3.4.3

Jesus Christ’s Authority as a Liberator

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Jesus Christ’s Authority as a Liberator

Jesus’ role as liberator of the marginalised and the poor is seen through his challenges to political and religious authority.

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Jesus as a liberator

  • For many Christians, Jesus’ challenge to the political and religious authorities of this time presents him as a liberator.
  • Jesus was especially critical of the religious authorities, and in particular, the Pharisees.
    • He was also critical of the values and behaviours of the society in which he lived.
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Healing the bleeding woman

  • In the story of Jesus healing the bleeding woman (Mark 5:24-34), Jesus liberates a woman from an illness that blighted her life for 12 years.
    • But, as a menstruating woman, she would have also been viewed as impure and shunned under Mosaic law.
  • In healing her, Jesus liberates her from both the illness and the marginalisation she faced.
  • Jesus praises the woman's faith and speaks directly to her.
    • In doing so, he is challenging Mosaic law and those in the crowd to alter their treatment of such an ‘outcast’.
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Parable of the Good Samaritan

  • In the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus challenges conventional thinking in a number of ways.
  • Jesus’ Jewish audience would know that touching a dead body renders someone ‘impure’.
    • Jesus challenges this excuse for the priest and the Levite not stopping to help the man ‘left half-dead’.
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Parable of the Good Samaritan 2

  • Jesus’ criticises religious law for taking precedence over compassion.
    • By doing this, he aims to liberate his audience from this legalistic approach.
  • By praising the actions of the Samaritan, Jesus reinforces the pre-eminence of compassion in the law.
  • He also challenges (and so liberates) the audience’s suspicion of the Samaritan.
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Jesus & the Pharisee

  • We see another example of Jesus being a liberator in the story of Jesus at the home of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-49).
  • Here, Jesus liberates the woman from her sins through forgiveness.
  • He challenges the Pharisee for his attitude to this marginalised woman.
    • He does this through his critique on the Pharisee's behaviour and praising of the woman's behaviour.
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Jesus' triumphant return

  • Another example of Jesus as a liberator is his entry into Jerusalem and the cleansing of the temple (Matthew 21:1-13).
  • Jesus arrives on a donkey and not a horse, liberating the crowd from their expectations of him as a kingly liberator.
    • This suggests that Jesus was not going to be who they expected.
  • Then, by heading to the temple and turning over the tables, he indicates his main focus is the religious authorities.
    • Here, he is again liberating the people from their expectation that he would free them from Roman occupation.

Jump to other topics

1Philosophy of Religion

1.1Ancient Philosophical Influences: Plato

1.2Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle

1.3Ancient Philosophical Influences: Soul, Mind, Body

1.4The Existence of God - Arguments from Observation

1.5The Existence of God - Arguments from Reason

1.6Religious Experience

1.7The Problem of Evil

1.8The Nature & Attributes of God

1.9Religious Language: Negative, Analogical, Symbolic

1.10Religious Language: 20th Century Perspective

2Religion & Ethics

3Developments in Christian Thought

3.1Saint Augustine's Teachings

3.2Death & the Afterlife

3.3Knowledge of God's Existence

3.4The Person of Jesus Christ

3.5Christian Moral Principles

3.6Christian Moral Action

3.7Development - Pluralism & Theology

3.8Development - Pluralism & Society

3.9Gender & Society

3.10Gender & Theology

3.11Challenges

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