Gospels Gnot Gnostics

My family has recently been reading through the Gospel of Matthew as part of our evening prayer using one of my favorite prayer resources the Treasury of Daily Prayer. At the same time I have also been reading through Deuteronomy. As I read both of these books in tandem I noticed that they have a huge amount of parallels.

The Gospel of Matthew is a book that screams the Old Testament. There is almost no story that doesn’t have some resonance with the histories and traditions of the Hebrew People. It’s a striking reminder that God’s initiative in the world, the “Missio Dei,” is not something that starts with the birth of Jesus, but rather has been going on since the beginning of time.

The incarnation shows that God’s initiative in this world is concerned with the physical world along with it’s specific times, places, and cultures.

This is a radical notion and many of the first people who heard the message of Jesus had difficulty accepting it. Many people in the first centuries after Christ were caught up in the platonic worldview called dualism. They looked to a reality that was separate from the physical and had difficulty believing in a God who uses people and history. These ancient people, called Gnostics, believed the Jewish History was not the history of God’s initiative. They rejected the Hebrew Bible in favor of a spiritualized religion that was only concerned with leaving the physical world.

Looking at just the first 5 chapters of Matthew we can see the the Gospel message is quite different then the gnostic dualism.

The book opens with a genealogy firmly placing the person of Jesus Christ within time, a family, and a body.
It then continues to show how rooted in history Jesus was by claiming that his birth actually is the fulfillment of a prophecy made centuries earlier.
In chapter two group of men come to worship Jesus because the read about his birth in the stars. Even the farthest reaches of the cosmos arrive at Jesus.
Jesus life continues and follows the patterns that were given before in the Hebrew Scriptures (verses 2:18, 23; 4:15-16) this grounds his ministry firmly within a historical tradition
Jesus’ ministry is inaugurated after he is baptized. He does not simply receive some sort of vision, but he gets wet. It’s an incredibly physical instance.
Jesus’ himself claims the hebrew scriptures as authoritative and uses them with power (4:4,6,10)
Jesus heals physical ailments (4:23-25) showing a concern for people’s bodies
Jesus deals with physical issues like sexuality and violence (5:28,39)

You can see the same thing in the other Gospels.

Luke sets Jesus in a clear historical era (1:5),
Mark starts off quoting the Hebrew scriptures (1:2),
and John makes sure the readers know that Jesus is indeed flesh that can been seen and experienced physically (1:14).

Unfortunately many Bible teachers today and church goers have lost sight of the scandalous particularity and physicality of our savior; in todays world Christianity is becoming overshadowed by a folk theism. The emphasis shifts away from the moment in time when God became flesh, dwelt, died, and rose among us; Jesus becomes the touchstone from which you can become a better you.

It’s no wonder so many people are leaving church, if God isn’t interested in places, people, and communities then what’s the point?

Question: Do you think that contemporary American spirituality is replacing the scandalous particularity of Christianity with a form of folk theism that leaves little need for the incarnation?