understood by the jews, then opposition to this movement is no longer a political thing. it s a very strong religious thing. in fact, it will come to bitterly divide the family and lead to centuries of persecution. but now in the years after the death of jesus, his followers needed to keep his message alive. and they get two messengers, who could not be more different. peter, the simple fisherman from galilee, who was jesus chief apostle. and paul, the sophisticated pharisee. together they will create a religion that would change the world.
the reply came, i am jesus, whom you are persecuting. and when he finds out that jesus is truly alive, it means that the other things that jesus followers say about him must also be considered as true. jesus is the messiah. saul of tarsus who never met jesus in the flesh, never traveled or supped with him and who wanted to kill his followers, becomes the greatest defender of the jesus faith, known to the world by the greek version of his name, paul. some people have called paul the second founder of christianity, because christianity is more than following the teachings of jesus. christianity is not just the religion that jesus had, it s the religion about jesus. it s the religion founded on jesus death and resurrection.
it marked the beginning of the public split with judaism. you both claim the same heritage going back to abraham. at some stage, you begin to give yourself a label or perhaps other people begin to give you a label. and labels themselves begin to set up differences. they begin to make you aware of differences. but delivering the jesus message put paul and peter in conflict. paul s open door mission to the pagan gentiles was a huge problem for peter, who thought the resurrection of jesus was for the jews alone. if you wanted to follow jesus, you had to become a jew and obey jewish law. and peter wielded considerable power back in jerusalem, power given to him by jesus. according to the gospel of matthew, jesus says to peter, you are peter, the greek term
it was a huge triumph for the new faith, and especially for paul, whose argument had won the day. the jesus message was for the whole world, and those who believe that message would win eternal life. but the biggest test was yet to come. just how would the jesus message go down in the pagan heart of the roman empire?
and not the saturday sabbath of the jews. paul speaks of christians gathering together on the first day of the week, and they apparently sing hymns. they apparently read scripture. they take a collection of alms for the poor, and they celebrate what came to be known as the eucharist. this is my body which will be given up for you. eucharist, from a greek word meaning thanksgiving, was the early christian celebration, a re-creation of the last supper. the one ritual that jesus established for his communities was to share bread and wine in remembrance of him. do this in memory of me. and throughout all the christian communities, whether they were jewish christians or gentile christians, that partaking of the bread and the