REFLECTIONS ON THE HUMANITY OF JESUS

This is a search that has captured me for many years. It begins where my last blog (A Personal Testimony) left off. That blog closed with something was missing. That implied something missing in my relationship with the scripture and because of this in my understanding of Jesus.

Here is part of the story and the opening paragraphs of a book that encompasses more than a 20 year journey.

In 1983, I started doctoral work at Emory University Candler School of Theology. In my second year of course work as a part-time student, I took Professor Carol Newsom’s class on Images of God in the Old Testament. Turning in a paper that I felt was particularly well done, her response took be aback. “These are nice thoughts,” she said. As she handed me the paper, she went on, “but, it has little to do with the text.”

Embarrassed and shocked, I took it back with the intention of teaching her a few things about the book of Exodus. Seven years later, I was still in the wilderness of the Exodus. As I examined my approach to scripture, it soon became apparent. Carol was right. Over the years, I relied on my knowledge of the text from the past and used that knowledge again and again. As for the text, I looked up the passages that would reinforce whatever was the thesis of the sermon or lesson -- or in the case of Dr. Newsom, my paper.

Please understand. The paper was well done. Well thought out. Well presented. That was not the issue. The issue was and is the text of scripture. What does the text say? I am still on this journey with the sacred text and with God. It is this journey that leads me to the most difficult challenge of life -- seeking the truth that sets us free.

For a moment before you continue, let me provoke you to examine your own approach to the scripture. Here is a statement for your reflection:Many people agree or disagree with what they have learned about the Bible from others while never examining the text of scripture themselves. Or, this one: Many people know that others tell them about the scripture but little about the text themselves.

REFLECTIONS ON THE HUMANITY OF JESUS AND HUMANITY IN GENERAL

A child arrives as a visitor from an ocean of emptiness. The emptiness is not a bad world, merely unformed, uncharted, and unknown. Like a wanderer, suffering the pain of amnesia, knowing only the most basic of hungers and thirsts, weak and helpless, totally dependent upon those who also struggle, the child enters the world. Look beyond the repository of human possibilities and beyond the basics of human need and a child is an empty book awaiting the authoring pen of life and it's myriad experiences which shape and form the void. In the beginning, the unordered chaos awaited the hovering Spirit for it's shape and form. The child also waits.

Now the earth was [ Or possibly became ] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:2

There is poetry in the birth of a child. Each civilization possesses birthing rituals. Life sustains life. In most societies, births are anticipated with joy and wondrous expectation. The birth of Jesus was such an anticipated birth. Even when we subtract the wonder of angels, shepherds and eastern Kings, the simple wonder of a child born to parents who are full of dreams for the child cannot be ignored. “And “she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the [room]”,” is descriptive of an astonishing moment for husband and wife. For Mary and Joseph, the arrival of shepherds, testifying about visions of angels, could have reaffirmed their faith in God's providential promises and reaffirmed their own dreams and visions about Jesus. Yet, for the child, the night was only filled with hunger and thirst, cold and warmth. The star that led eastern kings was as invisible to the child as the mother hen is invisible to chicks who have yet to break forth from the cocoon of an egg.

We cannot hurry Jesus, from babe in a manager to a fully self-differentiating human being apart from the normal processes of humanity — unless, of course, Jesus is not fully human.

Traditional Christianity presents Jesus as Savior and Lord — titles he received as a result of his committed act of obedience to God through the cross and the resurrection.

Did Jesus know from the beginning who he was and what he was sent to do? It is our contention that Jesus came to know in the manner of all human beings. Certainly, Jesus is an extraordinary person and yet, at the same time, he is limited by the humanity his birth assumes. Traditional theologians call this kinosis or self-emptying. Leaving the glory of eternity, Jesus entered this world with all the limitations of humanity. Whatever the explanation, the reality is the same. Jesus is a human being with all the struggles, difficulties and limitations that attend humanity.

Throughout history, certain individuals have achieved extraordinary accomplishments in science, the arts, military tactics and many other human endeavors that were out of what we call ordinary reach. Jesus’ accomplishments were in the realm of the spiritual. They were extraordinary. His teachings, his life, his personal spiritual development have guided believers for nearly twenty centuries. A greater spiritual teacher and example cannot be found. In this sense, then, is Jesus a spiritual Beethoven or Mozart? Or, is Jesus the kind of example that we may aspire too?

Jesus told his disciples, “Greater works than these, you will do.” (John 14:12) So many times, I have asked myself, “Is such spiritual awareness available to all of us. Can we come to know the will of God as Jesus did with such depth and clarity? Is it possible?

The superficial side of me wants to recoil from any suggestion that we, as followers of God, could achieve a depth of spirituality that even approaches that of Jesus. The possibility, however, is also intriguing and compelling.

How did Jesus come to know the will and purpose of God for his life so clearly? By what means did he come to such extraordinary knowledge about himself and his world?

This discussion assumes a manifest destiny for human beings. This is not a cheap view of predestination^⁠1 that assumes human beings are somehow preprogrammed before birth. It is, however, dependent upon a knowledge of Torah and the relation of humanity to God— and, the providence of God. This discussion will follow in the next chapter.

