly will be seen in their proper perspective. This does not mean that they are irrelevant, just that once a person seeks to devote their life to God, these other things can only ever be of peripheral importance. It is not possible to serve both God and worldly desires and interests.

Jesus preached the coming of the kingdom of heaven, but this was not what the people amongst whom He was living expected. He did not preach a new Davidic kingdom which would throw out the Romans and establish Jerusalem as the seat of a new Jewish government. The kingdom that Jesus proclaimed was a kingdom in people’s hearts. This was in some ways a radical and new idea, although the basis for it lay in the Hebrew Scriptures and the teaching of the prophets. Bringing people to see this new understanding of God’s kingdom was not easy; it was not the message that people wanted to hear.

Jesus realised that His message would not be readily received. He likened it to a farmer who was scattering seed: some of it fell on stony ground and withered almost as soon as it germinated; other seed fell on poor ground and sprang up but had no roots and died; whilst still other seed fell on good ground (Matthew 13:3–9). Similarly, the message of Christianity would not be well received by many; some would either ignore it or else take it on board with enthusiasm, but abandon it as soon as doubts or difficulties came along. Jesus never expected that His message would be accepted by everyone, nor that it would be popular. He said that following Him would involve pain and suffering, misunderstanding and rejection, and it would be hard (Matthew 10:17–18, 38–39). On one occasion He said that it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven (this is a reference to a very narrow gate into the walled city of Jerusalem which a loaded camel would have been unable to enter) (Mark 10:23–25). Someone with wealth and possessions will find that his or her heart is anchored in these and it will be almost impossible to centre life on God. Jesus said if money or power or reputation is really important to a person, then this is where their heart will be.

Jesus found the greatest faith in people who were on the outside of conventional society: a poor widow who had almost no money but gave a few coins which, for her, represented a great deal; a Roman centurion who trusted Jesus’ power to heal and accepted that, when Jesus spoke, his servant would be healed even though the servant was a long distance away; a woman caught in adultery who trusted Jesus even though everyone else condemned her; another woman who wept for her sins; blind beggars, lepers who were despised and outcasts – these were Jesus’ followers initially.

The rabbis and teachers of Jesus’ time had built up a set of rules that regulated every aspect of the life of a devout Jew, and for many of these people keeping the rules had become an end in itself. The Pharisees in particular considered that devotion to God could be measured by the extent to which one kept the rules. Jesus cut through this and taught that what mattered was the change within the heart of a person, not whether they kept the rules. For instance, He and His disciples were criticised because, when crossing a cornfield on the Jewish holy day (the Sabbath) they ate a few ears of corn. This broke the rules, as picking corn was considered to be work and work was not allowed on the Sabbath. Jesus’ critics said that Jesus’ failure to condemn His disciples meant that He was not a devout Jew (Luke 6:1–5). On another occasion, He failed to wash before a meal and He was criticised because this was one of the strict rules that a Jew had to follow. He talked to people who were regarded as sinners and outcasts, something that no pious Jew would do. He touched a leper, which was condemned by the Jewish law. He healed a person on the Jewish holy day and this was also condemned (Luke 6:6–11). The teachers of His time were continually trying to trap Him and to show that He was not really a faithful Jew at all, still less a prophet. On one occasion they brought to Him a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. The punishment according to the Jewish law was clear: she had to be stoned to death. His critics thought that they had him in a trap – either He had to forgive her and show that He rejected the Jewish law and was not a genuine prophet at all, or He had to condemn her and all His talk of forgiveness would be undermined. Jesus’ response was simple. He said that whoever had never committed a sin should throw the first stone. Clearly no one was in this position, so they all went away and left Him with the woman. Jesus did not condemn her; He merely said gently, ‘Go now and leave your life of sin’ (John 8:3–11). Gentleness and yet a firm devotion to God was at the heart of all Jesus did, and this message shone through in a way that the teaching of the priests and law-givers of the time did not.

Whereas most Jews of the time were angry with the Romans, Jesus treated those Romans He met with compassion and understanding. On one occasion an attempt was made to trick Him by asking whether Jews should pay taxes to Rome (Luke 20:20–26). Again, whichever answer He gave would seem to land Him in trouble. If He said that taxes should be paid, then He would not be seen as a devout Jew, as Jews bitterly resented the Roman taxes, so He would become unpopular. If He said that taxes should not be paid, then He would have been arrested by the Roman authorities. It seemed He could not win. His answer was simple. He asked for a coin to be shown to Him and then asked whose head was on it. ‘Caesar’s,’ was the answer; He simply said, ‘Then give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’ In other words, what mattered was not the issue of taxes but where the hearts of people really were. Many were so preoccupied with money and material things that God had been altogether forgotten.

