To this point in our journey, most people can agree about the historicity of Jesus (Yeshuah) of Nazareth and about his execution by the Romans as a criminal or potential threat to the established order. While the cross is the most visible symbol of Christianity it is not that event alone nor is it first in priority, as the foundation for the tradition. It is the Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead that is first in priority and that is at the centre of the tradition. However, like the walls in the holy of holies on the temple mount in the first century, bare of images, statues or any representations of YHWH, so too Christianity is based upon an inexplicable claim, one that cannot be proved, seen or even adequately explained. It is like entering into a room and seeing a bare wall or getting to the end of a novel and meeting a blank page. Any possible evidence for the ripples that have spread through history because of the event, though not for the event itself, relies entirely upon the success or failure with which Christians respond to it by taking up their personal crosses and follow Jesus’ way of self-sacrifice. By living a life that brings life to others and adhering to a way of life that values truth (or perhaps accuracy at least) in human affairs and does into get subverted in service for any cause, person, political party, even country or business (any idol).
This then leads us to St. Paul and to his particular theological invention: trust as ‘faith/faithfulness’ and the notion of ‘the Body of Christ’.
It is not what you believe that matters in life but what you do or how well what you do is in line with trusting that Yeshuah showed a better way to be human and that one’s position in Paul’s Body of Messiah (not the/a church) is irrelevant for pride and self-righteousness but is only meaningful simply because one is a part, however humble of that strange bio-spiritual entity.