The Life and Times of Jesus Quotes

“Zacchaeus”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“John’ means ‘God’s gift,’ and ‘Jesus’ means ‘God saves.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Mark and Luke were not apostles themselves while Matthew and John were.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“The genealogy in Matthew doesn’t shy away from mentioning, or even emphasizing, ancestors with unsavory pasts. The genealogies go through Joseph’s line although Joseph was the foster father of Jesus, who was not conceived through the action of any man but by the Spirit of God. That Jesus was the adopted son of Joseph was not a problem since the adoption of a child was socially equivalent to having a natural-born child. Matthew mentions mothers in the line prior to Mary the mother of Jesus who didn’t fit the mold: he listed Tamar, who schemed to conceive a child by pretending to be a prostitute; Rahab, the harlot at Jericho who hid the Israelite spies; Ruth, the pagan Moabite who adopted the faith of her Israelite husband Boaz; and Bathsheba, with whom King David had an adulterous affair before marrying her and begetting King Solomon. Perhaps Matthew was making the point that God writes straight with crooked lines, that Jesus took on a humanity tainted with sin in order to redeem it, or that he came even to save Gentiles.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Each Gospel has its own purpose, theme, and flavor. For example, the Gospel of Matthew was written for Jewish Christians, contains many references to the Hebrew Scriptures, has the Kingdom of Heaven as its central theme, and gives us the image of Jesus the Messiah as the climax and fulfillment of the prophets and patriarchs of old. The Gospel of Mark, which explains Jewish customs to its audience, was written for Gentile Christians, most likely at Rome. This Gospel is concerned particularly with the issue of persecution and gives us the image of Jesus, the Son of God, as miracle-worker and exorcist. The Gospel of Luke, which is particularly concerned with the salvation of the Gentiles, was also written to a Gentile audience and it gives us a view to the personal touch of Jesus in his ministry. The Gospel of John presupposes that its readers are already familiar with the basic story and sets out by way of signs and discourses to inspire deeper faith in Jesus’ divinity and his fulfillment of the Old Covenant.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Ben Pandira,’ or ‘Ben Panthera,’ implying that he is the illegitimate son (Ben, in Hebrew) of a soldier or some other unworthy person.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Thus Jesus accepted the authority of the Pharisees while condemning their moral disposition.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Herod, however, angered the Pharisees by having a golden eagle, a symbol of the Roman Empire, placed over the entrance to the Temple.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Pope Benedict XVI reflects in Jesus of Nazareth, “What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God. He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually, first to Abraham, then to Moses and the Prophets…. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope, and love.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“G. K. Chesterton reminds us that “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“One Solitary Life”   He never wrote a book He never held an office He never went to college He never visited a big city He never travelled more than two hundred miles From the place where he was born He did none of the things Usually associated with greatness He had no credentials but himself…   Nineteen centuries have come and gone… All the armies that have ever marched All the navies that have ever sailed All the parliaments that have ever sat All the kings that ever reigned put together Have not affected the life of mankind on earth As powerfully as that one solitary life                  - by Dr. James Allan”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Three of the Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – are very similar and share many of the same stories, even similar wording. These are called the ‘Synoptic’ Gospels since, in this way, they see Jesus as with ‘one eye.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Each Gospel has its own purpose, theme, and flavor. For example, the Gospel of Matthew was written for Jewish Christians, contains many references to the Hebrew Scriptures, has the Kingdom of Heaven as its central theme, and gives us the image of Jesus the Messiah as the climax and fulfillment of the prophets and patriarchs of old. The Gospel of Mark, which explains Jewish customs to its audience, was written for Gentile Christians, most likely at Rome. This Gospel is concerned particularly with the issue of persecution and gives us the image of Jesus, the Son of God, as miracle-worker and exorcist.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Crucifixion was not invented by the Romans, but it was elaborated sadistically by them.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”
― Michael J. Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“every day, such that the first-century Judeo-Roman historian Flavius Josephus recounts that there were not enough crosses for the bodies.”
― Michael J Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount

“us to take our place within the crowd, to hear Jesus preach and see him perform mighty deeds, when we open up the Gospels for ourselves. While no one today would say that Jesus is John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah, we will see for ourselves if we agree with our own contemporaries that Jesus of Nazareth was simply a great man, a noble teacher, a religious founder, and an unfortunate martyr. Or perhaps we agree with the sour-faced scholars who tell us that Jesus of Nazareth was a failed messiah who never intended to found a religion and that the religion bearing his name has done little to further the material progress of the world.   Pope Benedict XVI reflects in Jesus of Nazareth, “What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God. He has brought the God who formerly unveiled his countenance gradually, first to Abraham, then to Moses and the Prophets…. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope, and love.” The Story of a People Open to the beginning of the New Testament and the genealogy of Jesus is what you will find. Most skip over it while others bravely plough their way through it. But much like Matthew, the writer of the first Gospel, I too feel the need to express before anything else that the story of Jesus does not begin with Jesus of Nazareth. A great history is presupposed – a history that his fellow countrymen would have known as well as we know the names of our own grandparents. The only question is: how far back should we go? For Matthew, the answer was to go back to Abraham, the ancient father of the Jewish people, whom God had called out of the city of Ur in Mesopotamia in a journey of faith to the land of Canaan, later called Palestine. For Luke the Evangelist, the answer was Adam, the father of the human race, emphasizing that Jesus came for all peoples.   Very basically, the history presupposed is that of God’s intervention in human affairs, particularly those of the Chosen People, the Children of Israel. The Bible tells us that God spoke to Abraham, bringing him into a covenant with God alone as God, as opposed to the many false gods of his ancestors. As God promised, he made Abraham into a vast people, and that people was later liberated from slavery in Egypt by Moses. The Bible tells us that God spoke to Moses and made a covenant with Moses. And through Moses, God made the people a nation, replete with laws to govern them. Then there was David, the greatest king of Israel, a man “after God’s own heart.” And the Bible tells us that God spoke to David and made a covenant with him, promising that his kingdom”
― Michael J Ruszala, The Life and Times of Jesus: From His Earthly Beginnings to the Sermon on the Mount