Jesus was in no doubt that the way a person lived would determine what happened after death, and He was also in no doubt that there was a separation between heaven and hell. The punishments in hell were severe. In one case Jesus told the story of a rich man who went to hell and a poor man, Lazarus, who used to sit at the gate of the rich man and beg, and who after death went to heaven (Luke 16:19–31). The rich man pleaded for mercy or, at least, that Lazarus could be sent to his living relatives to warn them. Jesus said that no move was possible from hell to heaven and that sending someone who had died to the living relatives would not achieve anything. If they did not believe the Jewish prophets, they would not even believe if someone rose from the dead (a poignant look forward to His own resurrection).

We have already seen that at the baptism of Jesus the Holy Spirit descended on Him in the form of a dove. The role of the Holy Spirit is vital in Christianity; it is seen as the Spirit of God in God’s self which strengthens, comforts and, in some cases, guides Christians. Jesus said to His disciples that when He died He would not leave them alone, as the Holy Spirit would remain with them. The Holy Spirit, Jesus and God in God’s self are one in Christianity; this gives rise to one of the most important of all Christian doctrines. This is that God is Trinitarian. God is one, but God is also Three. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the three persons of the undivided Trinity with no separation between them. It cannot be emphasised strongly enough that this does not mean that there are three gods, as some critics were to later maintain. Christianity is firmly committed to both the unity of God and to God’s essentially Trinitarian nature. This is, Christians accept, a mystery, but it is a mystery that is at the heart of Christian faith. The Trinitarian doctrine means that when the Holy Spirit comes to a Christian this is the same as God in God’s self. Fifty days after Jesus’ death, at what has become called Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came directly to Jesus’ followers when they were gathered together. The presence of the Holy Spirit provides, therefore, the guarantee that God is with them always in a very personal way.

Figure 3: Andrei Rublev’s extraordinary icon of the Old Testament Trinity, depicting the three visitors who came to Abraham (Genesis 18:1–15), shows God as three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – sitting at a table with a fourth place set for the viewer. The chalice (the cup used for wine in Catholic and many other Christian services) symbolises the Eucharist or Mass in which Christians participate. The figures are not looking at each other but form a circle to include the viewer.

Towards the end of His ministry, Jesus sent His followers out with a command to spread the good news (the Gospel) which He had come to deliver. He is recorded as saying:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

(Matthew 28:19–20)

As we saw in the last chapter, just before He died Jesus shared a meal with His twelve closest friends. This has become known as the Last Supper. At this meal Jesus took bread and broke it and shared the pieces amongst His disciples; however, He also said words that were to have a decisive impact on future Christian practice: ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me’ (Luke 22:19). Then He took wine and when He had given thanks He again shared this with His disciples, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you’ (Luke 22:20). These words form the basis for what Christians variously call the Eucharist, the Mass, or the Lord’s Supper. Different Christians have varying understanding of how these words of Jesus are to be interpreted. Catholic Christians take the words literally and have long argued that, at the Mass, when the priest consecrates the bread and wine, there is a ‘change of substance’ and it becomes the body and blood of Christ, although the believer continues to experience it as bread and wine. This gives rise to the Catholic practice of the consecrated bread or wafer being adored by the believer, and of the priest consecrating the bread and wine (which only a priest can do) and then this being distributed to the faithful by a lay person. Catholics call bread that has been consecrated and kept in this way ‘the reserved sacrament’ and it is kept close to the altar in a tabernacle with a candle burning beside it. Other Christians, such as Anglicans, maintain that Jesus is ‘really present’ at the Eucharist but they do not specify in what way (see here). Many Protestant Christians see the bread and wine as symbolically representing Jesus’ presence (some Protestants use fruit juice instead of wine because of the alcoholic nature of wine). There are, therefore, differences in understanding. Nevertheless, almost all Christians are united in the importance of taking seriously Jesus’ words at the Last Supper.

