Hope

We spent a good deal of our time in Ecclesiastes with our community group discussing the idea of hope. It seemed like every week I was trying to paint the picture of the Jewish hope that Jesus was born into. Of course, we can’t be certain of exactly what every single Jew was hoping for. But, I think we can have a pretty good idea (based on the Old & New Testaments) about how Jesus actually fulfilled the hope of the Jews, but not in the way they were expecting. This, to me, is a huge part of the understanding of not only certain doctrines but the whole narrative of Scripture itself.

I almost feel like Wright here is quoting me (but I’m sure I’ve somehow subconsciously been quoting him all along):

Many first-century Jews thought of themselves as living in a continuing narrative stretching from earliest times, through ancient prophecies, and on towards a climactic moment of deliverance which might come at any moment.

That sounds pretty basic. I doubt that many of us would debate this, but the bigger question is, should this be the central “act” of the drama that Jesus stepped into?

They were not understanding themselves as living in a narrative which said, “all humans are sinful and will go to hell; maybe God will be gracious and let us go to heaven instead and dwell with him; how will that come about? Let’s look at our scriptures for advance clues.”

Maybe Wright is making a crass caricature here, but I don’t think it’s that far off.

If “the gospel” is the public announcement of the climax of a story, which story are we telling, and have we missed important points of the story to frame the climax?