Why did the Nazareth Jews who believed that God was their own private God---not the God of the Samaritans and Gentiles---try to kill God when he showed up on their doorstops?
After the resurrection, Jesus continued to teach about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3), a topic that had been a major theme in his previous teaching. So, in this respect, the question his disciples asked (1:6), "Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" was a legitimate one.
But from a larger context, the question was a dangerous and ethnocentric one---one the Pharisees might have asked. But this question came from came from the lips of his own disciples who had just spent three years observing Jesus' life, listening to his teachings. They had heard the teaching about the Good Samaritan which broke down religion-ethnic ethnocentrism and replaced it with love and compassion.
Early in his ministry (Luke 4:25-30), Jesus very directly confronted the hot and controversial topic of ethnocentrism. The Nazareth Jewish response---they tried to kill Jesus on the spot. All Jesus had done was re-interpret two well known OT stories.
Elijah walked right by starving Hebrew widows and fed a starving Gentile widow. Elisha walked by Hebrew lepers and then healed a Gentile leper. This proved God equally loved the unclean Gentiles. Since Jews were God's chosen people, this teaching appeared to them as heresy.
Jesus own disciples, not the Pharisees, wanted to misuse God's power to destroy a Samaritan village (Luke 9:51-55). Jesus' reaction---he rebuked them.
These two true stories from Luke show the depth of Jewish ethnocentrism. This ethnocentrism was behind the Acts 1:6 question. Jesus answer, at the end of verse 8, also hints at the necessity of transcending ethnocentrism.
Yes, the kingdom is for Israel, but not for Israel alone. The kingdom is also includes the deeply despised Samaritans and the godless, unclean Gentiles. The kingdom of love and justice is for all peoples. The kingdom of love and justice breaks down all religious, cultural, economic and racial barriers. But even after the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, it took years for them to actually go to the Samaritans and Gentiles. See chapter 8, 9, and 10.
The American Puritans also tried to make God into their own private God; not even Baptists were allowed into the Puritan kingdom.
American WASPs, past and present---we have many WASPs in Iowa, some my best friends are WASPs---also believe in a false sense of chosenness and superiority. This has had a deadly impact upon Indians and Afro Americans. In America, we have not yet preached and practiced the kingdom of God as justice for all.
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