For now, two assumptions are made. First, every human may participate in Sabbath, discovering the presence of God in creation; and, second, God calls, determines, sovereignly chooses, certain human beings for significant tasks to further accomplish God's will.

The first assumption, every human may participate in Sabbath, does not mean discovering God as a part of creation. The biblical account clearly places the creator God as holy other and thus apart from creation. God's participation in creation is a willful act, on the part of God, described as Sabbath rest in the scripture. When the six days of creation are over, God enters into creation in Sabbath rest. For Christians, the climax of this perspective, the eternal God entering the temporal world, is Jesus Christ. Prior to Jesus, the humiliation of God as Jürgen Moltmann calls it, when God enters the world to interact with specific humans, happens sporadically and less clearly until Jesus. Hear again the promise to Israel: I will be your God; you will be my people; I will bring you into my rest.

As you read the following scripture, consider the cloud and pillar of fire that follows the Hebrews in the wilderness, the messengers appearing to Abraham, Moses on the mountain, and so much more.

Lev 11:45 = For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt, to be your God; you shall be holy, for I am holy.

Num 15:40-41 = So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.

Exo 33:14 = The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

Exo 16:23 = He said to them, "This is what the LORD commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.'"

In Sabbath is found the promise and the hope of fulfillment for God's clear presence within creation.

The possibility of encountering God is more than acknowledging that “the heavens are telling the glory of God,....” The knowing promised by the scriptures strikes at the heart of all personal relationships. In fact (check it out), the word for rest and Sabbath have the same root. Such relationships with God result in Noah's call to ship building, Abraham’s urge to travel, Moses’ interest in spontaneous combustion and David's music. Such ordinary activities take on profound consequences when they result from a relationship with the Almighty.

Second, God calls, determines, sovereignly chooses, certain human beings for certain significant tasks to further accomplish God's will. Human beings possess the single purpose of making the glory of God known throughout the earth. We will discuss this in future blogs. However, for now, let's ask, "What was Jesus certain, significant task? "

WHAT WAS JESUS SIGNIFICANT TASK?

Jesus came to reconcile the created world with God. According to the Gospels, such reconciliation could only be accomplished by a gift from God called grace. This gift accomplished what the revelation of scripture pointed toward but could not achieve alone. Human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, created a little lower than the angels, forgot. We lost the knowledge as if we had never possessed it. The precept was still present. The example, non-existent. Such knowledge Søren Kierkegaard alluded to as knowledge so completely forgotten that humanity could not remember it without help from beyond.

I am a great admirer of SK. And, in most cases resonate with his assessment of time and space. In this one particular concept, however, I believe that he is both right and wrong. The memory of that knowledge (humanity created in the image of God), came from beyond, from the eternal who dared to enter time, manifest in a blood and guts human being named Jesus. The problem: to be fully human, Jesus had to dissociate himself from such knowledge and become like the “rest of us” — people who live and breathe; people subject to warts, colds, bad attitudes and fits of inappropriate verbiage. Theologically speaking, Jesus gave up (forgot) precisely what he came to help us remember. And that paradox is the reason for this exercise in thought.

HOW DID JESUS COME TO KNOW THE WILL OF GOD?

Often we speak of Jesus as if he always was what he became. Yet, the New Testament Book of Hebrews states:

Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him....Heb 5:8-9

Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Heb 2:18

Note that Hebrews 5:8-9 falls on the heels of the two edged sword passage.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Heb 4:12

Dividing the attitudes of the heart? If Jesus were indeed human, subject to bad attitudes, nasal drip and other human maladies, how did he grow beyond them? Or, how could Jesus be called sinless? (You were waiting for that one, right?)

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Heb 4:15

Consider the New Testament understanding of sin presented in Romans. Also, remember that Paul is firmly rooted in the Torah, the prophets and the writing of the Hebrew text. Paul wrote to the Romans:

What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” [ Exodus 20:17; Deut. 5:21 ]

But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead.

Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. Romans 7:7-9

John states: This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. John 3:19 Suppose that sin could be defined as: “Seeing the light and then making the light darkness.” Or try this one. “Righteousness is: Seeing the light and responding as an enlightened person.”

Begin with this premise and the concept of Christian perfection takes on a more accountable meaning. Begin with this premise for Jesus and you may stop making excuses for certain New Testament passages and ask: What light shined into the darkness^⁠2?

My contention: Only when Jesus is fully human can he be our example. Only as Jesus learned obedience and came to know^⁠3 can we find hope in his life and example.

¹ I do not mean demean the providence of God. However, it is my belief that God “decided” before we are born to give each human being the opportunity to respond to his will. As Paul writes in Romans 2 in a reflection of Psalm 119, the creation is a witness to God that leaves no one with an excuse to turn away from God’s love and kindness.

² Jesus is the one human being (the Word become human) who, as the light shined, never made that light darkness.

