In recent years, with the new knowledge of the literary interpretations and historical background of the Scriptures, scholars are developing a new and better image of Jesus. New avenues of understanding are being opened into the humanity and divinity of Jesus. The new picture of Jesus is considerably more human and more realistic than the images of Jesus to which we have grown accustomed.
For the past 1500 years, Christians have had a tendency to over-emphasize the divinity of Christ at the expense of his humanity. This was an effort to compensate for the heresy propounded by Arius, a Greek theologian who died in 336 A.D. He and his followers insisted that Jesus was not God but only man. For approximately 600 years Arianism was a powerful threat to Christianity. Even though Arianism was no longer a threat, for many centuries we continued to over-emphasize the divinity of Christ at expense of his humanity.
As far as we know, no written records were made of the words and events of Jesus’ public life at time of their occurrence, or for 30 or more years thereafter. The Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are not biographies of Jesus but the impressions of Jesus which Christians had in the years between 70 and 100 A.D. Today most Scripture scholars are convinced that much of what is written in the Gospels about Jesus’ life and words is actually insights about the true nature of Jesus that were developed after the Easter and Pentecost experiences.
In the Gospels we have the memories of men who had either known Jesus in the flesh some 40 to 70 years before, or who had heard stories repeated about Jesus by those who had known him. In the course of the time lapse between the actual events and their writing, the stories about Jesus became enriched by constant meditation and the insights of faith which came to the early Christians. We believe that Jesus was all the early Christians of 100 A.D. thought him to be, but this does not tell us how Jesus saw himself. Scripture scholars are now attempting to unravel the thought patterns and time sequences of the Scriptures in order to learn how Jesus saw himself and how his disciples saw him before his death and resurrection as compared with the way he was regarded in the years after his resurrection.
JESUS’ IMAGE OF HIMSELF DURING THE FIRST 35 YEARS OF HIS LIFE
If we can accept Luke’s chronology as authentic, Jesus was born between the years 7 and 4 B.C. He probably died in the year 30 A.D., which would make him somewhere between 34 and 37 years of age at his death. Until approximately two years before his death, we have only one detail of his early life: his “Bar Mitzvah” introduction to the temple at the age of twelve. All we can deduce from this event is that a rather precocious young boy astonishes the learned scribes of Jerusalem with his knowledge and interest in the writings of the prophets. Our next bit of information is that he was the son of a carpenter and a carpenter himself.
Somewhere between the age of 30 and 35 Jesus went to hear the famous preacher, John the Baptist, who urged everyone to repent of their sins and be converted to the ways of the Lord because the Kingdom of God was at hand. Jesus agreed with this insight of John’s and along with many others, he accepted baptism as a sign of his readiness to accept the Kingdom.
However, something extraordinary happened at Jesus’ baptism. He experienced a tremendous infusion of light and power from the Spirit of God. The experience was so overwhelming that Jesus went away for a while into a lonely desert place in order to sort out the meaning of this new experience. While in the desert he had to struggle with Satan and win a victory over the evil one, not once but again and again.
Once the victory over evil was won, Jesus was ready to begin his own mission to the people. At first, it seemed that he was to follow in the footsteps of John the Baptist, preaching repentance and conversion to God and baptizing those who were willing to make a change in their way of life. Like John, the theme of Jesus’ preaching was that the Kingdom of God foretold by Isaiah was close at hand (Matt 4:17).
After John’s arrest by Herod, Jesus withdrew with his disciples into Galilee. There his preaching began to take a different tack from John’s preaching. Jesus still insisted upon the need of conversion but now the emphasis was on the good news of salvation awaiting everyone, even the worst sinners.
SON OF MAN
From the beginning Jesus experienced a very deep intimacy with God, his heavenly Father. He used the familiar title “Abba” (similar to our word “Daddy”) when addressing God. He knew that the Father loved him deeply and would care for him and his friends.
The designation Jesus used most often for himself was not Son of God but Son of Man. This title was taken from the writing of Ezekiel, where the term had no messianic meaning. It was used to emphasize the transitory, human nature of Ezekiel as compared with God’s eternal, unchangeable nature; man’s weakness compared with God’s almighty power. Only in the prophecy of Daniel does the term “Son of Man” apply to a figure who will come on the clouds of heaven. Here the emphasis is that the savior of Israel will be “like the son of man” i.e. human like Adam. The emphasis is on the humanity of Jesus rather than his divinity. Therefore, today’s emphasis on the humanity of Jesus is in accord with the most ancient traditions of the Gospels concerning the Messiah.