Days of Awe and Wonder

by Marcus J. Borg

  Whatever the historical judgment concerning the “heavenly voice,” the story of Jesus’s vision places him in the Spirit-filled heart of Judaism. It reflects the multilayered understanding of reality that was part of the belief system and actual experience of his predecessors in his own tradition. Indeed, standing as it does at the beginning of his ministry, the vision is reminiscent of the “call narratives” of the prophets. Like theirs, his ministry began with an intense experience of the Spirit of God.

  The Course of Jesus’s Ministry: A Person of Spirit

  Jesus’s ministry not only began with an experience of the Spirit, but was dominated throughout by intercourse with the other world.

  Visions

  The vision of the descent of the Spirit was followed immediately by another visionary experience or sequence of experiences. According to both Mark and the tradition behind Matthew and Luke, the Spirit “drove” or “led” Jesus out into the wilderness. Mark’s account is very brief: “He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him” (1:13).

  Matthew and Luke agree that he spent a forty-day solitude in the wilderness, where he was tested by the lord of the evil spirits and nourished by beneficent spirits. They add that Jesus fasted and had a series of three closely related visions (Matt. 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13). In the first, Jesus was tempted by Satan to use his powers to change stones into bread. In the second and third, Jesus and Satan traveled together in the spirit world. The devil took Jesus to the highest point of the Temple in Jerusalem and then “showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 4:5; Matt. 4:8).14 Throughout, Satan tempted Jesus to use his charismatic powers in self-serving ways and to give his allegiance to him in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world.

  Both the setting and the content of the visions are noteworthy. Like Moses and Elijah and other Jewish holy men, Jesus journeyed into the wilderness, alone, beyond the domestication of reality provided by culture and human interchange. There, in a desolate desert area near the Dead Sea, he underwent a period of extended solitude and fasting, practices that produce changes in consciousness and perception and are typical of what other traditions call a “vision quest.” Indeed, the sequence of initiation into the world of Spirit (the baptism) followed by a testing or ordeal in the wilderness is strikingly similar to what is reported of charismatic figures cross-culturally.15

  The synoptic Gospels report one more visionary experience of Jesus. According to Luke, in the middle of his ministry, a group of Jesus’s followers exclaimed: “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” Jesus responded, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning” (10:17–18). The passage uses language typically used to introduce a vision (“I watched”), though the passage could also be a metaphorical exclamation about the defeat of Satan.

  We do not know if Jesus had other visions. The fact that none are reported may be without significance. Presumably, Jesus would not routinely report such visions, but would do so only if they served some purpose in his teaching.16 The rest of the New Testament frequently reports visions, suggesting that the early church continued to experience reality in the same Spirit-filled way that Jesus did.17

  Prayer

  Among the reasons that we in the modern world have difficulty giving credence to the reality of Spirit is the disappearance of the deeper forms of prayer from our experience. Most of us are aware primarily of a form of prayer in which God is addressed with words, whether out loud in the context of public prayer or internally in private prayer. Such “verbal prayer” is typically relatively brief, ordinarily no longer than a few minutes, perhaps sometimes longer in private devotion.

  But verbal prayer is only one form of prayer in the Jewish-Christian tradition. Indeed, it is only the first stage of prayer; beyond it are deeper levels of prayer characterized by internal silence and lengthy periods of time. In this state, one enters into deeper levels of consciousness; ordinary consciousness is stilled, and one sits quietly in the presence of God. Typically called contemplation or meditation, its deepest levels are described as a communion or union with God.18 One enters the realm of Spirit and experiences God.

  For a variety of reasons, this form of prayer has become quite unfamiliar within the modern church. Though preserved in religious orders, by a few groups, and by individuals scattered throughout Christian denominations, it has largely disappeared as part of the experience of most people in modern culture.

  The tradition in which Jesus stood knew this mode of prayer. Moses and Elijah spent long periods of time in solitude and communion with God. Nearer the time of Jesus, Galilean holy men regularly spent an hour “stilling their minds” in order to direct their hearts toward heaven.19 Meditation also is found in Jewish mysticism. Though most familiar to us from the medieval Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism stretches back to the merkabah (“throne”) mysticism of Jesus’s time and before.20 For the merkabah mystics, contemplative prayer was the vehicle for ascending through the heavens to the ultimate vision of beholding the throne of God—that is, of experiencing the kingship of God.

  The Gospels portray Jesus as a man of prayer who practiced this form of prayer increasingly unknown in modern Western culture.21 Like Moses and Elijah, he regularly withdrew into solitude for long hours of prayer: “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed” (Mark 1:35). Another time, “after saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray” (6:46). Luke reports that Jesus on occasion prayed all night (6:12).22 Such lengthy hours of prayer accompanied by solitude do not imply verbal prayer, but contemplation or meditation, the stilling of the mind and directing of the heart toward God reported of Hanina ben Dosa and others in the Jewish spiritual tradition. Jesus practiced one of the classic disciplines for becoming present to the world of Spirit.

