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2.1.3 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
Primitive Jewish Christianity
The New Beginning - The Disciples' New Duty
The effect upon Jesus' disciples of his death and of the remarkable events that followed was very great. It could not be otherwise than that a change in their thinking and living should be wrought by such occurrences. That change was most momentous in its consequences.
There are many indications in our Gospels that during his lifetime the followers of Jesus were looking forward to his speedy establishment of an earthly kingdom. Even his announcement of his death does not seem to have changed their expectations in this regard. If they believed he would die, they evidently believed, as has already be remarked, that his death would only usher in the consummation, and that he would immediately appear upon the clouds as the conquering Messiah, to set up his kingdom on earth and to assert his dominion over all peoples.
Even after his resurrection, they seem to have held for a time substantially the same idea. [Acts 1:6 "Lord, dost thou at his time restore the kingdom to Israel?" where not only the earthly but the national character of their hopes is clearly revealed. The question is of too primitive a character to suppose it the invention of a later generation.]
His death, unaccompanied as it was with convincing evidence of his Messiahship, had bewildered and distressed them, but his reappearance had revived all their old hopes in an unchanged form, and they expected now the immediate accomplishment of that for which they had so long been looking. His resurrection they thought must be for this and for no other purpose.
But it was not for this purpose, and they speedily discovered the fact. He reappeared, indeed, only to leave them again and ascend to heave. His departure, then, must mean on of two things: either their hopes were vain and the kingdom upon earth for which they had been looking was never to have an existence, of the time for its establishment was not yet come.
It is of the greatest historic moment, that the disciples adopted not the former but the latter alternative. Our sources show that they, and almost the entire early church after them, continued to believe that an earthly kingdom was yet to be founded by Christ. But if the time for its establishment was postponed by Jesus' departure from the earth, it was evident that the work of preparation must still go on, and thus there was thrust upon the disciples a new and unexpected duty.
Upon them rested the responsibility of carrying on, until the consummation, the work which Jesus had begun. They felt themselves now called to take up the task that he had laid down; called to enter upon a new mission, which was not to cease until he returned in glory upon the clouds of heaven.
Up to the time of Jesus' death they had been simply followers; now they were to be leaders. While he was with them, they had simply to learn of him, to attend him, to be his faithful adherents that they might be ready to share with him in the glory of the coming kingdom.
Now there fell to them another task: they must seek to prepare others for the consummation, as he had prepared them; they must gather disciples into the kingdom, as he had done; they must, if they could, secure for him the adherence of the Jewish nation, which had rejected him, that the nation as a whole might become the kingdom of God.
It is this new sense of duty and responsibility that led them back from Galilee to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, the political and religious center of Judaism, where were gathered the leaders and teachers of the people, and where every movement that claimed to be of national significance must finally be vindicated or condemned; in Jerusalem itself, where their Master had met his fate, they must bear their testimony and proclaim him openly as the Messiah.
The disciples' return to the city with this determination constitutes an epoch in the history of Christianity. It marks a new beginning, a resumption of the great work that had been begun by Jesus, but had been interrupted by his crucifixion. The cause for which he had given his life was hanging in the balance during the dark days succeeding his death. Was his work to be all for naught? Was his memory to perish from the earth?
That Christianity has had a history is due to the fact that these disciples did not go back disheartened to their old pursuits and live on a s if they had never known him, but that, on the contrary, filled with the belief that their Master still lived, and conscious of holding a commission from hi, they banded themselves together with the resolve of completing his work and preparing their countrymen for his return. Their resolve, put into execution when they left Galilee and returned to Jerusalem, marks the real starting-point in the history of the church.
But this was not all. The resurrection and exaltation of Jesus had yet another important effect upon his disciples. Originally they seem to have thought of him as only a prophet; as a preacher of the kingdom of God, but not its founder. But gradually they became convinced that he was himself the Messiah, and that he would yet assume his Messianic dignity.
His resurrection and exaltation then could hardly mean anything else to them than his assumption of the dignity. When they had found their way back to Jerusalem, they testified not merely to what they believed or hoped, but to what they had seen.
It was not that Jesus was to become the Messiah when he returned upon the clouds of heaven, but that he had become the Messiah when he entered into heaven. [In Acts 2:36, Peter says: "God hath made this Jesus both Lord and Christ." Thus according to Peter's view Jesus assumed his Messiahship when he ascended to Heaven. See also Acts 5:31.]
He would return not with a new glory that was not yet his, but with a glory that he already possessed and which they had witnessed. That he had not already ushered in his kingdom and begun his reign, was not because he lacked Messianic authority and power, but because his people were not yet prepared. The heavens must receive him for a little while until they repented and were ready to welcome his return. [Acts 3:21]
Used by permission of the publisher.
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