Open the Word: The gospel is Jesus

Jesus, crucified, risen and coming again is our example and our hope.

• The absentee Paul fears that the heady mix of hardship and disappointment will undermine the Thessalonians’ confidence in him and his co-workers. So he reminds them of what ‘you know’ (vv.1, 2, 5, 11). Some commentators suggest that the Christian message stepped into the spiritual vacuum created by absorbing the local religion into the imperial cult, something the Romans were fond of doing as a way of promoting empire-wide cohesion. Such a move would have transformed popular beliefs, and left some locals feeling bereft. If they were attracted to Paul’s message as a result, it is vital to remind them that he was no mere opportunist taking advantage of their vulnerability.

• Can Paul be trusted? He claims that he and his companions compare well with the best of the travelling teachers, popular philosophers with a strong sense of divine calling. Like them he sets a positive example, as a father exercising his authority over his children (v.11), or a nurse comforting disturbed souls (v.7). He is worlds away from the worst of the teachers, who line their pockets at their converts’ expense, sometimes flattering their audiences, sometimes abusing them, sometimes claiming to be able to magic away their hearers’ anxiety. There are differences, though, even from the best. Paul does not teach abstract moral ideals or principles, but the ‘gospel of God’, summarised here – as in his other letters – in his outline of the career of Jesus. There is enough in this to demonstrate the degree of conformity with messianic experience, for apostles and believers alike (see 2.14). The hardships of opposition, rejection and even suffering cannot count against the claim that in Jesus Messiah – crucified, risen and coming – God really is renewing his creation. Given the source of his authority, Paul knows that he is free to speak this challenging, yet hopeful, truth.

• How would Paul come across in an age of cynicism about leaders and public figures? When they tell us only what they think we want to hear or what they want us to hear, we are right to suspect their motives and to wonder where the truth lies. Paul claims to have an integrity that may remind us of people in our own day who speak the truth by embodying the sometimes challenging messages they proclaim. Who comes to mind as we read or listen to this reading?