1086.A Key Concept

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A key concept in Marxsen's discussion in Die Auferstehung Jesu von Nazareth is "the offer of Jesus" (Jesu Angebot/ der Angebot Jesu). Clearly, "the offer of Jesus" is interchangeable with "the faith that the earthly Jesus brought" (der Glaube, der der irdisehe Jesus brac1zte). Thus he can say in succeeding sentences, lies geht immer mll den Glauben, den del' irdisehe Jesus braehte" and "es geht um sein Angebot" (150). Only a few pages later, then, he can define a heretic as "one who does not live out of Jesus' offer" (der, del' nieht aus dem Angebot Jesulebt) and say that lithe only question-christianly-is whether one is willing to accept Jesus' offer, and that means, in this world, in this life, to have to do with God" (die Frage, aufdie es-ehristlieh-allein ankommt: Wagt man es, sieh aufden Angebot Jesu einzulassen, und das heij3t, es in dieser Welt, in diesem Leben mit Gott zu tUIl zu habell) (157 f.).

The other term that is evidently interchangeable with "the offer of Jesus" is "the demand of Jesus"(Jesu Zumutung/ die Zumutung Jesu). Just as Marxsen speaks of accepting Jesus' offer (sieh aufden Angebot Jesu einlassen), so can he speak about accepting Jesus' demand as well as Jesus' word. "Sieh aufdas Wort des irdisehen Jeslls einzulassen forderte ein vertrauendes Glauben. Das war ein Wagnis. Dem irdisehen Jesus konnte man nieht ansehen, wer er war. Man konnte immer nul' glauben, daft er Gott aufdieser Erde vertratt; llnd man konnte das nur dann glauben, wenn man sieh aufseine Zumutung einliej3. Eine Sieherullg, die dieser Einlassung auf Jesu Zumutung vorausging, gab es nieht. Zeic1lenforderullgen, die ilm erst eimnal legitimierell sollen, hat Jesus abgelehnt. Er war au!,wagenden Glauben aus" (154). But, significantly, all this is cast in the past tense--notwithstanding Marxsen's reiterated defense of Bultmann's "form critical reservation." That Jesus is represented in the synoptic traidition as having offered/demanded is clear enough. But, as Bornkamm rightly stressed,"in narrating the history that once was [the gospels] proclaim who Jesus is, not who he was." In other words, "the point of the witnesses in so representing [Jesus] was not to report what he did in the past, but rather to bear witness to what he was doing in the present-not only to them, but through their witness of faith also to their own hearers. Jesus, they claimed, is the one through whom both they themselves and then, by means 2of their witness, all of their own hearers as well are decisively re-presented with the gift and demand

a strictly existential-historical assertion-the assertion, namely, that

love-not

boundless love are Inade fully explicit as authorizing our own possibility of

authentic faith and love"

So, too, Witftgenstein:[sc. den Angebot lmd die Zumutung] of God's love, and hence with the possibility of authentic existence in faith and returning love. Accordingly, to accept their claim in no way requires one to assent to the truth of certain empirical-historical assertions about Jesus--to the effect that he himself made or implied the same claim now represented in their witness of faith. On the contrary, whatever the truth or falsity of any such elnpirical-historical assertions, to accept the claim represented in the apostolic witness as J~SUS' claim is to accept Jesus means that Jesus meant love, however true that may be also, but that Jesus means love, in the sense that through him the gift and demand of God's (The Point ofChristology: 121 f.). """"Das Christentu.m grundet sich nicht aufeine historische Wahrheit, sondern es gibt uns eine (historisc11e) Nachricht und sagt: jetzt glaube! Aber nicht, glaube diese Nachricht mit dem Glauben, der zu einer geschicJztlichen Nachricht gehort,-sondern: glaube, durch dick und dunn und das kannst Du nur als Resultat eines Lebens. Hier hast Du eine Nachricht, -verhalte Dich zu ihr nicht wie zu einer allderen historischen Nachricht! Lass sie eine ganz andere Stelle in Deinem Leben einnehmen. Daran ist nichts Paradoxes!"13 April 2009