沒人想要的耶穌基督THE JESUS CHRIST THAT NOBODYWANTED
作者: Nicholas Davis 譯者/校對者:Maria Marta/誠之
為什麼要寫約翰福音? 我們有作者本人的聲明：
「但記這些事要叫你們信耶穌是基督，是神的兒子，並且叫你們信了祂，就可以因祂的名得生命。」（約廿31）
約翰寫這卷福音書是為了告訴他的讀者（和我們!） 誰是「基督」。注意他說耶穌是「那基督」，而不僅僅是「耶穌基督」，彷彿耶穌基督是祂的姓和名似的。「基督」不是我們的主的姓氏，就像我的姓氏是大衛那樣。耶穌基督實際上是祂的名字和祂的頭銜/稱號。
這是對猶太聽眾說話的方式：耶穌是「彌賽亞」——祂來應驗他們期待已久的許多預言。耶穌是「受膏者」，這個詞充滿了舊約的涵義。
新約聖經根源於舊約聖經。了解舊約書頁中發生的事有助於我們更好地理解整部新約找到的主題和提及的事。從許多方面來說，我們閱讀聖經的方式，應該是從前面到後面，再從後面回到前面。我們將每個部分視為更大整體的一部分。
沒人想要的基督
當然，約翰寫作的真正目的不只是告訴我們耶穌是彌賽亞或基督，而是說服我們確實信靠耶穌。我們必需確信這一點，因為我們對彌賽亞的許多期望有很大的偏差。猶太人期望彌賽亞要來推翻羅馬帝國，給予他們對古代世界的最高統治權，但耶穌不是他們所要的那種彌賽亞。
相反，他們得到一個釘死在十架的主和死去的君王。
「彼拉多說：『你不對我說話嗎？你豈不知我有權柄釋放你，也有權柄把你釘十字架嗎？』耶穌回答說：『若不是從上頭賜給你的，你就毫無權柄辦我。』」（約十九10–11a）
耶穌是那種沒人想要的基督。整本約翰福音的寫作方式都是為了向我們表明上帝的計劃，從一開始就是直接進入十字架。約翰福音告訴我們耶穌來的原因。
作為彌賽亞的耶穌不是為了滿足猶太人對地上征服的期望，而是為了滿足祂的天父對世人獲得永恒救恩的期待。
換句話說，祂「並不是要受人的服事，乃是要服事人，並且要捨命做多人的贖價。」（可十45） 耶穌來的原因是要作「神的羔羊，除去世人罪孽的！」（約一29）耶穌來受死，是為叫我們活著。
對一些人來說，這聽起來可能是無稽之談。受苦的君王？誰會想要？死去的領袖？我們為什麼想要這種君王和領袖？
耶穌和我們所有人渴望得到的那種總統或世界領袖剛好相反。我們想要一個有權有勢、富有、強壯的領袖，但是來到我們面前的耶穌卻是無權無勢、貧窮、軟弱的。我們想要的神，是在至高之處榮耀那些尊貴的、強而有力的人；我們並不期望祂會在最卑微的地方揀選那些弱小又骨瘦如柴的人。
我們已準備好選舉掃羅作我們強大的國王，但上帝卻揀選面色紅潤的牧童大衛。
你不明白嗎？事實上，上帝正是藉著軟弱和痛苦帶來拯救！祂不是以我們想要的方式拯救我們，而是以我們所需要的方式拯救我們。
約翰福音迫使我們考慮十字架事件。耶穌死了，復活，被高舉，現在被提供給我們，作為我們得救的唯一途徑。
每個人都需要的基督
這就是基督教的全部意義所在。基督教是關於上帝從天上降下來——祂代替我們去做我們做不到的事。基督教不像世上其他的宗教，其他的宗教告訴我們，要藉著做好事、作好人，爬上天堂。
佛教、道教、儒家思想、伊斯蘭教、摩門教，以及世上所有其他宗教都可以歸結為「關於我們的事」——我們可以升到上帝面前，我們的良善、善行，為我們贏得了在上帝餐桌上的合法地位。我們被告知要繼續努力，希望我們在來世必能成功。或者，也許我們試圖要求權利——無論出於何種原因，我們試圖鼓起勇氣，我們配得上天堂。
然而，基督教告訴我們的是不同的事。它不僅是世界上唯一的宗教，坦白地告訴我們這個事實：我們不可能把每件事情都做得對、做得正確；我們不是我們該有的樣子；而且它還告訴我們更好的事。
藉著耶穌基督的位格和工作，上帝已經從天降下，來到我們當中。
藉著耶穌基督的位格和工作，上帝已為我們糾正了我們所做的一切錯事。在基督裏，上帝成為我們所渴望和盼望的人。祂下降是為了將我們升高。
基督教的信息——福音或「好消息」——不是關於我們可以把自己洗乾淨；或我們所需要的僅僅是額外的助力，好將一切做得對、做得正確；或者我們可以憑一己之力振作起來。
我們的一切善行和努力都是不夠好的，因為上帝對我們的要求是完美。我們任何的主張，說我們出身在權貴家庭，或承諾要成為一個更好的人，都是不足夠的。上帝的聖潔和祂的公義標準，對我們來說都是壞消息，因為我們是不義的和不配的。我們都知道我們並沒有遵守上帝的律法。
但基督教，如約翰福音所陳述的，並非要爬上通往上帝的階梯。基督教是關於上帝下降到我們中間，從馬槽到十字架的過程。上帝已藉著祂的話語和耶穌的工作降臨到我們當中。
凡相信約翰福音所提供的耶穌的人，都是上帝的兒女。
THE JESUS CHRIST THAT NOBODY
WANTED
Nicholas
Davis
Why
was the Gospel of John written? We have a statement from the author himself
saying,
These
are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31)
John
wrote this Gospel to tell his readers (and us!) who “the Christ” is. Notice
that he said Jesus is “the Christ,” and not simply “Jesus Christ,” as if this
were his first and last name. “Christ” is not our Lord’s last name in the same
way my last name is Davis. Jesus Christ is actually his name and then his
title.
