Jesus - A Recap of Jewish History and Destiny

We see in Jesus’ life a recap of the story of the suffering and the exile of the people of God.  In his life he proceeded to act out symbolically the fate he had announced for Jerusalem as a whole.  Jesus declared that the way to the kingdom was the way of peace, the way of love, the way of the cross.  And Jesus determined that it was his task and role, his vocation as Israel’s representative, to lose the battle on Israel’s behalf. 

The kingdom would come through the suffering of the righteous; the true king would share the suffering of the people.  Jesus summoned his followers to a strange kind of revolution through which Israel would become the light of the world, not through fighting a military battle, but through turning the other cheek, going the second mile, loving her enemies and praying for her persecutors.  This agenda which Jesus mapped out for his followers was the agenda to which he himself was obedient.  This was how the kingdom would come, how the battle would be won.  And he would defeat evil by letting it do its worst to him.