Page 107 - Disciples News Today

Gospel of judas actually depicts the disciples as misguided idiots, people who dont have access to the truth. really jesus treats them as a lost cause. >> in the gospel of judas, the other disciples are praying and venerating in ways that make jesus laugh at them. >> why are you laughing at the thanksgiving? >> and they seem to be leading people astray. >> it is what is right. >> i am not laughing at you! >> nor are you doing this by your will but rather it is by this that your god will be prais...

Willing to be executed for their faith. thats because they embrace the message of the resurrection. you look back 2,000 years ago and on that first good friday the disciples were despondent. their leader had had been crucified. it looked like the christian message was dead on arrival. but then came sunday. and an empty grave and their whole perspective changed and gave them the courage to stand for their faith. you know today it looks like christianity is losing. not just around the world but it...

>> in the gospels of the new testament, jesus is a mentor. hes gentle to his disciples, shall we say. >> the jesus that we meet in the gospel of judas is a little different from the jesus that we know from the pages of the new testament. hes a much more mysterious character who speaks in riddles that are so difficult to understand that a lot of the time were left scratching our heads when we read it. >> let the strong one among you bring forth the perfect human. >> but the character of judas is ...

Of character. anyone who jesus had chosen as a disciple must have had something going for him. >> judas was the treasurer of jesus 12 disciples. he was the one jesus trusted with the money. >> jesus saw in judas the kind of man that he wanted to be his follower. we have to assume that theyre friends and that they have this close relationship. >> hes special. he has a key place. and yet somethings going to happen in judas thats going to lead him to fall away from jesus and to lose faith in jesus ...

>> his letters to new christian communities, the epistles, make up a third of the new testament. his teachings show how determined he is to reach out to gentiles. >> jesus said go and make disciples of all the nations, and that meant not just the jews. >> if i were james and id heard about paul and what paul was doing, i would be hugely frustrated. paul never met the human jesus. here was james, who was jesus brother, and this upstart was presuming to teach jesus message and go out among the gen...

Speak truth unto power. and for this, he pays the ultimate price. >> i think he understood that he was a martyr. he was a martyr in the cause of something greater. he was the martyr in the cause of a beautiful kingdom of god on earth, which is what he had preached all his life. >> i see jesus and john as being very similar in terms of their conception of god, in terms of what they wanted people to do, in terms of their call for repentance, in this idea that the world would be transformed. and th...

In this way? >> leave her alone! >> jesus has been preaching this message about the poor and ministering to them and giving away your coat. and now all of a sudden hes going to let this woman pour a huge amount of moneys worth of perfume on him. >> this ointment could have been sold for more than 300 dinai and given to the poor. >> sort of one set of rules for the disciples and a different set of rules for jesus. we can see why this event would upset judas. >> this was a big turning point for ju...

Place. when jesus and his disciples meet for the last supper, the tension is really building up. through the week that theyve been in jerusalem, there have been increasing conflicts with authorities. something big was about to happen. >> i think theres a real sense of foreboding at the last supper, the way that its portrayed in the gospels. >> theres that moment in the meal, this intimacy, to eat a meal with somebody is to be family with them. jesus announces that one of you,

Hes the one thats doing the baptizing. >> in the gospels, you see this trying to tackle this problem of jesus being baptized by john, indicating jesus was in a subordinate position which was a problem for the early church. >> for all the attempts by the gospel writers to reconcile johns status with that of jesus, what is certain is that ultimately it is jesus movement that survives and prospers. >> initially, it seems that john is a mentor figure to jesus. after all, hes baptizing jesus in the r...

Question. >> forgive us our sins, for we also forgive those who sin against us. >> the answer that comes back from jesus will prove one of the most famous moments in the new testament. >> jesus asks the disciples to tell john that hes doing all these things, its all about action. >> what did he say? >> the good news is preached to the poor. the maimed walk, the blind see. i am doing all of this stuff, john, so i am what you expected to happen. >> as he languishes in his prison cell, jesus words ...