Jesus had twelve close friends or disciples who accompanied Him throughout His ministry. Three of these were particularly close to Him – Peter, James and John. James and John were brothers whilst Peter was a former fisherman, an impetuous man who would often speak first and think later. Jesus prophesied that the kingdom of heaven was coming and that He, His disciples and all who followed Him would share in this kingdom. Gradually the disciples came to realise that this was not an earthly kingdom but a heavenly one and, naturally enough, the question arose as to who would be the leaders and closest to Jesus in His new kingdom. The mother of James and John came to Jesus and asked if her sons could sit one on His left and one on His right when He came into His new kingdom (Matthew 20:20–23). In asking this, she showed a lack of understanding as to the nature of the coming kingdom. Unlike earthly kingdoms, the new heavenly kingdom would be one of love and service where those who sought to be first would be least important and those who were humble and thought nothing of themselves would be first. It was an inversion of all the values underlying worldly power and achievement. Jesus pointed out that the path to the new kingdom lay through service to others, suffering and death – hardly an attractive prospect. He also made clear that Christians would necessarily suffer in this world, just as He would have to suffer. Jesus, therefore, inverted all the normal ideas of power often associated with God. For Jesus, God’s power was shown most clearly in compassion, suffering and love. It was the power of weakness, not of might. This was emphasised in the picture of Jesus dying on the cross: dying like a common criminal, alone, despised and rejected by human beings. Yet, Christians hold, this is God in God’s self dying on the cross. God becomes human and suffers as a human and does so out of love.

Peter was impulsive but had a genuinely good heart. He felt himself totally committed to Jesus and would have done anything for Him. However, the Gospels are realistic. When Jesus was about to face arrest and His coming death, and Peter vehemently declared his love and undying loyalty, Jesus gently told him that, before the cock crowed to indicate that the night was over, Peter would deny Him three times. After Jesus’ arrest Peter followed Jesus to the High Priest’s house where He was taken, but Peter was recognised and was accused of being one of Jesus’ disciples. Peter denied it in the strongest terms (John 18:15–27). This happened twice more and, after the third denial, the cock crew. Peter felt bitterly ashamed and angry with himself. This close friend of Jesus was weak and fully capable of failure, yet this was the man whom Jesus chose to lead the Church that would carry on His work after His death. This is part of a theme running through both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures: that God chooses those who are outsiders and who are despised in worldly terms, not the powerful and successful.

One of the controversial passages in the Gospels specifically concerns Peter. Peter was formerly called Simon and is renamed Peter by Jesus. The Greek word petros means ‘stone’ or ‘rock’ and Jesus uses a play on words to say, ‘you are Peter, and on this rock [petros] I will build my church’ (Matthew 16:18). Peter is given the keys of the kingdom of heaven and is told that the forces of evil will not prevail against the Church. Catholics hold that all authority is given by Jesus to the Church thus founded and that Peter and his successors are placed at its head: ‘whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’ (Matthew 16:19). This is central to the Catholic understanding that Peter was the first leader of the Christian Church – the first Pope – and that successors to Peter would have authority over the Church on earth and in heaven. Still today the papal seal has the symbol of crossed keys, indicating that the keys of the kingdom belong to the Pope and Catholic priests can release or forgive people for sins committed on earth. Protestants tend to play this passage down or even consider that it may have been inserted before the Gospels were produced in their final form and are, therefore, less willing to give authority to the Church. This is an issue to which we will need to return.

Figure 4: The papal crest of Pope Francis, showing the crossed keys of St Peter which appear on every papal crest. The letters ‘IHS’ are the first three letters of the Greek word for ‘Christ’. The motto below the crest reads ‘miserando atque eligendo’ (‘by showing mercy and by choosing’).

Jesus’ death was not, however, simply the death of another innocent human life. It is also seen as a sacrifice. The idea of a sacrifice is not one that is widely accepted in the modern world. A sacrifice occurs when a person gives up something of value which they treasure for a higher cause. Sometimes a person is held to have sacrificed their life in a battle by allowing themselves to be killed to save the lives of comrades. In all religions, sacrifice has been an important idea, ranging from the willingness of an individual to sacrifice their own self-interest to help others, to the sacrifice of something they value in order to achieve self-discipline. Jesus, Christians hold, sacrificed His own life out of love to bring people back to God: to eliminate the cumulative centuries of sin and disobedience and to allow a new start.

