V. CONCLUSION
that ind icate the conc ept of universalism find their basis on more solid ground.
In point of fact, the concept of universalism must be traced back to Christ. It is general~ recognized that His thought was steeped in that of Deutero-Isaiah. That prophet of the exile was responsible for the
peculiar combination of a belief in the universal sovereignty of God with a highly conc§~te conception of His particular Providence in history.
Both elements of particularism and universalism appear in the thought of Deutero-Isaiah. The high-water mark of prophetic religion is reached in the words:
Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earthl
For I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn,
from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness a word that shall not return:
To me every knee shall bow'88 every tongue shall swear.
Throughout the post-exilic period, the tension between particularism and universalism in religion persisted. It was because the more universal path of Deutero-Isaiah was abandoned, while the more m ticnal trend of Ezekiel was
88 C• H. Dodd, The Authority of ~ Bible (London:
Misbet & Co., Ltd., 1955), p. 114; cf. Sheldon H. Blank,
"Studies in Post-Exilic Universalism, II Hebrew Union College Annual, XI (1936), pp. 159 ff., 190.
89 Isa • 45:21-23. Cf. Dodd, Authority of the Bible, p. 116.
adopted by the Jews, that the message of Jesus proved unaccept able to t he Jews of His day. Jesus, in word and deed "preached a bro therly love which transcended the
ceremonial scruples of Judai sm and went beyond the national bounds • • ,,89
Concluding Statement
The cent ention of this chapter bears ou t the fact that the universal not e was struck by Jesus in the reading at the Nazareth synagogue. It must be borne in mind that the ministry to the non-Jewish peoples did not begin until after the crowning even ts of the death and exal tation of Christ. But that the ground work for such a development has been laid is the picture that Luke makes quite cl ear. It has been shown that some elements in the picture are the work of Luke, but the basis must be traced to elements in the thought of Jesus Chri st. It is na tural for Luke to make the gosp el appeal to readers in the Greco -homan world. 90 However, Jnlicher is undoubtedly right in noting that in the
two concept s of universality and the boundlessness of God's mercy, the early Church, Paul, and Luke were faithful
interpr eters of Jesus Chri st the Lord. 91
89Zahn , ~. cit., III, 72.
90 Jtllich er, ~. cit., p. 333.
91 Ibid •
THE REJECTION OF THE MESSIAH
THE REJECTION OF' THE MESSIAH
• • • all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
And they rose up and put him out of the ci ty, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their ci ty was built, that they might throw him down headlong • • • • 1
With these words, Luke prepares Theophilus for the denoument of the narrative, the ultimate rejection of the Messiah by His own people. Here indeed we maw find, not only an indication of what wo uld eventually happen, but sanething. of the waw it would happen. Perhaps the point should not be pressed, but when finally death came, it was on a hill out of the city. The author of the book of Hebrews has immorta lized the scene in the famous words, "So Jesus also suffered out the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. ,,2
That the rejection and cmsequent vindication of the Messiah is the daninant theme of each of the gospels is
certain. The Christian community arose as a result of the event s of the passion. These events led to the transforma- tion of the small band of "uneducated, common men, ,,3 mostly Galileans, :Into bold witnesses whom no threat, no tribula-
tion, no trials could silence.
However, the method by which the evangelists prepare
ILuke 4:28 f. 2Heb • 13:12. 3Acts 4:13.
the reader for this final outcome varies with each of them.
In Mark, for example, no sooner than at the end of the
description of a full day's ministry,4 and the healing of a leper,S the reader finds a series of conflict stories. 6 The atmosphere gathers cloud with an acceleration as the account unfolds. Finally the cloud bursts and the focal point of the history is reached.
In Luke, the motif of rejection is harder to follow.
There is no doubt that the end of the story is ever before the author, but he seems to leave the full unravelling until the last week of the ministry of Jesus. However, there are indi cati ons of the motif of rejection before the passion narrative. An examination of the broad outline of the Third Gospel shows that after the ~eface,7 the work is divided into four parts. 8 The first section is introductory.9 The
4Mark 1:21-39; Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1952), pp. 170 ff.
Hereafter this volume will be cited as Taylor, Mark.
5Mark 1:40-45; Taylor, Mark, pp. 185 ff.
6Mark 2:1-3:6; Taylor, ~, pp. 191ff.
7Luke 1:1-4.
8See James Moffatt, An Introduction to the Literature of ~ New Testanunt (3d ed.; Edinburgh: 1,'.& r.-Clark, 1949), p. 264.~ereafter this volume will be cited as Moffatt,
In tro duc ti on •
9Luke 1:5-4:13.
secald deal s with the Galilean mission of Jesus. lO The third comprises the ministry of Jesus on the journey to Jerusalem. ll The f:inal section deals wi th the ministry in Jerusalem leading to the passion. 12
It is observed, therefore, that both the second
section and the third open with accounts of the rejection of Jesus: 13 the first being the rejection at Nazareth,14 the basis of this study; and the second, the rejection in a Samaritan village. 15 Thus, after the introductory section,
the next two sections open with rejection stories and the last section deals extensively with the final rejection.