  The intimacy of Jesus’s experience of Spirit is pointed to by one of the distinctive features of his prayer life: his use of the word Abba to address God (Mark 14:36).23 An Aramaic word used by very young children to address their father, Abba is like the English “Papa.” Within Judaism, it was common to refer to God with the more formal “Father,” but rare to call God Abba. The most plausible explanation for Jesus’s departure from conventional usage is the intensity of his spiritual experience, a supposition supported by the parallel within Judaism. Namely, Abba is used as a term for God in traditions reported about Jewish charismatics contemporary with Jesus.24 Thus at the heart of Jesus’s prayer life was the experience of communion with God.

  “The Spirit of the Lord Is upon Me”

  The image of Jesus as a Spirit-filled person in the charismatic stream of Judaism is perfectly crystalized in the words with which, according to Luke, Jesus began his public ministry:

  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (4:18–19, quoting Isa. 61:1–2; 58:6)

  About these words, quoted from an earlier charismatic (Isaiah), Jesus then said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (4:21). Though the passage as a whole is often attributed to Luke and not to Jesus himself,25 the picture of Jesus as one “anointed by the Spirit” succinctly summarizes what we find in the Gospels. From his baptism onward, through his ordeal in the wilderness and continuing throughout his ministry, his life and mission were marked by an intense experiential relationship to the Spirit.

  Thus far we have been speaking about Jesus’s internal life: his prayer life, the visions he experienced, his sense of intimacy with God. We also see his connection to the world of Spirit in central dimensions of his public life: in the impression he made on others, his claims to authority, and the style of his speech.

  The Impression Jesus Made on Others

  In his classic book about the experie
nce of the holy, or the numinous, Rudolf Otto describes the numinous presence that frequently is felt in charismatic figures by those around them. There is something uncanny about such figures that evokes awe and amazement and impresses people with the feeling of another world. There may be something authoritative about the way they speak, penetrating about the way they see, powerful about their presence.26

  Such was true of Jesus. A verse in Mark vividly conveys the impression he made, the “cloud of the numinous” that was present around him: “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were filled with awe” (10:32).27

  As a teacher Jesus made a striking impression, very different from the official teachers: “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Mark 1:22). Behind the Greek word for “authority” lies the rabbinic term for the power or might of God, the Gevurah: “He speaks from the mouth of the Gevurah,”28 that is, from the mouth of power or Spirit.

  Popular opinion associated him with earlier charismatic figures, with Elijah, other prophets, or John the Baptist (Mark 6:14–16; 8:28; Matt. 21:11; Luke 7:12). The aura of “otherness” around him may explain the reaction of his family on one occasion: “They went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21).29 Even his opponents granted that there was a spiritual power at work in him, but interpreted it as coming from “Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons” (3:22).

  Not surprisingly, he attracted crowds: “The whole city was gathered around the door” (Mark 1:33); the paralytic could not be brought to him “because of the crowd” (2:4); and “a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him” (5:24). Such language is only what we would expect in the early church’s account of his ministry, but it also undoubtedly conveys the historical impression he made. Jesus was widely known as a charismatic figure, and it was this reputation as a man of Spirit that drew the crowds that flocked around him.

  Jesus’s Own Sense of Authority

  Jesus himself was aware of this power or authority that others sensed in him. When some of the religious leaders in Jerusalem questioned him about his authority, Jesus responded with another question: “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” (Mark 11:29–30).30 Was the authority of John “from heaven,” from the “other world,” or from humans? Though unexpressed, Jesus’s own view is clear: implicitly he claimed the same authority as John, one grounded neither in institution nor tradition but in the Spirit.

  Similarly, Jesus was aware of the power of the Spirit flowing through him. In the context of casting out a demon, he identified the power as the Spirit of God: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you” (Matt. 12:28).31 On another occasion, after a woman had touched his garment in order to be healed, he perceived that power had gone forth from him (Mark 5:30).

  The style of Jesus’s teaching also shows an awareness of a numinous authority not derived from tradition. It is seen in his emphatic and unusual “I say to you” (or “I tell you”) statements, often prefaced in an unprecedented manner with “Amen” (“Truly,” “Certainly”; e.g., “Truly I tell you . . .”), a solemn formula that normally followed a statement.32 Sometimes his emphatic “I say to you” was incorporated into a contrast with the words of the tradition using the pattern, “You have heard that it was said . . . but I say to you . . .”33 Thus the language of Jesus indicates an awareness of a tradition-transcending authority, one from the mouth of the Spirit.