This
was the way of saying to a Jewish audience that Jesus was “the Messiah”—he had
come to fulfill many prophecies that they long expected and awaited. Jesus is
the “Anointed One,” and this term is loaded with Old Testament meaning.
The
New Testament is rooted in the Old Testament scriptures. Understanding what
happened in the pages of the Old Testament helps us to make better sense of
references and themes that we find throughout the New Testament. In many ways,
reading front to back—and back to front—is how we are supposed to read the
Bible. We see each part as a piece of a greater whole.
The
Christ That Nobody Wanted
Of
course, John’s real purpose is not just to tell us that Jesus is the Messiah or
Christ but to persuade us to actually believe in Jesus. We need to be convinced
of this because a lot of our messianic expectations are way off. The Jews
expected that the Messiah would come to overthrow the Roman Empire and give
them supreme rule over the ancient world, but that’s not the kind of Messiah
they got.
Instead,
they got a crucified Lord and a dead King.
So
Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have
authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him,
“You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from
above.” (John 19:10–11a)
Jesus
was the kind of Christ figure that nobody wanted. The whole Gospel of John is
written in such a way as to show us that God’s plan from the beginning was to
go straight to the cross. It tells us why Jesus came.
Jesus
as Messiah came not to fulfill Jewish expectations for earthly conquest but to
meet his heavenly Father’s expectations for eternal salvation.
In
other words, he “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). The reason Jesus came was to be “the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus came to die so
that we might live.
Now
to some people this probably sounds like nonsense. A suffering king? Who wants
that? A dying leader? Why would we want that?
Jesus
is the antithesis of the kind of president or world leader we all long for. We
want a powerful, wealthy, strong leader, but Jesus comes to us powerless, poor,
and weak. We want a God who glories in the great and mighty in the highest of
places; we don’t expect him to choose the small and scrawny in the lowliest of
places.
We’re
ready to elect Saul as our mighty king, but God selects the ruddy shepherd boy
named David.
Don’t
you see? It’s actually through weakness and suffering that God is bringing
about redemption! He came to save us not in the way that we wanted but in the
way that we needed.
The
Gospel of John forces us to reckon with the event of the cross. Jesus died, was
raised, is exalted, and is now offered to us as our only means of salvation.
The
Christ Everybody Needed
This
is what Christianity is all about. It is about God’s descent from heaven—his
acting on our behalf to do what we could not do. Christianity is not like other
religions of the world where we are told to climb up into heaven by doing or
being good.
Buddhism,
Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, Mormonism, and all of the other world religions
boil down to being about us—our ascent to God, our goodness, our good deeds to
earn our rightful place at God’s table. We are told to keep trying, and
hopefully, we’ll make it in the afterlife. Or maybe we try to claim
entitlement—for whatever reason, we try to muster up, we deserve to be there.
Yet,
Christianity tells us something different. Not only is it the only religion in
the world that is honest with us about the fact that we can’t get everything
right and we aren’t who we should be, but it tells us something far better.
In
the person and work of Jesus the Christ, God has come down to us.
In
the person and work of Jesus the Christ, God has gotten everything right for us
that we got wrong. In Christ, God became the human we all longed to be and
hoped for. He came down in order to raise us up.
The
Christian message—the gospel or “good news”—is not that we can clean ourselves
up, that we just need an extra push to get everything right, or that we can
pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.
None
of our good deeds or efforts will ever be good enough because God demands
perfection from us. None of our claims based upon birth into a privileged
family or promises to be a better person will be enough. The news of God’s
holiness and his righteous standard comes to us as bad news, because we are
unrighteous and undeserving. We know that we haven’t kept God’s law.
But
Christianity, as set forth in John’s Gospel, is not about climbing up a ladder
to God. It’s about God’s descent to us from the manger to the cross. God has
descended to us in the words and works of Jesus, the Incarnate Word.
All
who believe in the Jesus whom this Gospel of John offers us, these are the
children of God.