Monday, July 5, 2010

What was Jesus' audience thinking about?

What was on the minds of the people to whom Jesus spoke (i.e. in this context we are supposing about to whom he blogged and twittered)

The native Jews were wondering when they’d get a decent change in the government i.e. when the Messiah would come and when the Romans would leave. We just had that in Australia with Kevvie the Messiah leaving and Julia the new Messiah coming in but we are wondering if she is really the Messiah she promises to be or just a Roman in disguise.

The native Jews (like all citizens) were extremely wary of foreigners immigrating and taking space they weren’t entitled to.

Superstition was rife. People wanted to know what a sick person’s parents had done to cause him or her to be sick. What had others done that made a wall fall on them. People were aware of signs and omens and looked eagerly for a solution in the alignment of the stars and planets.

Sexual promiscuity was a laughing matter – for men. So was getting plastered. So was home violence, home invasion, and homelessness.

Independent well-to-do women were a rarity. Women thought about their drudgery and abuse.

Religion was stale, a ritualistic out-of-touch politically-correct waste of the common people’s time. Thinking about religion was for people who had time to think.

For non-Jews, sports were a common relief from the drudgery of poverty.

The tax man was everywhere and could take what he liked. They spent a lot of time trying to hide from him.

A war could pop up at any time for any reason whatever – or no reason at all and you could find yourself in it whether you liked it or not. They lived in fear.

The rich were unnecessarily opulent.

The poor were unnecessarily destitute. They wealthy feared theft and the poor feared being thrown into debtor's prison.

Isn’t that just a a bit more that a smidge like today’s internet community?

So what did he say to them? Next week.

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