The Jesus Creed has really helped me to look at Scripture from what I believe is a more biblical and Jesus centered perspective. While I have read the words Jesus used from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and Leviticus 19:18 many times in Scripture, I never considered how all His teachings might have stemmed from them. I did not know Jesus had amended the Shema of Judaism because I didn’t know there was a Shema before reading this book, but now knowing this I can more clearly see what Jesus was doing. He was correcting a misunderstanding how some used and understood the Torah. Most paid excellent attention to the letter of the Law; however they had failed to grasp the message that God had called them to partake in His redemptive mission. Just as the Israelites got tangled up with the letter of the Law and missed their calling, are we as the Church today also failing to answer the same call? I believe it’s far too easy to make a case that we are, especially in America.
Jesus redefines what it means to love God, instead of showing love to God by observing the Torah, Jesus calls people to follow Him, and in doing so He equates loving God to having a personal relationship with Himself thereby amending the Shema, making it personal. Next, He adds to the Shema by using a Leviticus passage saying “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love of God and love of others is the core of Jesus’ Shema and loving God means following Jesus. McKnight believes the Jesus Creed is the foundation of everything Jesus teaches about spiritual formation and after having read his book I have to say I agree. Everything Jesus does is out of love for God and for others as illustrated time and time again throughout the Gospels. Jesus not only changes the Shema, but also the prayer called The Kaddish of Judaism. Prayer is communication with God; Jesus puts the emphasis on it being a loving communication as He teaches that we should approach God as our Father or “Abba.”
The Essay on Why Is Jesus the Manifestation of God’s Love
Jesus is the manifestation of God’s offer of life and love to all the believers since that Jesus is his son. He cares no less for those who are His disciples today. His promises are still valid; His power has not diminished; and His person is unchanging. We do not have the benefit of His physical presence, but we have His Spirit. And although we cannot see Jesus, we can sense His love for us ...
According to McKnight, The Kaddish must have been one of Jesus favorite prayers as it seems that He took it and made it His own in what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. Just as the Kaddish speaks of God’s name being magnified, sanctified and that His kingdom would be established soon; The Kaddish of Jesus (Lord’s Prayer) does likewise. The difference is that Jesus changes how we approach God (as Abba), that we should love others as well and petition for others too. So we see that the Lord’s Prayer is really made up of Love-of-God petitions and Love-of-others petitions, which we see stems from Jesus’ Shema. Simply put, the Lord’s Prayer is Jesus teaching us to pray the Shema, He radically altered both by redefining love of God and by adding love of others. I never knew much if anything about Judaism’s Shema or Kaddish however, now that I do it has made a world of difference in how I view the Gospels, especially many of the parables within them.
I certainly now why most Torah observant Jews wanted to get Jesus out of the picture as fast as possible, He changed everything. Who was this illegitimate child, as most considered Him, to be changing such things and making Himself out to be God? These bits of information are extremely valuable and have helped me to really have a better feel for just how radical a shift Jesus was presenting to those of His day, something we just don’t see too clearly today. As I mentioned prior, Jesus taught that we should approach God as Abba. It’s easy for someone to say that God loves them, but the truth has to be absorbed to really be believed so that someone will act upon it. The Lord’s Prayer begins with Abba or Father; in this Jesus breaks from the Judaism tradition once again.
Rarely did someone in Jesus day pray to God calling Him Abba or Father and in the rare instances it occurred it was (as far as my understanding goes) more of Father in relation to the nation of Israel, not personal as Jesus makes it for us. While all of the names used in Judaism evoke mystery and distance, Jesus by using the name Abba evokes God’s unconditional and unlimited love for His people according to McKnight. I believe without a doubt that Jesus radically changed how people related to and perceived God. Instead of God being distant and mysterious, Jesus introduces us to God, who really loves all His children. Jesus chooses the term from home because love should originate in the home where an Abba dwells, for most of us this is where our first understanding of God began and later it to some extent transferred from our parents to God.
The Term Paper on Physical Suffering God Love Faith
In the chapter titled Rebellion (or his book title), Feodor Dostoevski's character, Ivan Karamazov, demonstrates that his angry and resentful attitude is the by-product of his very choosing. The fundamental principal of our own humanity is God's acknowledgment of our expression of free will. Found between the boundaries of man's ownership of worldly acts and thoughts, which can lead him to an ...
McKnight states that “we are wired this way.” Our spiritual formation can only begin when we open up to receive Abba’s unconditional love for us; this I believe is hard for all of us for various different reasons. Most of us probably thought at some we needed to earn God’s love, not to different from those who thought they were by being Torah observant in Jesus day. Jesus taught however that God is our Abba, who is near not far and who wants to have a personal loving relationship with us. Jesus uses the parable of the Prodigal Son to illustrate, showing what Abba is gracious and loving, waiting for us to return. God takes the first step toward us, He first loves us and Jesus gives us the name Abba to remind us daily in the Lord’s Prayer that God loves us, thus helping us to absorb this precious truth. I have started reciting Jesus’ Shema for just that purpose and will use the structure provided by the Lord’s Prayer often to remind me of how and who I should be making petitions for.