Conclusion
Conclusion
Jesus’ exalted status appears early in the tradition. Whether or not Jesus’ earliest followers developed that status fully in keeping with his own aims, it is unlikely that they derived these perspectives from someone who lacked confidence in his important role in the kingdom. All our concrete evidence, in fact, suggests that Jesus was conscious of a crucial role in God’s kingdom plan. To abandon this evidence by overemphasizing one interpretation of the messianic secret is to argue not from concrete information but from the secret’s silence. That silence is better explained in terms of a stage in the mission not yet completed, as the Gospels suggest.
But how did Jesus envision his immediate mission in God’s kingdom plan? At least part of his understanding of his mission seems wrapped up in his final journey to Jerusalem. This journey and its consequences consume an inordinate amount of space in the Gospels, and for good reason: ancient biographies typically focused on the subject’s fate if the subject died a significant death. We will suggest that unless Jesus was extremely naïve about political realities in Jerusalem, his significant death was no accident. His martyrdom was part of his plan.