As it is in most conjectural examinations, there are two sides of most questionable points and this is what makes for good theater and a difference of opinions on most issues being discussed.
Since I have spent most of this blog in discussions of my religious story on doubt and skepticism about the views that I have been taught. I want to spend some time explaining what I have personally come to think about who Jesus was and how I wish to remember him.
I believe that my doubts and skepticism came from seeing Jesus being presented as a biblical character akin to Harry Potter and his house of wizards, and not the human he was. It was presented to me as a story about magic (or miracles) thinking, rather than telling the very human story of a man who lived and died because of his wish to help those who were poor and uneducated and needed a belief in the goodness of man. He was not a superhero from Marvel Comics, but an ordinary man who was a great teacher.
The story of Jesus was a simple story of one man’s altruistic concern for others and the effects that his belief has made on humanity. I have borrowed heavily from an article I read by Carl Krieg which I believe describes Jesus as more realistic than anything I have ever heard the many religious classes I attended at Howard Payne College (now HPU) or in the hundreds of sermons I have sat through since.
Jesus was a man from Nazareth who was born from his parents, Mary and Joseph, just as all humans were born. He had brothers and sisters and they lived in the small village occupied by poor peasants who eked out a living on small plots of land that were increasingly being taken over by the rich. Near to the city of Nazareth was the town of Sepphoris, which provided a growing supply of government projects that provided labor for the poor and peasants from nearby.
Joseph probably often took Jesus into the village with him as he sought to find income for his family. Compassionate and caring, Jesus was aware of the difficult situation his fellow countrymen were having and he wished to help and was willing to give his life for their betterment of his fellow-man.
Jesus had heard of John who lived in the wilderness near the Jordan River and knew of his calling for repentance and righteousness and his baptizing those who believed in the same message. Jesus became a disciple of John and baptized by John in the Jordan River and he befriended those who believed likewise. It was Jesus’s wish to do more so he left John and took with him a few of his followers and began his life as a traveling teacher. He attracted more followers who wished to understand him and to be with him.
Why? The answer is simple. They did not follow him because he walked on water or turned water into wine, or because his teachings were so unique or because he claimed to be someone special like a Messiah. Instead, they followed him because they were fascinated at first, but later became committed because they saw in him what they, in essence, were or could become. Jesus identified with the plight of others.
We seek meaning in life. Jesus had it. We are blind to the love inherent in all reality; Jesus knew it and lived it. We too easily cut ourselves off from our fellow humans; Jesus reached out and embraced it. The special power of Jesus was nothing other than that he was fully human, in the best and most loving sense of the word.
Not everyone was open to this person, Jesus, standing before them. Some of us find it hard to break loose and become open to newness. Some did and their numbers of followers grew. The innermost circle of Jesus’ family of friends numbered about 25 women and men. Capernaum was their home base, and they traveled about in Galilee and once down to Jerusalem.
Jesus was drawn to Jerusalem as it was the center of the Jewish faith and because the Temple was there, along with the priestly class, and at the Passover. The pilgrims brought the temporary population to as many as 300,000 people. Some of them had heard of Jesus and were curious about what he was like and what he had to say. Sensing a troublemaker and a potential incident, before anything could happen, Pilate had his troops take Jesus away to be crucified.
The disciples were terrified. They examined and scrutinized everything in the room where they had celebrated the Passover and tried to make sense of what had just happened. They cried and embraced and they hid. And then the most amazing transformation took place! In their being together, they came to believe that although Jesus had indeed been crucified, he was yet alive in their midst.
They believed that although the body was destroyed and gone, a presence previously unknown to them was inspiring and motivating them. Fear became boldness! Confusion became certainty! Their own empowered humanity emerged into a full display, and the community family of friends became the actualization of the spirit of their Lord. We sometimes see how fear becomes the greatest motivation in one’s life and can make us grow beyond our believed abilities.
We do not get salvation from believing in Jesus. We get inspired to live the kind of life that Jesus modeled for us and how we should strive to model it for others. The years passed and the memories of Jesus began to fade.
Many saw the need to collect the sayings of Jesus, as were accounts of his deeds, orally in the beginning but were written later. As the new members joined the community, conflicts arose against one another and new questions with answers that were not obvious to all. Missionaries traveled the trade routes and small groups of this new Jewish sect arose across the empire.
The most famous of these missionaries was Paul who had changed his life and dedicated it to become a follower. As a scholar, he began in 50 CE to write his first letter to congregations in Thessalonica to give them advice. He wrote other groups who had questions in Galatia, Corinth, Philippi, and Rome. In the short period of about 18 years from the crucifixion of Jesus to Paul’s first epistle, the “good news” of the Christian fellowship and friends had spread far and wide.
Somewhere along the way, new converts concluded that Jesus was sent by God and, indeed, was God as encapsulated in the gospel of John who believed that the Word was with God and that God became flesh and dwelt among us. Where did the idea that Jesus died for your sins come from? Did that arise with Paul? When he talks about sacrificial atonement, what he means is that the new life of caring and sharing in the Christian fellowship of communion is exemplified in the extreme when one gives one’s life for the sake of another, as Jesus did for those suffering oppression.
It is unfortunate that over the past twenty centuries, Jesus has had theologians and scholars who have made him into this unrealistic character who had superhuman powers, much like a sorcerer or wizard, rather than the common man who was a teacher of kindness, humanity and brotherly love.
I, like so many others who have tried to follow the concerns and care of Jesus, have tried to give credence to his treatment of other people and have tried to model my optimism and convictions for others to see. I have not always done the best I could, but I still believe that our integrity and trustworthiness to others is a life-long undertaking and that gives me hope.