Commentary on the Gospel of
Jesus, the Crucified Jew Prophet
In the Parable of the Tenant, Jesus wants to show us two things. The first thing is the continuity of his ministry with the mission of the prophets of Israel. The second thing is that he has assumed the risk of his death that God's obedience involves, because he is saying that in the same way that prophets were killed, he will be killed.
Jesus was not an alien who came to preach something completely strange to his coreligionists. Jesus is inserted in Jewish tradition. We have thought that Christianity has broken out from Judaism and it is true that we, the Christians, recognise that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the incarnate divine Word. But Jesus has said: ''Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them'' (Mt 5:17).
According to Israel's traditions, Amos, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezequiel and Zacarias (also John the Baptist, in Jesus' times) were killed because their message was irritating to the authorities. They proclaimed above all that people should renounce the worship of idols and love, with concrete service, the fatherless, the widow, the foreigner and the starving, just as it is written in Torah (Dt 10:18).
I would like to ask myself two questions. Do I sufficiently appreciate the Jewish tradition that sets the roots to understanding our way to be Christians? As a disciple of Jesus, am I aware that I am called to share his same destiny by living a prophetic life, i.e. rejecting new idols and loving the poor?
