Confronted with decaying religious institutions — What did Jesus do?

Jesus weeps over Jerusalem

The troubles in the Church of England are another example of how across the Western world progressive and former evangelicals have denied the authority of Scripture and neglected the core missionary task. We shouldn’t be surprised, it’s a recurring pattern in the history of God’s people. Endless conversations are not the answer. The way back is to return to the life and mission of Jesus.

Jesus founded a missionary movement that would go to the ends of the earth. That’s why one of his first acts was to call some fishermen to follow him and learn to fish for others.

He had come to call true Israel out of historic Israel. There was both continuity and discontinuity. Continuity — he came to fulfill Israel’s calling as the true Son of God. God’s people will be a witness to the nations, as God intended. Discontinuity — not all Israel would embrace their Messiah and their calling.

Jesus was a faithful Jew who fulfilled the Hebrew Scriptures, attended the synagogue and the Temple, and the great festivals in Jerusalem. He debated his opponents and urged them to embrace what God was doing. The story of the prodigal son ends with the father’s appeal to the older son to join the celebration; for the son who was lost is now found.

But Jesus does not invest himself in the institution. He doesn’t attempt to save it. His priority is the new Israel which he embodies. He embraces Israel’s true identity and mission. He pioneers a missionary movement as he calls everyone — pharisees, scribes, priests and prostitutes, soldiers, tax collectors and farm laborers. They are the vanguard of the true Israel, the new Israel which will reach the nations and fulfill Israel’s destiny.

In AD 70, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the Temple and the priesthood, as Jesus prophesied. Out of the rubble, a movement emerged of the disciples he had chosen, trained and sent into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost ends of the earth.