Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Jesus as a Tzadik

[I hope I'm not misunderstanding some of these definitions or concepts. Feel free to discuss in the comments.]
בסייד

Today's daily portion of scripture gives an account of a blind beggar calling out to Yeshua--he calls him both Son of David and Rabbi. Yeshua asks him "What do you want me to do for you?". The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." And, because of his faith, says the text, the man's sight was restored. (mark 10:46-52)

Most non-Jews read the accounts of Jesus and the miracles as something really extraordinary. Of course it's extraordinary--to have a blind man see again! But I mean extraordinary in a different way. While I was reading, I was reminded of the stories of tzadikim, mostly rabbis in the past, who have performed miracles like this. Perhaps, in his day, Jesus was regarded as a tzadik, a truly righteous person whose prayers were heard by God. Perhaps these people had seen miracle workers before, or had heard stories from their parents and grandparents. Certainly, the prophets had performed miracles. Therefore, the idea of a man doing miracles was not so outlandish in that society as it might be in ours. So what made Jesus different from the other prophets and tzadikim?

Wikipedia entry on tzadik:
While the tzadik status, according to its above definitions, is not necessarily related to the ability to perform or call upon miracles, the term tzadik is often used loosely by the Talmud to indicate those who have achieved especially outstanding piety and holiness. In this context, the tzadik's prayers are considered especially potent, as the Talmud states: "A tzadik decrees and the Holy One (blessed be He) fulfills."


Many definitions of Tzadik have been passed down through the ages, including the one mentioned above from the Talmud, but the definition I am interested in is from the Bible.
"All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one." psalm 14:3

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." - isaiah 53:6

Scripture explains that there is not only nobody who is tzadik, but also no one who is good.

That means even the especially pious rabbis or miracle works are not truly righteous, in the complete sense of the word.

Jesus himself purported the view that no man is truly good: "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone." (mark 10:18) If Jesus responded in this way, the crowds must have seen him as some kind of tzadik, a particularly righteous man who could perform miracles. But Jesus goes a step further. He says no one is truly good (much less righteous) except God. He was not deflecting their claims of his righteousness, not at all. He was trying to shift their perspective of him from being simply a righteous man, equating him with merely a prophet or merely a miracle worker, which might have included a handful of other people in that society at that time. He was pointing to his exclusivity of his Lordship rather than his inclusion in the category of other "righteous" men.

2 comments:

  1. Excellent observation Kels. I heard a sermon about this awhile back and I remember the pastor saying this. That Jesus wants people to realize he is God, not just a righteous miracle worker.

    Also, I wanted to mention a song I listened to on a new album I bought. It's called Closer by John Mark McMillan. A portion of the lyrics are: "Warrior come, warrior come, (yelling)if I begged you would you come closer to me now. Son of David (screaming) don't pass me by, 'cus I am naked, I'm poor and I'm blind."

    Although what you are talking about doesn't have much to do with our need to be close to God, I was just struck in this song by how passionate we can be and yet God is still more passionate.

    Anyway, it's good to remember both that Jesus is God and that we need to be close to him.

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  2. thanks for the response! and for the song (now i realize what you were talking about earlier.)

    i sometimes forget that He is so passionate for us. i think if i remembered that more, that would change a lot.

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