Philosophy instructors discuss Jesus’ message

What is Jesus’ actual message, and his true intention?

That’s the focus of MHCC philosophy instructors John Hasenjaeger and Chris Jackson, hosting a series titled “Authentic Jesus” that kicked off this week and is scheduled to continue each Monday at noon in Room 1609, through all of spring term.

Hasenjaeger has been teaching at Mt. Hood for 17 years, and has been a minister at the Presbyterian Church (USA) for 27 years. He describes himself as a “non-evangelical Presbyterian,” or “liberal.”

Being a minister, Hasenjaeger said Jesus is central to how he views the world. “It’s … important to me to take a fresh look at that and figure out who this guy is,” he said during the series’ introductory session. He gave a broad definition of people who identify as Christians: “people who think they’re followers of Jesus.”

To be a Christian, it is important “to know who he (the historical figure of Jesus) was, what he was like.” He is in favor of using critical thinking and logic to understand Jesus’ message.

When reading The Gospels (the first four books on the story of Jesus in The New Testament – the second part of Christian Bibles),  it was clear to Hasenjaeger that John’s gospel “was of a different character from the first three” – the so-called ‘synoptic gospels.’ He said he believes that the primary data about Jesus’ message and mission are more accurately reported in the first three gospels.

Synoptic means seeing or looking together. The first three gospels are similar, and tell the same stories, sometimes almost verbatim, said Hasenjaeger. Similarities between the three gospels and their differences from the gospel of John are known as “‘the synoptic problem,’ or ‘the synoptic puzzle’ which is, ‘Why is this?’ ”

The most common answer is called “the four-source theory.” The gospel attributed to Mark “is almost entirely mirrored in Matthew and Luke,” which led to the theory that Mark was written much earlier than Matthew and Luke, which used material from Mark.

The authors of the Matthew and Luke gospels also used similar material that Mark doesn’t have, so scholars agree there must be another gospel in existence used source material. This gospel is dubbed “Q,” which is short for the German word Quelle, meaning “source.”

According to Hasenjaeger, there is no evidence of a physical Q gospel, but information in Matthew and Luke that isn’t in Mark is very similar, and scholars agree that there must have been additional sources.

Chris Jackson, full-time philosophy instructor and Social Sciences department chairman, shared his personal history. He dropped out of high school to “make it big” in a rock band, but got nervous when things were going well, he said, and decided to be a Christian after reading a book titled “The Late Great Planet Earth” that was recommended by a friend’s mother.

“I was gonna witness. I was gonna go back to school and be a Christian apologist – someone who defends the faith,” Jackson said. “But then I decided finally that I wanted to look into this stuff on my own, (and) not just do the confirmation bias and read people who believe what I believe, but read their opponents as well.

“It was a bad idea because in doing that, over about a year or so, I slowly kind of read myself out of being a Christian.”

Jackson discuss the way people wrote before the enlightenment. “It was okay to write with a pseudonym. It was okay to make up stories where maybe it wasn’t exactly what was said, but ‘This is something that is sort of in the tradition’ – you could imagine that Jesus said something like this.

“The gospel of Mark is kind of mundane – Jesus fails. Sometimes he can’t heal people. Jesus curses a fig tree, and it takes a while for that tree to die. You get to the gospel of Matthew – you just touch Jesus’ garment and you can be saved; when he curses that fig tree, it’s out of there, at that moment.”

Jackson noted that Mark’s account of the resurrection isn’t very dramatic. “They’re just told by somebody in white, not even mentioned specifically as being an angel.”

During and immediately after the time of Jesus, culture lived primarily by oral tradition, not written. “These people were illiterate. These are people who are one bad day of fishing away from servitude,” said Jackson.

It made sense that people remembered things that were short, possibly controversial, and easy to understand, he said.

“If (Jesus) was here, if someone asked him what the kingdom of God was like, I can imagine him saying, ‘The kingdom of God is like cancer that takes root in one organ, and slowly works its way throughout the entire body.’ I can imagine that because that’s something that you would remember,” said Jackson.

He will continue the series using a method called “the Jesus seminar” in which he will have a list of criteria by which he will assess the gospels.

The sessions are open to anyone, and everyone may participate or give a presentation at some point if they wish.