Jesus as Prophet

In a 2024 ONEING essay, CAC Core Faculty member Brian McLaren reflects on how Jesus continues within the Hebrew prophetic lineage:

Many Christians have tried to understand Jesus primarily through his spiritual descendants by asking, “What did Paul say about Jesus? What did Augustine say about Jesus? What did John Calvin or John Wesley say about Jesus?” If we only try to understand Jesus through what people said after his lifetime, we will miss how much more we could understand about Jesus by seeing him in the context of those who came before him — in the story of his ancestors and his spiritual lineage. Jesus waits to be rediscovered in the context of his history and story. Growing up as a Jew, Jesus enters the ancestral lineage of the patriarchs and matriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel. But Jesus also enters through a spiritual lineage of prophets and prophetesses beginning with Moses, the first biblical prophet…

The compiled writings of the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures tell the story of a people who are emerging in their consciousness of God. Moses looks at his social situation and feels a message from God brewing in him. He spends time alone on a mountain in contemplation, cultivating receptivity, and then he comes down with a message. The message of the Law, the Ten Commandments, was, in essence, “You folks are hurting and destroying each other. You are living foolishly and unwisely. Can we make ten agreements among us to try to stop being so miserable?” The commandments establish a baseline for a mature society. Scriptural poetry illustrates how people live within that baseline. Then the prophets say, “It’s time to raise the baseline!” — again, and again, and again…

Unfortunately, this rich prophetic understanding of Jesus became minimized in the Christian tradition. Instead, we talked almost exclusively about Jesus as the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the savior from original sin, and the sacrificial lamb. We minimized his work and life as a prophet. We are free to understand Jesus as more than a prophet, but we should never understand him as less. His prophetic tradition should form the core and the baseline of our understanding of Jesus.

If we take Jesus seriously as a prophet, we take his Incarnation seriously, because Jesus comes into a particular historical situation. As part of a society, he had to grapple with politics and economics. The crucifixion makes sense because prophets’ lives don’t usually end well. Very few have a comfortable retirement. His prophetic identity also requires us to take the story of the resurrection seriously as a prophetic demonstration and affirmation that the work of the prophet must continue even after he is executed and buried…

The 12 disciples form Jesus’s school for prophets. He’s training them to carry on his work once he is escorted from the scene, as prophets always are. He associates his movement culture with love, joy, and justice. There’s a vibe to his particular movement, which affects the individuals in the movement and enriches their lives. To be part of a movement is one of the best things that happens in someone’s life. The prophet is not just somebody who reads a book and repeats what they learned. The prophet goes all-in, themselves. They hear the message that’s being birthed amid their pain, burdens, frustrations, sufferings, questions, and disillusionments. In the foment and ferment of that inner journey, something begins to emerge, and they bring it out, saying, “I can’t just say these words. I have to demonstrate them, and I’ve got to find other people who see what I see so we can do something about it and embody this vision in our world.”

Reference:
Brian McLaren, “Jesus as Prophet,” ONEING: The Prophetic Path, Vol. 12, No. 2 (CAC Publishing, 2024), 33–39.

Reflect with Us  
Brian McLaren stresses that prophets do more than speak truth; they embody it. The prophetic path begins by allowing our lives to be shaped by what we most deeply know and love. What message or longing continues to rise within you? Spend time this week bringing it into prayer, reflection, or conversation with others, and notice what small invitation toward courageous action might emerge.

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