³ Luke 2:52

A Personal Testimony

Let me introduce myself. I grew up in the church. My parents, grandparents and family were all church people. Mom played the organ and piano at church, taught children and played for children’s choirs. Dad served on nearly every committee imaginable. In truth, some of my oldest memories, going back to the time of preschool years, were church. One Sunday, as the preacher preached about Jesus dying on the cross and coming back in the clouds, I fell asleep on my mom’s lap. As a four year old child, I put all the sermon into one visual dream and saw Jesus flying back into the church on his cross. To this day, I can recall waking up and pointing to the very place Jesus had been in my dream and shouting for everyone to “Look, it’s Jesus coming back.”

My books were Bible story books read to me by my grandmother who lived with us. All my life, Sunday School teachers would tell my parents: Sammy knows more about the Bible than we do.”

Then, at twelve years old, my father died and the world changed. He was 38 years old. One day he was the most important person in my world. The next day, he was gone. Where was the God who loved me? Where was the God who answered prayers? Who was God anyway?

For the next several years, I moved any direction that would take me away from God. A well meaning friend of my father’s, trying to console me at my dad’s graveside, put his arm around me and said: Be a man, Sammy. Don’t cry now. Although I said no words to him, I remember the words that formed in my heart and mind as I looked up. In my mind I said, if I can’t cry for my daddy, I won’t cry for you or anybody else, ever again. It would be more than six years before another tear fell from my eyes.

From twelve to sixteen, I challenged the existence of God and gradually began to push life to the edge. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God, I was angry and wanted God to know. Breaking the rules, tasting the forbidden fruit were angry cries to an unseen God who ignored me in a moment of great sorrow -- or so I thought.

My church never quit praying for me. My mother never gave up. And to my great surprise, neither did God.

Three teenage girls at my church, asked me to go on a church youth retreat to the gulf coast. I liked those girls and it was that attraction that led to my decision to go.

As much as I had once been in the church, I was now outside. Outsiders live in a different world, talk a different language and walk a different way. Nothing about my new life fit on the youth retreat. I knew it and so did they. With one disastrous encounter after another, I asked the youth pastor if I could go and walk alone on the beach. It was dark.

With a sense of relief, he sent me on my way. For me, it was a time to smoke a cigarette and enjoy the water and the night. For God, it was a moment to meet me as the night visitor met Jacob in Genesis 32:24. I wrestled with God. I was sixteen.

“Walk out on the drain pipe,” an inner voice compelled. No, I won’t get my new clothes in that dirty water. Walk out, the voice repeated. At the end of the pipe were concrete pilings. I climbed on the concrete and sat in the darkness as the waves sprayed all around. The voice spoke: Why won’t you give me a chance? You’ve been looking and I am right here.

I knew the voice belonged to God.

Going back to the retreat, I climbed in bed and turned my face toward the wall. The next day, when the youth pastor asked if anyone had anything to share, everyone was silent. Uncertain about what I had experienced but knowing it was something significant, I finally told my story of the night before. It was so shocking to the group that they asked me to tell it again that Sunday night. By Monday, the story spread throughout the high school.

It would be two weeks later before I responded — to God. For two weeks, I enjoyed the attention but still remained the same rebellious teenager. Late on a Friday night, as my best friend and I got ready to repeat our usual misbehavior, I heard the question again. Truthfully, hearing the question in a teens mind was probably different from what God was saying. My interpretation of that voice was once again framed in the words: Why won’t you give me a chance. Telling my best friend about it, I got up and started walking a different path. I went to find our pastor and tell him that I wanted to return to God.

As obnoxious as my behavior had been running away from God, it paled compared to my overbearing zeal as a Christian. I now wanted to save everyone, including the people who had prayed for me, taught me in Sunday School and stood by me in my rebellion. All instances of my former misbehavior became targets as I swung the sword of the Lord in all directions. Dancing, alcohol, swearing and rock and roll all became certain tickets to hell. Living with my new faith posed no less challenge than my former life. I looked for church services at all times of the night, of every variety. Hungry to regain the lost years, I forged on hiding my grief and pain under the new blanket of being born again.

Not all that energy was lost. During these years, I memorized large portions of scripture, passages and verses. And, I read the Bible as if it were the only book every written. My pastor never tried to put out my fire. Instead, he taught a group of us and pushed us in Bible studies and theological discussions. As young people he gave us some good advice that remains until this day:

•Read little books by big people, he said.

•Study the writings of those who disagree with you for you will learn from them.

•Study to show yourself approved unto God (Paul’s advice to Timothy).

•The Holy Spirit is not an it but one of the persons of the Trinity.

•Jesus is the only one who will never let you down.

•When you offer Jesus, you offer the best we have to give.

While there were many others, these stand out.

My life continued to quickly transition as I pushed forward. From the time I reached 17 years old as a High School senior, I have served a church as pastor or youth pastor. What was missing because of age and inexperience, I tried to make up for in enthusiastic faith and work. I listened and learned. What I received, I tried to give back. Through college, through seminary, and through the first fourteen years of ordained ministry, life and ministry moved forward together. God put people in my path that encouraged me and helped me up when I fell. It was the church at it’s best.

Something was missing. (to be continued)