The real power of God, Christians hold, is shown on the cross in Jesus dying, alone and abandoned, out of love for all human beings. So Jesus lays down His life, willingly and by His own choice, for His friends. What is more, He specifically says that His friends are all those who listen to what He taught and take His words seriously: who try to love God and love their neighbours with all their heart and mind and soul (John 15:10–15). Christians, therefore, see Jesus laying down His own life and suffering an agonising and terrible death in order to bring people to God, to redeem them from the cumulative effects of sin. It is for this reason that Christians refer to Jesus as their Saviour, the one who saves them from the effects of sin and disobedience and brings them home to God their Father. Jesus is not just the Saviour of all Christians. Jesus died for His friends and, in so doing, atoned for their sins. The punishment that is justly due to all human beings who have failed and who have sinned is cancelled because of Jesus’ acts of suffering. Jesus, when He dies, pays the price of sin for all believers. The fairness of the universe is maintained.

FIVE
The Resurrection and the Initial Spread of Christianity

The New Testament consists of the four Gospels, a number of letters written by St Paul and others, a final book called Revelation and the Acts of the Apostles. The Acts of the Apostles (often referred to simply as ‘Acts’) is generally agreed to have been written or compiled by the author of Luke’s Gospel and is a second part of this work. It contains some of the earliest records of what happened immediately after Jesus’ death.

In Chapter 3 we saw that Jesus was crucified by the Romans. After His death, His body was placed in a cave hewn out of rock, with a large stone rolled across its entrance. His death is commemorated on the day that Christians call ‘Good Friday’ (see here) at about three o’clock in the afternoon and His body would have been placed in the tomb the same day. In the heat of Palestine, it was essential that bodies were buried quickly. Jesus’ friends and disciples were in despair and also full of fear that the Jewish authorities might hunt them down next. They were dispirited and demoralised. Their friend and leader, for whom they had given up everything, was dead and all His promises seemed to have come to nothing.

On the Sunday morning, either one or two women (the accounts differ) went down to the tomb. These were Jesus’ closest friends and they went there to mourn. They found that the huge stone had been rolled away and that the tomb was empty – the body had gone. The grave clothes, in which Jesus’ body would have been wrapped, were neatly placed in a corner. One Gospel account records that two angels were in the tomb (John 20:11–13). The fear and consternation felt by the women are not hard to imagine. One of them saw someone she took to be a gardener and, thinking that he had taken Jesus’ body somewhere else, she asked him where the body had gone. The supposed gardener simply uttered her name, ‘Mary,’ and she instantly recognised that it was Jesus (John 20:14–18). She ran to throw her arms round Him in amazement and joy, but He said no: He had not yet ascended to His Father and her Father, to His God and her God. Mary was instructed to go and tell the disciples what had happened. In another Gospel account it is Peter who comes down after Mary and therefore sees what has happened (Luke 24:9–12).

Mary Magdalene is a pivotal figure in the Gospel accounts who, with others, supported Jesus financially and was with Him constantly throughout His ministry:

After this, Jesus travelled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

(Luke 8:1–3)

Figure 1: This painting by Titian shows Jesus still with a few grave clothes after his resurrection. Mary Magdalene is trying to touch Him and Jesus is pulling away. Mary is shown here with ginger hair, and this has significance (see here).

In some disputed texts, written soon after Jesus’ death, Mary is recorded as one of the apostles. However, Christians from the fourth century AD onwards began to associate Mary Magdalene with another Mary, a prostitute who washed Jesus’ feet and was forgiven by him (see here). What cannot be questioned is that Mary Magdalene played a central role immediately after Jesus’ resurrection. In Eastern Christianity she is described as ‘equal to the apostles’ and the Orthodox Church maintains that she was a virtuous woman all her life. In Western Christianity she is sometimes described as ‘the apostle to the apostles’, as it was she who brought news of Jesus’ resurrection to His disciples.

The news that Jesus had risen from the dead and had been seen by Mary and Peter was greeted with amazement and some incredulity by the disciples, and one of them, Thomas, simply could not believe it. He said, understandably, that he would not accept it as true unless he could see Jesus for himself and place his finger in the hole in Jesus’ side where the soldier’s spear had pierced it, and also in the holes in His hands. When Jesus did appear to Thomas and he finally believed, Jesus said that those who believed without seeing the physical evidence had greater faith and were more blessed (John 20:24–29). Jesus appeared to the disciples in a locked room (they were hiding and in fear of arrest) on other occasions. On one occasion, as two of the disciples were walking to a nearby town called Emmaus, Jesus walked with them without them recognising Him. It was only in the evening, when He shared their meal and broke bread with them, that they recognised Him (Luke 24:13–35). One of the most famous appearances of Jesus was to St Paul (Acts 9:1–19), although in this case Paul heard a voice rather than seeing Jesus.

