where is the vindication?

After completing N.T. Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God there is one question that is central, what exactly serves as the vindication of Jesus?

He spends much ink in the second half of the book outlining what the eschatological/apocalyptic/messianic means in terms of 1st century Judaism and then how Jesus likely understood and redefined. Within this discussion there is much weight put upon the influence of the apocalyptic book of Daniel upon the framework of  Mark 13.

As he reads it to mean, contrary to much contemporary-traditional readings, this passage in Mark is focused on Jesus giving a judgment upon the Temple. It is centered upon the prophetic judgment of the Temple and its system of sacrifice. The way Wright sees it, Jesus’ whole ministry climaxes with his traveling into Jerusalem. His whole ministry has been warning judgment unless they follow the true Israel found in him; it therefore climaxes with his entry into Jerusalem with the symbolic act of turning over the tables in the Temple—representing the coming destruction of the Temple.

All the statements of Mark 13 then point not to some second coming as commonly understood, but rather to Jesus’ prophetic vindication with the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70AD.

My trouble with this, is I don’t see the continued train of thought with the early Christian writings (such as Paul). It seems we continue to get eschatological hopes for further vindication through the standard Jewish belief of God’s coming judgment & vindication.

Furthermore I find it difficult to see the powerful vindication found in the judgment of Israel with the destruction of the Temple for Jesus as prophet/messianic figure and for his followers. It seems at the conclusion of the book that that is all Jesus is focused on, he walks the path of the true Israel, knowing it would cause him to go to Jerusalem and die, and his message was that the kingdom of god is here but since you deny it the Temple will be destroyed in judgment…So then what?

I am eager to begin N.T. Wright’s follow up book (vol.3) The Resurrection of the Son of God. I hope that this book can answer this question about vindication, because I understood the vindication of Jesus to be found in his resurrection not in the Temple’s destruction. I am interested to see how he weaves these themes together.

Concluding this historical account of Jesus, has left me with just that, a historical Jesus. I’m left at the end of the book with an image of a prophet, no doubt a truly great even the greatest, but nonetheless a prophet. He speaks of the possibility of a kingdom of god and a coming judgment of god for not receiving it. He embodies himself in the promises of the old prophets, he is transformative healing the sick welcoming the poor and outcast. But after his life after the initial ripples of early Christianity, where are we but in the same place as old Israel in a cycle of 1&2Kings riding from good to bad to good to bad and worse.

I’m left with the feeling that life will be the continual waiting for the return, the never-to-be eschaton.