No. I am not going to give a full Christology here. I do not think that could ever be done. My point is not to tell about who Christ is per se, but to point out that we need to be gripped by who he is. We need to look at him with wonder and awe and realize that the calendar centers around this man for a reason.
Who was he? What did he do? Was he a cynic sage? Was he an eschatological zealot? Was he a speaker of Women’s Rights? Was he a magician? Was he a teacher of Eastern thought? Or, was he what the Bible claims? Was he the Son of God? He was something to be sure.
What do we do when we approach the gospels though? Do we turn to them and think “Ah. The Good Samaritan. Yep. I’ve heard this story before.” Do we allow it to speak to us? Do we really hear it for the first time again ever? Have we reached the point where sadly, Christ has become ordinary?
Part of it could also be our Christology. We have become docetics in many ways. I do believe in the deity of Christ. It needs to be taught. We need to teach also though the humanity of Christ. If we don’t have a Jesus who is fully human, then we don’t have a Jesus that the gospels talk about.
A Muslim argument I’ve seen has been simply “How can God go to the bathroom?” We have to accept this. Jesus did that. Jesus did the things that we would think are gross and not worth talking about. When he took on our nature, he took on our nature entirely. There’s no indication he would not have to go to the restroom like the rest of us, wash like the rest of us, eat like the rest of us, etc.
Yet how did he live? Look at how he approached sinners. What made them like him when he was so condemning of sin? Look at how he approached the Pharisees. Why is it that the most learned people of the day could not handle this rabbi from a small town? Why was he such a threat that it ended with his crucifixion?
Why is it that this figure became a centerpiece so that while he never wrote music, more music has been about him than anyone else? He never painted, but how many paintings have been done because of him? He never wrote a book, but you can find volumes written about him.
Who was he?
Could we really create him even? I think the existence of even the idea of Jesus would require a miracle if it wasn’t a reality. There has never been a figure anywhere like Jesus unless it was one based on Jesus, such as Aslan in the Chronicles of Narnia. Even Lewis though would gladly admit that Christ is more gripping than Aslan.
Maybe we should open our Bibles and read him again as if we’ve never heard of him.
Jesus. Are we seeing him as he really is? Are we allowing ourselves to be in awe of him? Or, have we just made him ordinary?
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