Christians record several stages after Jesus’ death. In the first stage Jesus appears to various disciples and followers with the same body that He had when He died; the marks of the nails were in His hands and feet and the spear mark could be seen in His side. The next stage began when He ascended to God (this is referred to as the Ascension). After this, Jesus does not appear in bodily form, but the Holy Spirit comes to the new Christian followers.

If one event is more crucial than any other to Christian belief, it is the resurrection. The apostle Paul wrote:

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

(1 Corinthians 15:17–19)

Jesus was a remarkable and extraordinary human being (as well, Christians claim, as being God incarnate) but the event that singles Him out from every other remarkable teacher is the resurrection. It is reasonable, therefore, to ask what evidence there is for the resurrection. Clearly, we have the recorded testimony of those to whom He appeared after His death, but what other evidence is there?

One of the most remarkable and extraordinary phenomena in history is the extent to which Jesus’ followers – a small, frightened group who were in hiding for fear of the Jewish Temple authorities who had just, with the co-operation of the Romans, slain the disciples’ leader – changed to a group who went out with total confidence and joy, preaching ‘Christ crucified’. They no longer had any fear at all and, indeed, some were put to death, meeting their death calmly in the total conviction that death was not the end. This was a crucial mark of the early Christians: they faced death without any fear. This transformation is very hard indeed to explain in terms of a psychological delusion or mass paranoia. The best and simplest explanation, Christians hold, is that the stories of the resurrection are true. No other explanation can so persuasively account for the total alteration that took place in the frightened disciples, particularly as this was not an expectation shared by most Jews and it would have been greeted with incredulity by non-Jews.

Jesus made clear that, in rising from the dead, he had defeated the power of death: ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die’ (John 11:25–26). Death was no longer the end and the power of death to bring fear and a sense of meaninglessness to the lives of individuals was destroyed. Death was now to be seen as merely a door to a richer and more perfect life with God in heaven. Christians, therefore, did not fear death, as it marked the entry into eternal life. Christians also came to believe that Jesus had defeated the powers of hell. Hell was a place of permanent exile from God, and a tradition grew in Christianity that Jesus descended to hell before rising from the dead. By so doing, Jesus released those who had died from the power of hell, so both death and hell were no more to be feared. This did not mean that Christians did not believe in hell – they did. However, hell was a place of freely chosen exile from God and, given the permanent possibility of forgiveness by God, the door was always open in this life to return to God, just as a penitent son returns to his father.

The resurrection is at the heart of Christianity, as is the identity of Jesus. He asked His close friends at one point in His ministry: ‘Who do people say I am?’ They replied that popular opinion differed: some said He was Elijah who had come back again; some said one of the great prophets. Jesus then asked, ‘Who do you say I am?’ and the impulsive Peter replied, ‘You are the Messiah’ (Mark 8:27–29). In many ways this is the key issue. Who is Jesus? If He was just a great teacher and a great Jewish rabbi, then Christianity is false. If He was an extraordinary prophet – one of a long list of prophets – then Christianity is false. Christians affirm that Jesus is the Christ, the chosen one of God, God’s Word, God incarnate come to redeem the world by His sacrifice. If this is true, then the resurrection is not improbable at all.

Before Jesus ascended to God the Father, He promised His disciples that He would not leave them alone and comfortless but would send the Holy Spirit or Paraclete (Counsellor) to them. Christians are firm in their belief that God is one, yet God is three persons in one. Thus the three persons of the Trinity are God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. Since the Three are nevertheless One, when Christians talk of the Holy Spirit being with them, this is equivalent to saying God or Jesus is with them. After Jesus ascended, the disciples were praying together when a tremendous wind tore through the house and a tongue of fire rested on the head of each of the disciples. They were then able to speak in many different languages and they could be understood by people who had come to Jerusalem from many different nations. This event is celebrated in the third most important of the Christian festivals, which is called Pentecost. This occurs fifty days after Easter day (the day when the resurrection of Jesus is celebrated). An important part of the worldwide Christian community today are the Pentecostal churches, which proclaim the coming of God’s Spirit and, in particular, the Spirit of prophecy given to various church leaders (see here).

Christianity spread initially among Jews and it must be remembered that there were Jewish communities and often synagogues in all the major centres of the ancient world. However, after Christianity was opened to non-Jews (see here) there was explosive growth among people of all races. Often the early Christians were women or slaves who responded to Jesus’ central message of God’s love and forgiveness.