The Gospel Narratives

Christ’s whole life in all its aspects must

supply the norm for the life of the following Christian

and thus for the life of the whole Church.

                                       --Søren Kierkegaard

    

 The purpose of this blog entry is to introduce a focus on the practices and strategies of Jesus Christ within his cultural environment, as presented in the narrative of the Gospels. I do this in order to determine if he should be considered a practitioner of the Positive Deviance Approach. In every sense Jesus, through his practices and strategies, is the prototype and foundation of the early church. Jesus experienced conflict with the prevailing religious culture as recorded in the narrative of the Gospels. Within these conflicts Jesus is presented by the writers in a manner that indicates he deviated or practiced what may be considered a strategy of deviance in response to held traditions within the Judaic culture and society that marginalized people. The response of those who were in power within Judaism was for them to attempt to marginalize Jesus himself and minimize his influence and social power. Jesus challenges the prevailing culture through his practices and strategies not allowing himself to be minimalized. Through the narrative of the Gospels Jesus may best be understood as practicing the positive deviance approach long before it is defined and known. Jesus’ actions model the practices and strategies the early church adopted and are the model for the contemporary church today, if we are willing to follow Christ in his practices and strategies.

     

The experiences of early Christians were steeped in the narrative of Jesus Christ’s life. The writers of the Gospels intentionally depict Jesus as a deviant in the eyes of those who were in power, namely the Sadducees, the Pharisees and the Romans. Jesus’ strategies and practices appear to break with the status quo of traditions held within the Judaic culture. The behavior of breaking with the status quo presents specific applications and opportunities in contemporary Western culture as the church faces the issues of post-Christendom and postmodernism. Similarly, the behavior of deviance towards the status quo should affect the practices and strategies of the church in relationship to the marginalized peoples of society. The narrative of the Gospels is the foundation of engaging in a life of following Jesus Christ and learning to challenge the status quo of the church and society. Tomorrow we will look at the narrative nature of the Biblical material, the Gospels.