  Moreover, he called disciples, an action that points to his sense of charismatic authority even as it also testifies to the deep impression he made on people. Though it was relatively common for a teacher within Judaism to have devoted students, the phenomenon of discipleship is different and uncommon, involving an uprooting and a following after. The stories of the call of the disciples describe with compact vividness the imperative of Jesus’s call, the immediacy of their response, and the radical rupture from their previous lives:

  As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net in the sea—for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him. (Mark 1:16–20)34

  Later, one of them exclaimed: “Look, we have left everything and followed you” (Mark 10:28). The phenomenon of discipleship is located within the charismatic stream of Judaism, occurring in response to a charismatic leader.35

  Given all of the above, it is not surprising that Jesus had a prophetic consciousness. Not only did some of his contemporaries put him in the prophetic tradition, but he also twice referred to himself as a prophet, albeit somewhat indirectly. In his hometown, he said, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house” (Mark 6:4). Later he said, “It is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). Identifying himself with the prophets, Jesus saw himself in the tradition of those who knew God.36

  The Transfiguration

  Some of the disciples reportedly experienced a strange episode that underlines the connection between Jesus and the world of Spirit. According to Mark, shortly before Jesus began his final journey to Jerusalem, the inner core of the disciples momentarily saw him transformed, his form and clothing suffused with light. Jesus “led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white. . . . And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking to Jesus” (Mark 9:2–4).37

  The details link Jesus to the world of the charismatics. Like Moses before him, he momentarily “glowed” with the radiance of the Spirit (stories of “glowing” holy men are also reported elsewhere). With him were seen Elijah and Moses, the two great charismatic figures of the Jewish tradition.38 Of course, it is very difficult to know what to make of the story historically. Did the disciples actually have this experience, or is the whole narrative a symbolic statement of Jesus’s identity? But even if the narrative is viewed as the creation of the church, it remains significant that the tradition associated Jesus with the two great men of Spirit of Israel’s history.

  Jesus’s Own Sense of Identity

  Jesus himself, his contemporaries, and the Gospel writers all identified him with the charismatic stream of Judaism, as having a consciousness akin to that of the prophets. Did he also think of himself with the exalted titles with which the early church proclaimed him after Easter? Did he think of himself as the Messiah (Christ)? Or as the “Son of God”? As already noted, historical scholarship has tended to give a negative answer.39 But, as with the “heavenly voice” at his baptism, the historical judgment hinges in part upon the sense in which these terms are understood.

  If “Son of God” is used in the special Christian sense that emerges in the rest of the New Testament (by the time of Paul and John, preexistent with God from before creation; by the time of Matthew and Luke, conceived by the Spirit and born of a virgin), then almost certainly Jesus did not think of himself as the Son of God. But if “son of God” is given the meaning that it carried within Judaism at the time of Jesus, then it is possible he did. There, “son of God” was used in three different contexts to refer to three different entities, though with a common nuance of meaning. In the Hebrew Bible, it referred to Israel as a whole or to the king of Israel.40 Contemporary with Jesus, the image of God as father and a particular person as God’s son was used, as already noted, in stories about Jewish charismatic holy men. All three uses have one element in common. All designate a re
lationship of special intimacy with God—Israel as the chosen people, the king as the adopted son, the charismatic as one who knows and is known by God.

  In this Jewish sense, Jesus may have thought of himself as “son of God.” He clearly was aware of a relationship of special intimacy. His use of the term Abba has as its corollary the term “son.” In a number of passages that may plausibly be attributed to him he uses father-and-son imagery to speak at least indirectly of his relationship to God. Finally, the use of the image by other Jewish charismatics contemporary with him, with whom he shared much in common, provides a context in which the term is not only appropriate but virtually expected.

  Moreover, there is a web of associations connecting this experiential awareness of intimacy with God with the term “Messiah.” “Messiah” (mashiah) in the Jewish scriptures means simply “anointed,” that is, “smeared with oil.” Such anointing was part of the coronation of the king of Israel, who thereby became God’s “son.” Jesus was aware of both “sonship” and being anointed by the Spirit, as we have seen. Thus the phrases “anointed by God” and “son of God” and the term “Messiah” are all closely related.

  We cannot know if Jesus made these associations himself; no saying that does this explicitly can be confidently attributed to him. Moreover, we may surmise that he did not spend a great deal of time thinking about who he was. Finally, of course, it does not matter whether he thought of himself as Messiah or Son of God, for his identity as either of those does not depend on whether he thought so.41 Yet our exploration of his life as a Spirit-filled person shows that the church’s exalted designations of him were not arbitrary impositions, but had roots in the historical experience of Jesus himself.