government, the king, is not one of the Jewish people but a Roman. Roman authorities take control over the Jewish land and people. By asking to the
authorities whose face and name are on the silver coin is Jesus‟ way to tell them implicitly that the money belongs to the Emperor; the one whose face and name
are on it and therefore paying tax is an obligation though the king is not a Jew. By doing this, Jesus indirectly shows no problem or objection of having a foreigner
king. This can be said that Jesus implicitly allows the foreign king rules over the Jewish people.
8. Reinterpretation of the Son of God
In the Gospel, Jesus many times makes some miraculous things which amaze people. In some occasions, Jesus implicitly declares himself as the son of
God that brings salvation for the Jewish people Matthew 13:53-58, Luke 4:16- 29. In the beginning of the Gospel, the coming of the son of God is being
presented. John the Baptist, the one who is considered as a prophet by the Jews Matthew 21:26, Mark 11:32, Luke 20:6 has already announced the Jews about
this. “Turn away from your sins,…because the Kingdom of Heaven is near” Matthew 3:2. What John the Baptist wants it the willing of the Jews to repent
and stop doing sins anymore as the Kingdom of Heaven in about to come. What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven here is the salvation from God through a
Messiah, the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16. When people ask John the Baptist about who he is, whether
or not he is the prophet, Elijah, or Messiah, he negates all people‟s supposition.
What he answers is that he wants to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah said about the coming of the son of God
I am „the voice of someone Shouting in the desert;
Make a straight path for the Lord to travel‟ Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:2, Luke 3:4, John 1:23.
From the quotation of Isaiah, it is clear that John admits to the people that he is the voice itself. He wants people to know that he comes in order to announce
the coming of the Lord. John the Baptist, concerning to the son of God, refers to Jesus himself. John 1:34. Jesus, according to John the Baptist, is the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world John 1:29. In Torah, it is written that God of the Jews will send a prophet, the one
who tell the people all what God commands. It is written in Torah that: I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will
tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything that I command. He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone who refuses to obey
him. But if any prophet dares to speak a message in my name when I did not command him to do so, he must die for it Deuteronomy 18:18-20.
In this message, it is clear that the Jewish God promises to give a prophet for the Jews to obey. It can be said that a prophet is someone w
ho speaks God‟s voice. Jesus himself affirms that he is the one that John the Baptist mentions to be
the son of God and a prophet like what is stated in Torah. The way Jesus admits that he is the promised one can be seen in many cases such as when the disciples
of John the Baptist come and ask Jesus about who he is “Tell us…are you the one John said was going to come, or should we expect someone else?” Matthew
11:3, Luke 7:20. From the question, it is clear that there is an excepted man, the
one who is promised to be given to the Jews in order to do something very expected by the Jews themselves. Responding to this question, Jesus says
Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing: the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made
clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. How happy are those who have no doubts about
me Matthew 11:4-6, Luke 7:22-13.
From what Jesus answers, he implicitly wants to te ll John‟s disciples that
the one John said to come is Jesus himself. By telling the disciples the miraculous things he does, Jesus wants John to know that he is the expected one and no one
else to be expected than him. It is also can be seen when Jesus is in the festival of Shelters. At the time, Jesus openly tells people that he is a prophet by saying
“What I teach is not my own teaching, but it comes from God, who sent me John 7:16. In this case, Jesus does not only fulfill what is written in Torah about what
a prophet is but he also says that he is the son of God. Jesus also says that he is always with God who sends him. Jesus claims that everything he does is not by
his own willing but also by Gods John 8:16. Jesus wants to show a relation between being a prophet and the son of
God. A prophet is the one who does anything God wants him to do. Just the same with the son; a good son must obey his father. If God works through the prophet,
then the father also works through his son. In this case, the prophet represents God and so the son represents father. Both a prophet and a son represent the quality of
God and father. What Jesus wants to say is that he and God are one 10:29. This can be said that Jesus wants people to know that has the quality of being one with
God. For Jesus, he is the prophet and the prophet must do everything God
commands him to do. In this case, it is the same that God is his father. That is why he does nothing but his father‟s command which means that God works through
him. That is why he says that he and God are one.
a. New Concepts of Reinterpretations
It is important to see that Jesus‟ Reinterpretation of anger, revenge, adultery, divorce, vows, Sabbath, King, and the Son of God, must come from a
certain reason. In his Reinterpretation of anger and revenge, Jesus wants to share the concept of forgiving others that evil should not be paid by evil but kindness. In
the case of adultery and divorce, Jesus wants to share the idea of respecting other selves as the creature of Yahweh. In Torah, committing adultery, for any reasons
does not show the respect toward others. This is because committing adultery, in Torah‟s regulation, is equal to take something from someone what he does not
deserve. In this case, to take the sexual pleasure from the one he does not deserve to. It is the same with divorce and remarriage. For Jesus, a marriage is a process
where the human being; male and female become one. It is a sacred thing as it is Yahweh who unites both of them. Hence, no human being can separate Mark
10:6-12. It can be said that they deserve to take sexual pleasure from their husband and wife. The way of separation is called divorce. If they both divorce
and remarriage with another man or woman than it belongs to adultery as their new spouses, according to what Yahweh says, do not deserve to them. Hence,
Jesus wants to share the idea of respecting marriage as the Yahweh‟s effort of uniting man and woman. In the case of Sabbath and the Son of God, Jesus wants
to share the concept of loving each other. In the case of Sabbath, Jesus dares to
